Struggling With Science Courses - Need Advice

gutter
Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:27:35 +0000

If you’re going into science just because ‘you want to have a job’ you’re in for 4+ years of misery followed by a job you suck at. There is a difference between scraping by as a science major and actually putting in the work to be competent. From your description, apart from standardized tests (which prove next to nothing, sorry to say it), you’re not a math and science person, or at least you don’t seem to like it enough to put in the grueling work needed to succeed.

A science major is a calling, not a career move. You shouldn’t just look at the ‘*****in’ salaries of engineers after they graduate and decide that engineering/physics/chemistry is for you. True, science and math majors are very employable but there’s a reason even smart engineering and science majors are always stuck in the library on Friday nights. It’s work! And not ‘I have a 20 page paper to write’. It’s going over 200 problems before the test and finding out you misunderstood a critical theory. It’s getting to the end of a 5-page problem and discovering you misplaced a variable on page 2. It’s staying awake at 2AM on a Tuesday morning because you have a final in a week.

If you really do love science and these things sound reasonable in exchange for the value you get out of your education, by all means I’ll help you. Otherwise I’d change to a business major or something else in the Lib Arts. Science and math majors aren’t the only ones who are above poverty-level after college, you know.



If all I cared about were money I’d have ended up in business pretty quickly. I stated a couple times in the thread that I actually enjoy the stuff and that I already am putting loads of work into it.

But I’d disagree with you on what exactly we’d consider the “work” part of science and on what separates science majors from the rest of majors. With the possible (POSSIBLE) exception of business, all majors or are a calling, not a career move. And to me, going over a 5-page problem only to discovered that you misplaced a variable on page 2 is merely an annoyance (particularly annoying as they go but still just annoying), as the public school system and computer science courses have done an excellent job of getting me used to this kind of situation. I think the far more frustrating part is banging your head against a wall for a week until you understand the concept covered in paragraph two of chapter 3 in your text =P. And you can be up at 2am on a Tuesday morning a week in advance for a final for any particularly challenging class, although I guess it tends to happen with sciences more often.

An update: I’m considering throwing in the towel and majoring in Math (not claiming it’s easier in principle, but comes naturally to me whereas science clearly doesn’t) with Scientific Applications. Such a major only requires the intro classes in each science discipline but I can take more of I decide to at a later date, and it would probably improve my problem solving abilities as well. Plus, Math is fun!