Can you become an engineer if you hated physics in gymnasium/highschool?

dl324

Joined Mar 30, 2015
16,846
I already joined for the first year. I will come back after an year and I will answer honestly if this is the career I want to pursue.
That might be the best course of action. Many people get degrees in areas they either don't like or don't have an aptitude for. Wanting something very badly is a good motivator, but lacking the underlying skills or aptitude can derail desires very quickly.

If you had an aptitude for engineering, it would have shown up early and you would have been taking classes that would further that pursuit.

I know electrical engineers who got very good grades in school, but it turned out they were better at taking tests than actually learning. I have also known people in engineering positions who were quite successful with an associates degree.
 

BobTPH

Joined Jun 5, 2013
8,813
I think even a hint of ambivalence is a bad omen for anyone who wants to be an engineer, Good engineers typically cannot imagine anything they would rather do fo a living.

Bob
 

Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
21,159
Problem is I do not live in the USA.
That is not relevant. It was an analogy to describe a binary choice. You either persevere, adapt, and overcome the obstacles, or you quit and do something else. You know yourself better than we do, so who are we to give you advice. Stand on your own two feet and make a decision -- we can't do it for you and we damn sure can't give you permission to become 2/3 of an engineer.
 
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rsjsouza

Joined Apr 21, 2014
383
I already joined for the first year. I will come back after an year and I will answer honestly if this is the career I want to pursue.
I also think this is a good idea.

The people I met in my life with the same position as you had to answer a few questions.
1) the major question: what do you really like to do?
2) what you like to do can grant you a way of living? Sometimes you can, but sometimes you need to dive into a career to get you to a place where you are able to do what you like in the spare time, etc.
3) what do you need so you can do what you like? Sometimes it requires a degree, a specialization course, or sometimes a steady income, moving countries, etc.

Just like DL324 above, I have seen many university friends being excellent at tests but did bot really care for engineering. They ended up pursuing their passion outside of their career. Others are still pursuing their passion but became lost and without a steady income or a minimally stable life. And others made the comittment to a frugal life pursuing their passion.
 

sisoj

Joined Nov 10, 2019
6
You can learn and do anything you want as long as you commit 100% to it man. Don't let yourself or others limit you.
 

sisoj

Joined Nov 10, 2019
6
The question is, will you do it well? There are things like engineering intuition you can't learn directly from a book. Life is too short to spend 100% on something you hate.
If you hate it, you won't be driven and you won't commit. When I said if you want to, that is what I was implicitly assuming. That is, he actually loves the thing he is trying to become good at.
 

Wolframore

Joined Jan 21, 2019
2,609
Didn’t Einstein get kicked out of the gymnasium for being slow? Who cares. Do what you like. It’s taken me 20 years to come back to electronics cause I love it. All my free time is spent learning and researching. Finally dusting off my calculus skills which I haven’t needed in life otherwise... Not because I will actually derive equations but because it’s offers insights into quantifying and visualizing simple everyday things we need to be able to account for... mixing two frequencies is simple make two tones, but the math is complex.
 

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,086
Didn’t Einstein get kicked out of the gymnasium for being slow? Who cares. Do what you like. It’s taken me 20 years to come back to electronics cause I love it. All my free time is spent learning and researching. Finally dusting off my calculus skills which I haven’t needed in life otherwise... Not because I will actually derive equations but because it’s offers insights into quantifying and visualizing simple everyday things we need to be able to account for... mixing two frequencies is simple make two tones, but the math is complex.
No, Einstein didn't get kicked out of the gymnasium for being slow. :(

https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2017/03/16/how-einstein-learned-physics/

The difficulty Einstein had was undoubtedly due in part to his non-conformist streak and rebellious attitude, which didn’t sit well in an academic environment.
One thing that becomes apparent when looking at Einstein’s early schooling was both his distaste for rote memorization and attending classes. The physics professor that flunked him, did so, in no small part, because Einstein often skipped class. As he claims, “I played hooky a lot and studied the masters of theoretical physics with a holy zeal at home.”
 

Wolframore

Joined Jan 21, 2019
2,609
This is why history is so interesting... an early book states that he was expelled and that he was slow to learn to read, and now things are getting redacted perhaps because it's makes them look bad.
 

