Hey MacInsiders,

Basically I just went through first year of Engineering, and my CGPA wasn't high enough (5.1) to get into the streams I wanted to get into (Civil/Mech). The "bird" courses I took happened to be my lower grades. (Sally said it is no longer just the sessional average that is being looked at, but the cumulative average as well)

My biggest problem was rationing whatever time I had to study adequately for my courses, I just couldn't pull off practising an adequate amount of time for homework problems for each chapter in every course, while juggling the weekly quizzes, labs, and tests. The theory wasn't even that bad, it's just there was so much going on at once I couldn't manage studying for it.

I got into my last choice, Chemical Engineering. I am terrible at Chemistry and I really just don't find it interesting. Although upper years tell me you only need to take two organic chemistry courses.. I really don't want to take them.

I dropped CHEM 1E03 and PHYS 1E03 during the regular school year, and am taking them this summer.
I just wrote the CHEM exam, and I think I straight up just failed.. (yes, I calculated weighting with current marks)

At this point I just feel like my passion for Engineering has been stomped out by just the sheer amount of stress, fear of failure, work, and depression.

I feel like I've let my family and myself down, they work so hard day in and day out just to get me an education.

I feel like I've already lost sight of my goals, and lost sight of what I want to become. Every now and then, when the depression gets really bad, I feel like I'm worthless and should have never existed. I can't bear to face my family.

I am very conflicted within right now, and I don't know what to do with my life.
I went to Sally for advice, and all I got was a look of pity. She didn't even mention retaking first year until I asked her about it.

Any input would be greatly appreciated, thank you for taking the time to read this.

have you considered software engineering?

Although I did well in the Eng. Computation 1D04 labs as well as the 2Z03 MATLABs, I know that I am missing a lot of my foundations (I never took coding in highschool apart from like basic Turing and Eclipse Java). In addition, the MATLAB code I had to write took me hours, coding is definitely not one of my strengths.

I've also read Ownignatios(?)' posts about the program being mostly obsolete and poorly managed (not sure if this is true though).

Originally Posted by Chomps

Although I did well in the Eng. Computation 1D04 labs as well as the 2Z03 MATLABs, I know that I am missing a lot of my foundations (I never took coding in highschool apart from like basic Turing and Eclipse Java). In addition, the MATLAB code I had to write took me hours, coding is definitely not one of my strengths.

I've also read Ownignatios(?)' posts about the program being mostly obsolete and poorly managed (not sure if this is true though).

i wouldn't let your lack of experience deter you. Sure it might have taken you longer to write the core but did you enjoy the process. If you did, then i would consider it. Regarding the program being obsolete and poorly managed, both SE/CS have gone through changes in the curriculum for the upcoming year. Not sure if those opinions are still valid.

I'm not sure how I feel about coding.

I definitely do appreciate the endless capabilities of coding.

Originally Posted by Chomps

Hey MacInsiders,

Basically I just went through first year of Engineering, and my CGPA wasn't high enough (5.1) to get into the streams I wanted to get into (Civil/Mech). The "bird" courses I took happened to be my lower grades. (Sally said it is no longer just the sessional average that is being looked at, but the cumulative average as well)

My biggest problem was rationing whatever time I had to study adequately for my courses, I just couldn't pull off practising an adequate amount of time for homework problems for each chapter in every course, while juggling the weekly quizzes, labs, and tests. The theory wasn't even that bad, it's just there was so much going on at once I couldn't manage studying for it.

...

I dropped CHEM 1E03 and PHYS 1E03 during the regular school year, and am taking them this summer.
I just wrote the CHEM exam, and I think I straight up just failed.. (yes, I calculated weighting with current marks)

If you've only done first year, then your sessional average is the same as your cumulative average. The "session" is fall/winter, i.e. all of your courses from Sept-Apr. Your cumulative average is all of the courses you've ever taken at Mac. So, whether they look at one or the other would have had no effect whatsoever on you when program acceptances were done in May.

