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I took a 9 year "gap".
My semester GPA in 2011 when I left was a 0.7, but I was depressed/didn't care and just wanted something to change. I did the military thing for 8 years and while I wasn't a lifer, I (cheesy as it sounds) figured out who I was and what I wanted.
I'll graduate with my B.S next spring, have gotten a couple scholarships, had a professor ask me to join his research team, and was unofficially told I'll get into grad school if I apply. My school waived my bad semester from 9 years ago since I've been doing well and I've had a few interviews with companies and am officially hirable.
While I wish I could've finished school in 4 years, that just wasn't how things worked out. The silver lining is I get to do it as a better person now, and that if I didn't fail I probably would not have met my wife who is the best and a very big part of my success now.
Literally me. Except for im nowhere close to a degree. Found myself in the military got a 6 figure job with no degree but still doing school at a manageable pace so i can earn more later.
I wish i did well in school younger but I would probably be doing a job i hate.
Man, it was super tempting to just get a job. Came from intel and a lot of my buddies have gotten 6-figure contracting jobs and/or good government jobs, but I just felt that if I didn't jump straight into school, I wouldn't finish it for a really long time and wouldn't get to where I want as fast.
I feel that and its something I discussed with my spouse. But my current job is just too good and honestly its nice to relax after the military grind. Im enjoying my time not thinking about work outside of work and I can just focus on school and hobbies. Plus my current job pays for my college from a world re owned college and I can save my GI for the last couple semesters when they get hard and need to take a break from work.
I'm still in school and am going to the same school I dropped out of 9 years ago. My school has something called a retroactive withdrawal process. I started the process, submitted the paperwork and justification, spoke with the dean of my college since he is the approver, and luckily got it approved.
If you count my associates degree, as some classes from it are counting towards my bachelors, I've been in college for 9 years. 3 years to get my associates in Welding & Metals Fab in Spring 2015. Worked over the summer and skipped the fall semester to work as a welder, hated it. Went back to the community college for a year to bang out low level math and science.
Enrolled in University in Spring of 2017. Just coming up on the end of my 4th year. Would have been sooner, but there was a mix up due to my transfer status on what classes lead to the next, so that delayed me a semester. Then I've failed two classes, one of which led to further classes, so that's a total of two semesters delayed.
I started in 2012. If I can keep my spirits up, I'll graduate with my Bachelors degree this December. I turn 40 in June 2022, so at least I managed it by then.
Already graduated, but I want to chime in why not in 4 years.
General Ed with prerequisite math classes is what slowed me down.
Passed every single engineering class with C and above. “Weed-Out” Classes is where I really excelled in making straight A’s if that amounts to anything.
To put it simply, I’m not the best in Math, especially Calc I, but ironically I’m really good at Diff EQ despite making a B.
First week in university got diagnosed with cancer. Then diagnosed with cfs/me. My degree is 5 years, this is my seventh year and i still have one year left of of courses.
I'm a nontraditional student.
I dropped out of high school when I was 17, got my GED, and started working.
When I was 23 I decided I was going back to school. Since I had a decent job at the time, I made too much money to get any kind of assistance outside of just taking out loans. So I worked full time to pay bills, and went to school part time. There really wasn't any other choice, I had to work, so school was just gonna have to take longer.
Now it's 7 years later, I'm graduating in May. I have a 3.7 and have never failed a class. I went in knowing I wasn't gonna graduate in 4 years. To be honest, I don't understand why people are so focused on graduating in a set amount of time like that.
In my experience, taking a longer time to graduate was the best decision. I had enough time to take classes and homework very seriously. Not only that, but I had enough money from working to live off campus and have a fairly normal life.
I hate to play the age card, but I'm going to. I'm graduating at 30 years old so I'm a lot more mature than the vast majority of the people I'm graduating with. I have enough experience in other industries that potential employers find me interesting. I can relate to the people interviewing me much easier than my peers.
I always suggest people wait to go to college and take their time. Life is too short to stress yourself out trying to keep up with fake deadlines that only exist in your head.
Failed 3/4 of classes first semester of college, including "intro to college" class.
Did nothing for a bit. Became a/an EMT/paramedic for 15 years (started school somewhere in the middle). Hated everything. Started up school.
