Should I drop out of computer engineering(and maybe even college)?

College Life
1

I am currently a college sophomore majoring in computer engineering.

However, I’m questioning whether I should stick to this path, or even college in general.

Here’s the reasons for and against the decision to drop out of computer engineering and/or college:

Reasons to leave computer engineering/college:
-People both in computer science and engineering are much smarter than me and are much more experienced than me. Ever since day 1 of college, I felt very intimidated by the computer science students because they knew a lot more than me as far as programming languages and other CS skills because they did a lot of self learning outside of the classroom and programmed a lot more during their free time than me. And the engineering students seem to have a lot more free time than me and get material during lecture a lot more easily than me all while taking like 18 credits (whereas I am now only taking 12 credits due to my classes becoming harder/more advanced …) and spending more time on extracurriculars/jobs than me. And the CS students get the projects for class a lot faster than me—one project took me 7+ hours and it was relatively simple and one guy only took 30 minutes on it. It’s like I’m in classes with super passionate naturally talented geniuses and I’m the outlier.

  • I’m not sure if I can really be a competent computer engineer. I got involved in this one engineering extracurricular the beginning of last semester, and though I have attended meetings I hardly contributed to the project because of incompetence/lack of experience. The team leads gave me a pretty simple program to do that needed to get done to get me started, but I hadn’t gotten one line of code down because I didn’t even know how to start, and eventually one of the guys just decided to do it real quick since I wasn’t making any progress. I realized that in order to do well in extracurriculars (and in the workforce) I needed to be good at learning on my own and researching how to do stuff because the team leads can only do so much as far as training new members. But I’m really bad at doing anything that I haven’t learned how to do in my classes and need to research how to do. And I read a story in another forum about how a female software engineer was hired to fix a bug in a system and was given two weeks to do it and really tried her best to crack it but just couldn’t figure it out, and at the end of the two week trial period the boss asks the guy who made the comment on the forum to fix the bug and he did it in 5 minutes; the girl was fired afterwards. And there was also another story in the forum of another female software engineer who also got fired because she barely contributed to a group project due to not knowing the programming language to do that project. I’m very worried that even when I graduate from computer engineering that I will end up being one of these women who despite having a engineering degree just couldn’t apply what they learned in school to the workforce.
    -I would rather not go into detail on this, but for eight years I’ve had socialization problems and get nervous pretty easily in new and stressful situations and maybe some perfectionist/over-reaction problems as well, and I think all these problems that I have affect my ability to really make use of my time in college as well as my ability to take on opportunities and pursue a career, which is why I sometimes wonder if I’m not making enough use of my time in college in order for it to be financially worth it.

Reasons to stay in computer engineering/college:
-Though I increasingly struggle through classes as classes get harder, I still do well. I have gotten all B’s and above in my previous classes with the exception of one B-. Even in my harder classes that I struggled with I still ended up doing well through work ethic.
-I am still interested in computer engineering (although I sometimes forget from stress). I really like coding and engineering because I really like applying my problem solving skills to make and debug projects, and there’s a specific area in computer engineering that I’m particularly interested in. It’s just seems that as I progress through my computer engineering program whenever I do projects for my classes or try to participate in extracurriculars it seems like projects become less fun/enjoyably-challenging and more of a test of whether I can truly make it in computer engineering.
-It’s not like there’s another field that I’m more interested in and think I can do better in. I actually think that it might just be that I’m just a slow worker and have poor time management skills in general, I’m not sure that it’s just specific to CS and engineering classes. And though I might have poor problem solving skills compared to the geniuses in my classes, problem solving is actually my best skill (I wouldn’t consider myself a very linguistic/humanities type of person). Maybe math major would be another option, but I’ll probably be unmotivated doing math because I would not be as interested in it (I kind of like the more applied math like in engineering and coding)and would just be doing it because I couldn’t do CMPE. This is why I’m considering the option of just dropping out of college if I do decide I can’t do CMPE.

So should I even bother continuing computer engineering, or is it not worth it?

2

You’re doing well and you like it. That’s reason enough to stick with it.

3

You are doing well, but you mention the “geniuses” in your class–you can’t compare yourself to them. You write very well and with a computer engineering background–will have you well placed for a good job after graduation. Those “geniuses” may find difficulty in the real working world when interacting with a large swath of people–no longer isolated in a controlled classroom project environment. They have their place in the computer engineering world and will do well. You also are talented–but need to find within yourself the strength to push yourself. You mention that you are “really bad at doing anything that I haven’t learned how to do in my classes and need to research how to do”–that’s not really making sense–especially for one who likes to solve problems. Learning isn’t just being a passive receptacle in a college classroom. You can’t allow yourself to just be confined to just what your teachers/profs tell you–there is so much more out there. Your curiosity and research opens up more avenues of knowledge. You are greatly depriving yourself if you think otherwise–which I believe you know. Perhaps you need to be more confident. Talk to your profs and / or advisors, I’m suspecting you are probably harder on yourself that necessary. Talk to your career center–you’ll see that your background will lead to significant opportunities that may reach beyond just coding. Good luck!

4

Don’t quit school. I agree with other posters, you write well and probably have other talents to bring to the table. Dig in. Don’t let the boys intimidate you. Go to your professor’s office hours when you have struggles. Keep up those grades. You’ll get there.

5

You can do this…some people may be faster because they have experience. But that is what college is for…to get that experience. Even if you don’t end up being a coder, there are many techy jobs that will benefit from a CS degree.

6

Don’t get discouraged and DO NOT quit!! It really sounds like you like technology. I bombed my first programming class in college, but I do coding for a living now. Learning coding in college is not the same as learning it in the career world. I was one of those 7+ hour students. Programming did NOT come naturally to me like it did for my dad and my brother. It’s because I never did it before. I had to have my dad pound it into me like a drill sergeant. I learned it. Once you learn one language, it’s actually a lot easier to learn another one because the logic is pretty much the same. Only the syntax is different. That’s why these guys seem smarter…they’re not! It’s just because they’re already familiar with the logic, and they’re just learning syntax. It takes a few months to really get a language down and you have to practice. Also computers is a highly diverse field with thousands jobs working dozens and dozens of programming languages. Some professionals don’t code at all.

Don’t compare yourself to those guys. CS majors do have more guys, and there’s a lot of “locker room” talk. Don’t pay any attention to it. You’re doing just fine in your classes. Technology in the career world is not hostile to women like some women are led to believe. It’s actually very diverse. I’ve worked with a lot of very smart, capable programmers, both men and women and I haven’t noticed any difference in the treatment of either one.

As you get more familiar with the language, your confidence will improve as well. You’ll be just fine!

7

You’ll have an easier time that the guys getting a good job afterwards. Companies want to hire women CS major, many look for them actively. The learning curve is pretty immense and massively time consuming. You need to get over the hump, which might take you a few more semesters. More advanced classes might play to your strengths, because they are not programming but design, architecture, and UX.

Upper class Engineers and CS people have little to no free time if they want to do well. Once you are past the intro classes, which many of your classmates have mastered prior to attending college, you will get to new material for everyone. Then you will have had the benefit of learning how to slog through difficult material. They won’t.

8

As a senior female math and CS major, I say stick with it! I recommend you join NCWIT’s aspirations in computing community: https://www.aspirations.org/participate/college-students. It’s free and there are many students like you that belong to the group. They have several facebook groups, and everyone is really supportive of each other.

9

Guys like to brag and show off in CS. But when it comes to doing the actual course work, it sounds like you are holding your own just fine. Bs and above are great in that major. So what if you are working hard? You are doing this – don’t quit now!