<p>i’ll just start this off by saying i’m a high school student, contemplating my major. i know that i have wanted to go into engineering since middle school - i have not chosen this major because of its pay or class.
it has come to my attention that the one thing that engineers have in common is a natural talent for mathematics or an enjoyment of math. i must admit, i do not have either of these. i am not being hard on my self, on every single PSAT i’ve taken math has been my least scored subject, i have seen other kids complain about how math is difficult for them, yet they have an almost perfect score in math class ( i must add that i have never gotten anything above a B- in any of my math classes).
i have an engineering mind, i think things logically and enjoy finding out how things work. everyone has told me to choose a major that i enjoy and would be happy doing for possibly the rest of my life.
some of the other students in my class who are also aspiring to be engineers are incredibly bright- even the slackers.
am i doomed if i go into a major that i appear to be unsuited for? did/does anyone else have this problem when they were in high school?
any advice would be helpful, engineering is the only major that i find remotely interesting</p>
<p>I think you should choose a school that you can try engineering, yet transfer out should you not enjoy the engineering curriculum; like a state flagship university.</p>
<p>Just because you’re not naturally gifted at math doesn’t mean you shouldn’t at the least try it at an upper level course in college. You’ll find that college is a lot more about hard work than it is natural talent, even though there are the intellectual freaks there. At least try out a calculus class and see if you can swing it. If you can’t, there’s nothing wrong in admitting that you can’t do it and changing to business (hopefully specialized like accounting or finance), pre medical, nursing, whatever! Something that will get you a job! But at least give it a balls to the walls effort before writing it off as doomed. You mentioned the PSAT, which means you haven’t even taken the SAT, which means you aren’t that close to college yet. See how you develop study habits and math skills before you give in, and try a calc class when you get to college.</p>
<p>I second domrom1. The two things that will get you through an engineering curriculum are hard work and time management. If you aren’t doing well in math you need to spend more time to study and understand the material. That’s why your friends are telling you it’s difficult, its because they are working hard for their grades and nothing about hard work is easy. You don’t have to be gifted to be an engineer. You just have to be focused and hard working, that’s pretty much it.</p>
<p>I don’t know if you like computers but more and more computer science programs have reduced the required math…down to Calculus I, Calculus II, Linear Algebra and Statistics.</p>