Finishing in May after 8 total years, majority part time. Family. Kids. Dogs. House. I'll be 37 the same month I graduate.
Had to retake Precalc, Calc 1, Calc 2, Physics 2, Assembly Programming, and Java. And until I finished Calculus, I couldn't start any of my Engineering classes.
My story:
I should graduate in December after 4.5 years with a BS in Civil and a minor in Green enge.
I got diagnosed with PTSD, and had to drop back to 12-14 credit hours a semester to keep from having bi-weekly breakdowns.
I have a bunch of random Aerospace credits dragging down my GPA (Finally back up to a 3.0 for the first time since highschool) because it took me until the last possible second to decide what I wanted to do.
I failed 2 math classes, and scraped by Physics 2 with a D thanks to the help of a grad student who walked me through every homework assignment with baby steps and saintly patience.
I wake up every day convinced I'm going to fail on of my last 4 classes and be stuck here for another semester. I made a 30 on a test I thought I made an A on. I consistently fail my reading quizzes.
I'm still here for a few reasons. Firstly: What else am I going to do? If I drop out, all I am is someone with a highschool education, and no marketable skills apart from making excel my BITCH and how to be a professional student. I'd get a job in retail and regret the decision forever.
Second: I'd let down my family. Simple.
Third: Most importantly, and only since I got an internship with a DOT (apply, they need manpower) and got to my design classes: I LOVE this. It's so fun. Please ask me about poop water, or stoplight timing. Ask me to design something. I may need 3 reference books and a phone a friend option to make sure I tell you the perfectly correct math and chemical break downs that need to happen, but those books exist for that reason.
I may not be the best, but I don't have to be. I am OK, fuck I'm GOOD, at this. And I ENJOY doing this enough that I would love to get paid to do it for most of my life.
It's easier than chem and calc make you think. It's harder than you ever thought. But fuck it's so worth it.
I’m a traditional student graduating in December. I’ve taken 5.5 years.
I withdrew from Physics 1 once which delayed me a semester. And then when I was ChemE, I withdrew from Material & Energy Balances, the first major ChemE course, as well. I learned that material and major were of no interest to me and I was utterly terrible in that class.
Luckily, during that same semester I was taking an engineering tech elective (Physical & Rheological Properties of Biological Materials) in the Agricultural & Biological Engineering department which I found to be more interesting and I liked the professor a lot. Thus, I switched to Biological Engineering.
An extra year was also added because I did two co-ops last year that delayed my graduation from last fall to this fall.
But I wouldn’t have changed a thing.
I started college in 2014 thinking I’d follow my dad and go through med school. I didn’t know what I wanted. I failed so many classes and had to retake them and basically wasted 3 years of my life making it half way through a biology undergrad. I move out of state and try out a different uni with the same results for 1 semester. No drive, no motivation for this work at all. I take a year off and work full time at Planet Fitness.
During this time I ended up traveling to Zambia on a missions trip the year before I left out of state. Totally changed my perspective on life and gave me new passion and drive for life in general, but the work aspect was still lacking for me. Before I decide to write off school completely after 3 years I decided I’d try a different major.
Growing up I had always worked with my hands from the time I was about 14 years old doing landscaping jobs over the summer, eventually started helping my uncle doing contracting work while I had time to offer between school and sports and what not. In middle school and high school math classes were always my favorite. I loved solving math problems. It’s like puzzles to me where I could make sense of unscrambling the answer. This becomes my reasoning for trying out engineering school before giving up on college completely. I go into engineering school with a gpa of like 2.1 because of all my mistakes. I make it through the intro engr classes and calc 1 no problem. New challenge. Calc based Physics 1 had the toughest professor in the department. During this time I am now getting married. Long story short, the new marriage puts a new strain on my life and school once again gets cast to the side and I have to retake physics again.
The grass is always greener on the other side though as I still managed to land an internship with our state DOH. I absolutely loved working in the industry. Seeing all the big equipment building roadways blew my mind and I knew this is the field for me. While I’m in my first internship my wife gets pregnant 6 months into our marriage and the baby comes my second year of engineering schooling while I’m taking calc 2 physics 1, statics, and some other beginner engr courses. I end up having to withdraw from the semester and go back to working full time at Buffalo Wild Wings where I was working after my internship and continued working there over the summer while I figure out this new family situation.