You really have one of two options at this point, and you may want to consider both: develop better time management skills (the university has things that can help you with this), and taking a reduced courseload. It's not uncommon for engineering students to extend their degree to five years.

You can see if you are eligible for any other programs that have space in them. But really, if you fail chem 1E03 it's all moot, because (if I recall correctly) you must pass all of first-year engineering to proceed into second year. In addition, you can suck it up for a year in a program you don't want, and then see if you can transfer into a program you do want the following year - provided you do well this year. It would most likely involve repeating a year, and I'm not sure how common this is in engineering, but it is possible.

Or, you can go in a totally different direction. But that's up to you.

Yeah sorry, forgot to add context to that line.

I know a couple of people who retook first year, and got in their program of choice with a high sessional average.

Apparently, they look at your cumulative average now.

You have your options

1) Retake first year and do better on the courses you want to improve, try again
2) Choose another field

A little about chem eng. There really is not that much chemistry. The hardest chemistry is the chem1aa3 and chem 2e03 (which is an easier organic chemistry). The only concepts you need to know in chem eng are chemical formulas (like knowing 2 oxygens in O_2), the concept of moles and how to read a periodic table.

Lastly, what do you like most in eng? Did you do research into what field you want to get into? For example, I chose chem eng just cause it had no physics (or very little). Then turns out the food, oil and water industry are very big and I was very interested. I would advise you to figure out what you like most then make your decision

I'm not sure if I want to even touch 1AA3 or 2E03.. considering I can't even handle 1E03..
With that said, I liked organic chemistry in high-school.

An upper year showed me his process control projects, I thought process control was pretty neat.

I do have an interest in the oil/water industry. This may sound cheesy, but in the future I want to do environmental stuff, perhaps water filtration and distribution, something along those lines.
I know it may not be very profitable and what not (assuming I graduate..), but I feel like this has always been one of my goals, and definitely something I see myself doing.

I will definitely get involved with clubs like EWB and the sort once I get my whole academic situation sorted out.

Thanks for the replies guys (and girls!).

Then definetly go into chem eng. I didn't do very well in process control but it was a very interesting course which I enjoyed. There are multiple water related courses that you can do. Basically civil and chem can study water related.

But for water/distribution definetly chem eng fits you. If you want more info I can share, pm me

1. Why did you like Mech / Civil. I see what you like in Chem.
2. Have you considered Btech, the Process stream or the auto http://learningin3d.ca/streams.html
3. One other thing to consider doing Chem and Society. Retake first year courses you did really bad in and take a bunch of enviro electives. This way if you get a lot of those upper year courses done , you won't necessarily have to 'waste' a year.

If you're interested in oil/water, you could switch into Earth and Environmental Sciences/Environmental Sciences. There are courses on oil sands remediation (2Q03), environmental assessments (4EA3), groundwater evaluation/remediation (3W03), etc..

APGO -> https://portal.apgo.net/mpower/mpp/d...tion?id=15 33
Course outlines ->https://www.science.mcmaster. ca/ge...iptions.htm l

Originally Posted by Chomps

Although I did well in the Eng. Computation 1D04 labs as well as the 2Z03 MATLABs, I know that I am missing a lot of my foundations (I never took coding in highschool apart from like basic Turing and Eclipse Java). In addition, the MATLAB code I had to write took me hours, coding is definitely not one of my strengths.

I've also read Ownignatios(?)' posts about the program being mostly obsolete and poorly managed (not sure if this is true though).

Regardless of the SE/CS programs being obsolete and poorly managed, you are almost guaranteed a 16 month co-op and if you work hard during that period, then you are almost guaranteed a full time job. SE/CS are very hot programs right now, to be honest. If you can code and have a degree in them, you're golden.

Also may I suggest choosing CS over SE. It has a lighter load, no unnecessary math courses like 2Z03/2ZZ3 and upon graduation, you're treated at par with students from SE. Also the CS students community is generally more tight than the SE students.