My son went to a high school that wasn’t very academically challenging, so he soared through high school with little effort. His high school did offer a single AP course in calc AB and son was one of only 3 students that scored a 4 or 5 on the AP test (he received a 4). He was also able to complete many of his gen ed requirements via a dual enrollment program with a local junior college.
He began his freshman year with a full (8 semester) academic scholarship to an out of state school, where he began studying civil engineering. He had a strong interest in architecture while growing up and after research decided on civil engineering, so that he could later study structural engineering with the hopes of working with a design firm.
He did not struggle at all his freshman year and finished the introductory engineering coursework, calculus 1&2, and some science requirements while maintaining a 3.8 GPA.
He was able to secure an internship for the summer with a city government and although was not his intended career path, seemed to enjoy it.
He returned his sophomore year and struggled with many issues both personal and academic.
He was able to complete a full year of physics to complete all his science requirements and calc III, however he failed his statics course, which made future scheduling difficult since it was a prereq for most of his remaining requirements. He was able to retake statics and pass it on his second attempt. His GPA dropped from the 3.8 after his freshman year to a 3.3.
He was feeling very burned out with his coursework and I encouraged him to consider a co-op opportunity which would provide him a break from the stress of coursework and hopefully help remotivate him in his remaining courses.
I also encouraged him to take dynamics over the summer to get ‘back on track’ academically. He attempted dynamics during the summer, but was not motivated and dropped the course when it became too much of a struggle.
He accepted a co-op position and started his 3rd year working at a geotech firm, which he thoroughly enjoyed and talked about hoping he might be able to get a job there after graduation.
He was not at all eager to return to courses and is once again struggling with what I have read repeatedly are the most challenging engineering courses: dynamics and mechanics of materials and he is dreading the thought of the still required fluids course. He needs to maintain a 3.0 for his scholarship and is fearful that his 3.3 GPA is going to drop below that after this semester.
At this point he only has 16 remaining courses to take to complete his degree requirements and (currently) 3 remaining semesters of scholarship funds. But he’s dreading the outcome of a few courses and isn’t certain he’s going to be able to maintain his scholarship. I told him that if he thought that adding an additional semester would help him, that he could take 4 courses each semester, which might be an easier course load to handle.
He’s fearful that since he struggled with statics and is struggling with dynamics and mechanics of materials that the upper division CE courses are going to be even harder and he’s not going to be able to complete them successfully. I feel as though once he gets through these remaining prereqs that the upper division courses should be easier and more enjoyable for him, but I wasn’t an engineering student myself.
Although he’s finished all of his math requirements and all of his science requirements and did outstanding in all of the introductory engineering courses, because of his struggles with courses like statics and dynamics and dread of fluids, he is now considering changing his major.
Personally I believe that with only 3 or 4 remaining semesters and both an internship and co-op in the field on his resume that finishing this course is probably easier than trying to switch to a different major (he’s suggested business, but has not had a single business course and can not possibly complete a business degree in a similar time frame).
If he struggles through the difficult prereqs, do the upper division courses seem to be easier and more enjoyable. If I encourage him to struggle through these courses and he continues to have trouble in his upper division courses then he would be even farther behind if he opted to switch to a different major.
I keep trying to tell him that he’s completed 2 years of a engineering program, has a 3.3 GPA, has an internship and co-op on his resume, and has completed all of the required math and science courses and is doing OUTSTANDING compared to so many others, but as someone not accustomed to struggling, he is becoming very discouraged when he has to deal with difficult courses.