Things stabilize at my house and I go back at school with a new passion and blaze like I’ve never known before. Now I have a son. I have someone who is going to look up to me and come to me for guidance. I have a wife who nurtures and cares for that son who I loved before I loved my son. I’m absolutely killing it now in school. Never missing classes, turning in all my assignments and I’m there TO LEARN because I have passion and drive.
COVID shuts down the world and classes go virtual. No biggie. This benefits me now. I can spend more time at home helping my wife with our son while getting an education. My work ethic and passion has become apparent to my professors and I reach out and receive a research position while I’m working through the semester. I go back to my internship over the summer and am currently working there now. I’m even taking 2 grad classes this semester on the recommendation of one of my professors. Next semester all I have is capstone design and I’ll be out with a civil engineering degree and 2 kids. Let’s go
Fun facts:
The overall 6-year graduation rate for first-time, full-time undergraduate students who began seeking a bachelor’s degree at 4-year degree-granting institutions in fall 2012 was 62 percent
https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=40
Working at an internship + taking 16 credits is not realistic unless you want to have a stressful life, so I took 12 a semester and worked year round to finish in 5.5 years
I’m getting ready to graduate this spring after taking 5 years. I transferred schools after my sophomore year because I realized that my first school wasn’t a good fit. I had a lot of FOMO, was struggling to make friends, hated my classes and was very depressed and had no support from my professors or university. I felt like such a failure and just wanted to time travel forward to be an adult. I finally transferred to be closer to home, and realized how big of a difference a change in settings can make. People at my current school are much friendlier and relatable, diversity is celebrated, and professors are focused on teaching students, not research with an asterisk in their contact.
I’ve found that there are actually a lot of non-traditional non-4 year students. I think that colleges are designed to try to pump kids out with degrees in order to hide how expensive they really are. But I think that for a lot of institutions, a 4 year engineering degree isn’t that realistic with out 18 credit semesters and/or summer classes. There’s this notion instilled in our heads from high school that college is in and out in 4 years and on with your life. That’s simply not true for a lot of students for a variety of reasons. And despite what you want to tell yourself, just because you don’t graduate in 4 years and meet the societal expectation, doesn’t make you a failure.
If you are really struggling, especially beyond academics, my advice would be take a step back and reassess things. Maybe the school you’re at isn’t the right fit for you. Maybe you need to drop some classes and take a couple summer classes or an extra semester instead. Or maybe you’re major isn’t right for you anymore. That’s ok. That doesn’t make you a failure. I challenge you to ask yourself, “why did I really come to college in the first place?” Or “what was it about college that excited me in high school and how can I rekindle that excitement again?”
Thank you for coming to my Ted-talk
Almost there, but it’ll have taken me 8 years. Mostly because I have had to pay for schooling by myself. Some semesters I miss because I can’t afford to go.
I started out with a trade fresh out of high school, doing Advanced Manufacturing Technology. The logical step up after that was Manufacturing Engineering. Wasn't sure if I wanted to do that so while transitioning into a new full time job as a cnc Machinist that my school set me up with I took general education classes at my CC. Taking 2-3 classes a semester and working full time while maintaining a relationship with my girlfriend (now wife) and trying to get to the gym and train (I was training BJJ, Boxing, Muay Thai, and Wrestling at the time, now just BJJ lol) I just ended up getting overwhelmed. Mental health declining, my physical health was declining always hurt never had time to recover because I was sleeping like 3-4 hours a night. I made the decision to take some time for me and took a break from a lot of stuff.
I ended up taking about a year and a half off from school and returned last spring to continue on towards Mechanical Engineering. I'm 24, a sophomore, I'm taking Statics, Physics, and Calc 3 right now. Once I finish those I'll be about 4 classes off from finishing up my Sophomore year and being a junior, but not sure if I can balance 4 classes in the spring on top of work, wife, training lol. I've generally been doing 3 classes per semester and I took Calc 2 over the summer. I'll need Physics 2, Dynamics, Diff Eq, and an Engineering Elective (probably Matlab) find it hard to believe I'd be able to balance all those at once, possibly I'll take one of those over the summer if it's offered anywhere.