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,086
This is why history is so interesting... an early book states that he was expelled and that he was slow to learn to read, and now things are getting redacted perhaps because it's makes them look bad.
Unfounded claptrap.

People think that a great physicist must also be a great mathematician. The intuitive physical approach to physics problem solving is something you are born with, you can't learn it by reading. Obviously, Einstein was born with it.
 
It's never too late to start anything!

I've heard sooooo many people who pursued careers completely unrelated to their degrees. I'm also gonna be one of them: I thought I liked Computer Science, but now I wanna do Design.

Don't be afraid! Success never comes easy, and everyone has their own definition for it anyways. Good luck~
 

smp4616

Joined Oct 31, 2019
31
I guess it comes down to why the hell do you care what we think? Most successful people I know don't give a rat's ass what other people think they will succeed in, and that's why they succeed. If you want to become an engineer, do it. It will be hard, there's a ton of math involved in school, and if you believe you can do it, you can. If you wait for people to say you'll succeed at something, you probably never will.
 
of course, he can. When your studying engineering you will learn physics in a different way. But still, you need to have a passion on the subject of your studying. Without passion and love on tools and invention its hard to be a good engineer.
 

Thread Starter

wolly

Joined Jul 11, 2018
31
That might be the best course of action. Many people get degrees in areas they either don't like or don't have an aptitude for. Wanting something very badly is a good motivator, but lacking the underlying skills or aptitude can derail desires very quickly.
All right,but let me explain you that my college classmates are in the same situation like I was in the first year. Now,normally they should have choosed a project for trade people when they were in highschool like I did and because they didn't had that chance they choosed a college like myself without being skilled.
I am also unpleased with this situation because if you want to learn a trade you will have to gain a qualification from the employment agency or any training company and you get no training or apprenticeship. The result would be a total disaster because that would lead to depression which leads to self guilt and that ultimately leads to suicide.
The only solution would be if someone would be really nice to help you and take you under their wing to get a short to middle appreticeship.
Now about the college that I picked. I have learnt that if I do not get a great cadetship I will become a useless junkie.
The courses and the labs(laboratories) are interesting but unfortunately they represent nothing without a proper training.
It's like you get the engineering degree but if you don't have any proper training(not just the lab) you will become a alchoolic,depressed person,suicidal person.
 

Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
21,159
All right,but let me explain you that my college classmates are in the same situation like I was in the first year. Now,normally they should have choosed a project for trade people when they were in highschool like I did and because they didn't had that chance they choosed a college like myself without being skilled.
I am also unpleased with this situation because if you want to learn a trade you will have to gain a qualification from the employment agency or any training company and you get no training or apprenticeship. The result would be a total disaster because that would lead to depression which leads to self guilt and that ultimately leads to suicide.
The only solution would be if someone would be really nice to help you and take you under their wing to get a short to middle appreticeship.
Now about the college that I picked. I have learnt that if I do not get a great cadetship I will become a useless junkie.
The courses and the labs(laboratories) are interesting but unfortunately they represent nothing without a proper training.
It's like you get the engineering degree but if you don't have any proper training(not just the lab) you will become a alchoolic,depressed person,suicidal person.
What I am hearing is basically a surrender of your personal autonomy to everyone else. It is like saying I can't succeed unless I find a kind benefactor to help me. That is just crap. The people who want to succeed will find a way to find what they need and get what they want. Those who expect a handout will be waiting for hell to freeze over. The path may be long and arduous, but it starts with the first step, The only good thing about it is that you get to choose the path and the steps. Why would you want it any other way?
 
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djsfantasi

Joined Apr 11, 2010
9,156
I don’t think this will work out for you. You are blaming someone else for what you weren’t taught. You claim the “formulas” that you were taught were “useless”.

Man up and learn what you weren’t taught on you own. Those “useless” formulas are the foundation of what you say you want to learn.

Stop blaming others. Stop dismissing foundational math. And work hard to learn.

I agree. If you want everything easy, this isn’t the job for you. I think restaurants may be looking for dishwashers.
 

Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
21,159
My favorite alternative to engineering is Art History. At the University of Michigan, when I was an undergraduate, it was supposedly one of the easiest of the easy "A" classes. If you search my threads there will be previous references.

Geez! I just did that and amazed myself at how many times I've suggested it. I wonder if any of them took me up on that suggestion. I've been here for 16 years so maybe I should not be that surprised.
 
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