Transfer from Clemson to NC State (Mechanical Engineering)

tandmcarter77
Thu, 15 Oct 2020 16:09:59 +0000

It is now my fifth year at Clemson in Mechanical engineering, and I really hate it here. In general, I’ve noticed that Clemson faculty doesn’t care at all about their students’ ability to succeed and have good mental health. All they care about is football students. These athletes have a pass for everything, and I’ve even seen them park in handicap spots with no issues.

I’ll just start from the beginning as to why I hate it here and all my bad experiences. Freshman year, I was placed into Calculus 2 because my test scores were “good enough” to Clemson standards. My first week, I was getting grades in the teens, and my professor told the class that if you can’t pass you shouldn’t get help - you should just drop the class. This was the first red flag that faculty doesn’t want their students to succeed. Anyways, at the end of the semester I worked extremely hard to barely pass the class by a point or two, but really sacrificed my mental health. Later on I had to take Statics and Dynamics. Note: Clemson is the only school that forces their students to take it as one “mega” class - a 5 hour class, but really 6 hours because they add a 15 minute break in between each hour but actually they make you stay in the class during the break and continue working or listening to the lecture. Again I passed by a couple points while my mental health suffered. Also none of the ridiculously hard material built to fail students has never been applied in any of my intern and co-op work.

Next, it was time for me to Co-op. I got accepted to a job that was an hour and a half commute 1 way - I also didn’t like the company I worked for. That wasn’t the issue though. The issue was after my first two rotations, I had a different company offer me to finish my final rotation 15 minutes from my house. I had worked an internship with them before and loved working there. I called my co-op advisor to ask if I could switch companies because I hadn’t signed any contracts between the two companies for my final rotation. She said “No it would look bad”. Whatever that means? So I had to finish my final rotation at a company I hated an hour and a half away from my house. Every single day of that rotation was misery because the company never had anything for me to do, and I’d drive 3 hours minimum a day to go there. This all could have been avoided if my advisor cared about my situation.

The academic advisors don’t care about their students either. I have been lied to and ignored by them. I was told a class I took for 3 semesters would count as a course requirement. Now comes senior year, and I am now told it doesn’t count and I was misinformed so I have to take more classes and those semesters were a waste. They have also emailed multiple times saying not to email them because they won’t answer, which is literally their job. They force you to make your own class schedule and approve it without actually looking at it. This semester I submitted my schedule to them, and it got approved. I go to sign up, and the classes don’t even exist! Not that the seats were full, but that the classes do not exist! I got approved for non-existent classes. So I had to find classes in a hurry that exist, and of course they’re all nothing that I’m interested in. So now this semester, I am in these classes and my grades are absolutely terrible (I literally study constantly) and I hate it here. The professors don’t care. In one class the average grade is in the teens, and he is arguing with students and saying they just don’t know enough to do good in his class - this is to senior students.

That’s not all the stories of horrible faculty and useless classes, but you get the idea. My mental health is really bad now, and I’m extremely depressed.

On another note, I’ve started my own business and it is quite successful. It’s not related to engineering at all, and I love it and think it could become a full time income.

I’m debating on dropping out to pursue my business, or taking a break and transferring to a college that I think will care about their students more. I’m looking at NC state possibly. Any pointers?

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