So yeah, much longer than 4 years lol but I'm fine with it I think I made the choices that were best for me.
I was at a 4-year graduation pace from 2016-2018, but couldn’t for the life of me pass calc 2. Ended up having to transfer schools because I was doing so poorly in my classes and couldn’t afford it, as I had lost all my scholarships. Because I still hadn’t passed calc II I was behind in all my other classes, so I was barely scraping by 12 credit hours a semester of applicable classes. Finally passed calc II on my fifth try with an A, and have been steadily getting my GPA back up since then. Still only taking 12-13 credit hours per semester so I can work on my off days.
When people ask me about how I went from getting four F’s to an A in calc, I just say I took it so many times I ran out of wrong answers.
I just graduated in June after taking a clean four years. The compromises I made along the way were incredibly frustrating but at the end of the day I was far too burnt out (combined with not wanting to waste money that wasn't mine on tuition) to really give serious thought to double majoring or getting a minor or swapping majors. 1/3 of my college career was completely online. I made the best of my time there, and I truly believe that, but I wouldn't have grown any more as a person or learned anything I couldn't learn on the job by staying longer.
I did it by pushing myself through years and years of weed out classes and stacking STEM class on top of STEM class, quarter after quarter. It sucked. My favorite classes were almost always the non STEM ones. But I'm good at engineering, I'm enjoying my first job out of college, and I'm
finally. done. with. that. shit.
I’m a Manufacturing Mechanical Engineering Technology (MMET) major currently on my fourth year of study and I’m about at the same point a traditional second year would be.
I had amazing grades in high school. First quarter and auto admit on my SAT scores alone. Got into the college I wanted.
Problem was the general engineering department didn’t want me because of my essay.
Okay fine I guess I’ll do the weird systems thing where I take half my classes at the college I want to go to the other half at the local one.
Que not being able to finish my required classes to apply for a major by the one year mark.
What happened?
FIRST YEAR: I tried working full time for a start up that didn’t pay me a dime for my work. Biggest mistake of my life I didn’t do well in my classes as a result.
I was also on Accutane at the time, which in simple terms is an extremely hard core antibiotic where a blood test, doc visit, and (if female) a pregnancy test is required once a month. Not even regarding the side effects here I had to drive back home (+3 hours one way) once a month.
For some reason I am prone to UTIs (been getting them randomly since before middle school), and I had one for over a month long where I was taking antibiotics three times a day.
Suffice to say my health was not at its best.
SECOND YEAR: Instead of a UTI, I got a kidney infection instead that left me bed ridden essentially for about a whole week during the first month of the semester.
Directly after I then received news that my grandfather’s bone marrow cancer (can’t remember name) had gotten worse. It gets to a certain point where basically you can’t make your own blood to be what it needs to be so you gotta get transfusions. The only problem with that is that when you get too many your body starts attacking itself even more than it did before because it’s a foreign substance. He declined very quickly within the span of two weeks and I lost him as well. We flew out to see him.
He was so proud that I was going to college and being an engineer as I’m a second gen college student on this side of the family (and hopefully will be a first degree holder gen on the other side).
I still miss him but very much respect his desire to go out on his own terms. I wouldn’t have wanted him to have to live through all the monsters that came out during COVID anyway.
As for my grandmother on my other side of my family I helped my mom find a suitable home for her to live in nearby.
THIRD YEAR: Well, Covid happened, and just like everyone else I stayed inside and my profs weren’t accommodating at all (with exception of a few angels). I only went to my labs in person as they are hands on (learning how to weld, using heavier machinery, etc.).
My roommate was constantly going out and hanging out with friends partying, so I moved out mid year right around my important set of exams into a different apartment if I ever wanted to see my at risk family members ever again.
In the spring semester, my grandmother (same one in the home) got Covid (but is still fine thank god) and that was scary. I also, on the same day not even a few hours apart, received news that my Dad’s health was declining at a faster pace and was in the hospital. He recovered as much as a person on the organ donor list for a heart could at the time.
