I will be a sophomore in the fall and I am in the engineering program at my university. My “pathway” is far different than those in my class. I am a few semesters behind in my classes. I had a different high school experience than those who went to schools in places that are populous, who had a little more advantage. I came from a very small community from a rural area. The HS I went to had a small handful of staff for about less than 75 students. Luckily for me, I was able to meet some requirements to get into a university 280+ miles away from home (not saying I had no potential). Now, I had to change my schedule in my math and science classes because there were some that my HS didn’t offer that I’m going to take/was taking. The field I would want a career in is in engineering, but I feel embarrassed sometimes that I am not par with the rest of my peers.
I plan to live in the residential halls there for the fall–hopefully for the remainder of my educational span, since I didn’t for my freshman year. I feel that I will be much more focused and have higher chances of doing a lot better than I did my last semester. I also know that I will have access to help almost 24/7 because of who I may room with/stay next to and the closeness it is to the school.
I wonder if I should be embarrassed or intimidated by this or not because I will be rooming with someone who is on-track.
If you are wondering why I chose this university over a community college or something sort of close to home, well…I chose the school for how I’d fit in. Diversity, programs, how much resources the university offers, distance (not too far, not too close from home) and the aid I could get from the university.
I’ve heard some upperclassmen and even teachers encourage me to just keep going, I haven’t let this bring me down dramatically, but it comes across my mind here and there.
So, does it matter if I am behind and live with those who are ahead of me anyway?
It doesn’t matter what other people think. Just do you. Also I don’t think other people will really care about this. They will just be concerned with themselves.
Don’t worry about it, really. Just pass it off as “my HS sucked, didn’t offer anything, got to catch up”. Enough said. My kid had this issue too, and at first she was worried about other kids thinking she was dumb. The more she worried about it, the more awkward it was. Once she felt more confident that it wasn’t her fault and she’s a good student, the more relaxed she was about it, and the other kids were just like “bummer man” and the conversation moved on.
I would have to agree, during school, I was honest of why I had a weird schedule and it really didn’t matter to others. Like you said, they just said “man, that sucks”
Once you get out of high school. the old timelines no longer matter. It’s not a race, there’s no concrete place you’re supposed to be.
You take the courses you need to get you the education you want. You finish when you finish.
And, the older you get, the less you care about what others think. You become self confident enough to trust your own opinion, and those of the people you respect. The rest of the world won’t always agree with you, and you begin to learn that that’s OK.
It’s great training for parenthood down the road, when everyone else will have an opinion on every decision you make, lol.
To me, the main thing is the end result. You had a HS that did not offer many opportunities. However, you know what you want to do and are on track to do it. You are just taking classes that other people had an opportunity to take in HS…for any group of freshmen engineers there are some who never took Calculus and some who have finished the whole math sequence. Some who never took AP Physics and some who completed the AP Physics series. Colleges offer courses so that everyone has the chance to level up. Employers won’t care…they just want to know what your GPA is and if you have a degree.
No need to worry about what other people think. Anyone whose opinion is worth caring about will recognize that not all high schools are created equally and respect/admire the fact that you did not let that stop you from pursuing your dreams in engineering.
Agree with all above. Do you path. There will be people who come to school after working many years or change careers. Focus on your goal and getting what you need to get your degree on your path.