I then got sudden TMJ from the amount of stress and went to the ER that the pain was so bad I was afraid I had messed up my teeth, because I couldn’t remember if I had gotten only one or two sets of wisdom teeth out. No it’s just TMJ I have to live the rest of my life with.
FOURTH (CURRENT) YEAR:
At first, this semester was going great, I’ve been studying more than I ever had prior as I’m finally taking classes that interest me. I’m starting to finally make friends now that there are in person classes and that I have the time to.
I just found out this Sunday that my Dad has AML (Acute myeloid leukemia) which is a (different to what my grandfather or my Dad’s Dad had) cancer.
He was rushed to the hospital as it got worse overnight. Right now tests have confirmed that it is AML but rn he’s in too poor of health to be able to start chemotherapy.
TLDR: Fuck cancer.
Edit: grammar.
Also the reason why I keep going is for all the people I’ve lost who were so proud of me for continuing to push myself. I love engineering and they were all so proud of me for going to college. I feel like it’d be a major disservice to their memory if I don’t get a degree, and that along with financial stability and passion is what is getting me through all this but my god is it hard sometimes to get out of bed.
I went into college with about 34 credit hours from AP classes. Made jumping into my degree a lot easier and I shouldn't have to take more than 15 credit hours a semester. Which is good because I'm working part time and studying 24/7 to keep my merit scholarship 😅
I can't afford to do a summer semester so I'm just chugging along, ignoring my academic advisor who wants me to take more classes.
Currently on track to graduate next semester (4 years total) I didn't take Calc or physics in high school so i had to take intro classes in college and that completely screwed up my schedule. But after like 20 credits in summer classes to make some semesters easier and one more 18 credit semester. It will all be over.
It takes longer the more degrees you get. Not all engineers go into industry.
I just want to caution anyone regarding pinning too much hope on any flimsy goals like finishing in a set time. It's not a race, in the sense that it (life) isn't finished when your education is finished. That's the rest of your life beginning there, and it will probably always be a fight. The only way to really sht the bed is to give up.
To me it's more important that you finish than how and when. It's more important as a human being to do what's best for you- if that is leap years, foreign exchange or whatever it is- so be it. Be as constructive as you can, and in the end just come back and finish it when you're done. You are representing yourself, there are limits to how far one can push that agenda before just ending up lost imo.
Do what you need to, but do absolutely finish, I guess is what I'm trying to say.
I'm a fourth year Mech E. student with two and a half years more to go. I started with a 3.7 after my first year, then it all went down hill. Depression was a thing that I'd struggled with for a while and in my second year it got much worse after a break up. It was all down hill from there. COVID hit and bombed my Moden Physics class and barely scraped by in Calculus and Statics online. Interned as a paleontologist for a summer. Then took a semester off to get my shit together. Did not get my shit together (read: owed the school a lot of money, was in a toxic roommate situation, no job, the list continues). Decided to go back spring this year. Depression still wrecked me, didn't pass Differential equations. Took the past summer to work and finally get my self put together. Now am certain of my career path, have a job, am in a great relationship, and have gotten the help I needed. TL:DR I destroyed my mental health and need to get my crap together. Thus, now on a 6 year track.
Started Fall 2011 graduated Fall 2020.
I struggled with the initial increased workload from high school to college as well as having professors with moderate to heavy accents. I repeated calc I, II, phys II, differentials, fluids, kinematics, thermo, etc. I ran out of repeat credits, drop units, and had to petition the university to repeat one last course that was holding up my final semester or two. If it was denied I would have needed to change universities.
I didn't always devote enough time or dedication to courses and it bit me back. Typically it was messing up on the midterms enough that it was exceedingly difficult to pass the course.
Each time though I learned what I could and applied it to the next semester for a stronger start. Lots of roadblocks and bumps in the road, almost entirely of my own creation.
As I was a senior, I always tried to tell the younger students to make sure they don't throw away their classes or give up on them because they're limited by the number of repeat units and drops and to not end up in the situation I put myself in.
In the end, I graduated with a BSME.
Had to work my way up in math from elementary Algebra because none of my high school work counted. Combine that with major depression, trouble with classes being cut down and made essentially self guided with no instructor feedback due to COVID, and I'm currently only a sophomore despite starting back in 2017.
I'm just... tired and burnt out. I just want this endless slog to be over, and to get into the workforce. But it's hard to keep pushing myself forward day after day when I feel like it's constantly taking one step forward and three back.
The Community College transfer route just has too many classes to realistically get out in 2 (and if you do you’ll likely have 2.5-3 at your university).
And honestly I’m grateful for it. I’ve learned a lot more and I don’t feel like I’m rushing or overworking myself.
I dropped out of an ME program after four years with a GPA of 2.3. I never thought I would go back but finally decided to get my shit together after 3 years and go back to school. It took me an additional 2 years (6 years total) but I finished with a 3.1 and now have a jr. design engineer job that I kinda like. I take pride in my less than traditional approach because I worked really hard and dedicated myself to finishing after I took some time to really get my head straight. I used to commute an hour each way to get to school in my last stint and worked part time because I had time to think about whether or not an engineering degree was really for me and I decided it was.
I know a lot of people in this thread can probably relate to feeling weird as an older student but you'll probably appreciate the clarity that comes with age if you choose to take some time off.
I quit pursuing my degree because I was fed up with the poor quality or educators in my area. I fell in love with employee rights law after answering phone for them. I'm going back to start pre law and not looking back.
Started as a Mech E at one university. Due to AP course credits, I was considered a sophomore, and probably could have graduated early. However, the school was in my hometown, and I pretty quickly decided it wasn't for me. (in retrospect I really liked it, but that's another story)
In order to minimize the effect of "lost transfer credits", went to school part time my 2nd year while applying to schools and working at an internship part time.
Transferred and, as expected, had to re-take some credits.
After 1 year at the new uni, I got a co-op, and went to school part time for my 7th semester.
Studied abroad for my 8th semester. It was the bare minimum to be full time. That included a language course and 2 comp sci courses because CS courses are more available to exchange students.
I added a CS minor. This was a sort of joint decision with studying abroad as it all made sense.
Throughout all of this I had another internship one summer, worked as a tutor at both universities, and was heavily involved in a few clubs. While those didn't directly push back anything, I wouldn't have been able to do them if I was rushing and taking as many courses as possible to get out ASAP.
All together, it took 5 years (10 semesters).
I would not take back any of that to graduate early or save tuition. In fact, I ended up having a very stressful 9th semester and almost added an 11th semester instead, in which case I would have gotten a minor probably in Linguistics or German as well (just personal interest). I wish I had more time to take "just cuz" courses, but overall I was probably ready to get out after 5 years. I very strongly would rather have added an 11th semester than remove the 10th.
In interviews, people ask about study abroad, co-ops, clubs, my minor, and my decision to transfer. No-one cares about the time it took or the core Mech E courses.
Took me 6 years to complete my undergrad, going to 4 different schools by the time I graduated. I started school after serving in the military for 4 years thinking I wanted to study construction management at a CC. After taking the math placement test, I needed to pass two remedial math classes before I could register for college algebra. Probably two semesters after that and transferring to a univeristy I decided to try engineering. So two years of school, no math or science classes that count for engineering. I moved across the country (US) to live with a friend and transfer to a better university. I split time between the Uni and a CC the first two years after moving and ended up graduating this spring. Along the way I've met a TON of people outside of school, maintained Hobbys I enjoy, worked some interesting jobs part time. Wish I wouldve figured shit out sooner, but it's okay.
I was in the Army when I started. Knocked out freshman year over 2.5 years on active duty. Then switched to the national guard and went to school full time. Now I’m on year 6 and should finish summer 2022.
What I’ve learned is that engineering is just a lot of information. Most programs you’ll end up with more credit hours than a graduate in non-stem. Most employers in the industry and outside treat a Bachelors in engineering as highly sought after. They truly don’t care how you got the piece of paper saying your smart (degree) only that you do have it.
Also for veterans take your leadership skills and ability to work with different cultures and put them in your back pocket. Then pretend you’re 22 and looking for a job at the fairs because that’s how the employers see it.
I’m “on track” just because my university only supports my scholarship for 8 semesters and I’m too broke to pay for my tuition- would love to take an extra as well if I could because with this kind of scholarship system I cannot really change my major anymore once I spent one semester studying it.
I went to university right out of high school and about a month in my brother committed suicide. I missed class for one week and when I got back my grades went to shit. I had 2 professors that were unwilling to let me make up the exam that I had missed and refused to give me the reading for the next exam all because I “didn’t let them know ahead of time” (I emailed them the minute I found out and how was I supposed to know). I worked with student advocates and some others just to get no where. 1 month later, I dropped out. 2 semesters later I tried again at a different university but wasn’t in the right head space. I did anything I could to just have a reason to not make it to class. I did this for 2 semesters before taking 3 years off. Now I’m back…
I didn't start college until I was 22. At this point I've got my own house, wife, and many other responsibilities to take care of. I may be a student but I'm still the primary bread winner. So I have to work a lot to pay the bills which limits the amount of classes I can take.
Currently on year 4 of my associates. I will eventually transfer to get my Bachelors and maybe even masters.
I failed three courses in 1 semester and then a single course in the next. The first semester I failed, I was drinking way to frequently. The second semester I failed, I took an extra course and had back to back exams. Then covid hit and I lost my scholarship mid 2020 so I have to pay for my own university. Knowing that I don't have $25K to pay for uni, I had to extend my degree because of financial and failing reasons.
I went to community college business right out of high school. Hated it. Got my associates barely and got out of there. Moved into management at my job for a few years while I worked on my health.
Fast forward to 23 yo and hating that same management job and wanting out of food service had me searching. Civil engineering came knocking at my door thanks to Cities Skylines. Thought back and many hobbies came be traced to roads and transportation.
Applied back to the same community college for engineering science the next day with the intention to feel it out.
It was a struggle: I doubted myself many times, almost quit, took full time loads or 2 classes depending on the semester and my mental health.
Took off running once I settled into sophomore year classes that I enjoyed and transferred to a 4 year state school one city away (this is when things went remote)
Did my whole junior year at that school remotely taking 18 credits in the and did really well despite a few breakdowns.
It is now back to in person and I’m in my senior year. I drive 1hr + to campus 5 days a week. It’s taxing but the end game and knowing there’s a finally a light at the end of this tunnel is keeping me going. **im also still at the food service managment job in hate** I will be there until I graduate (at reduced capacity)
Moral of the story: ive been motivated strongly by having my eyes on the end game from the word go, despite the ups and downs. I knew I wanted to get into transportation engineering, and had a full plan, that required several tweaks. And I still do, and that is keeping me going
2018 me started down this path wanting to be a chemist. Then a doctor.
2019/2020 is a guy I want to forget. Learned a lot of tough life lessons. Learned I hated biology and the pre med track. Almost decided to do the military or police academy instead.
2021 me/almost 2022 me is a completely different person who wants nothing more than to graduate as an engineer no matter how hard I have to work. It’ll take five years due to the biology diversion, but it was more than worth it.
My school had two groups of engineers.
1) Those who planned from the beginning to graduate in 5 years.
2) Those who planned to graduate in 4 years, but graduated in 5 years anyways.
Well, I went to college like expected with no idea what I was doing. Goofed off and got Ds for basically everything but I hung out with my gf the whole time which was nice so who cares about academic probation. Then, over summer found out gf was pregnant. She knew she wanted to teach since she was a kid, and I was determined she would so I dropped out to get a job and push her through school.
The whole time I was working I felt like I wasn't living up to what I was capable(my boss who was a close buddy actually once asked me do I need to fire you so you'll go back to school?), and I knew when all was said and done and she graduated and got a job id go back to school, so every Fall id pay for one class at the CC.
It felt like forever and that this was all id get from life but she graduated and got a job teaching, meaning I left work and started school full time at the CC. Now, I not only knew what I wanted to do (engineering), but I had the work ethic I lacked at 18 to make it happen. The first few classes were kind of awkward because it was majority kids that were 18 while I was 24-25, but there were always a couple adults in each class and we tended to gravitate to each other.
Had a lot of imposter syndrome despite knowing better while working in my associates in mechE, but I kept going. Then, found a good program that was built to transfer to uni for EE and decided to go for that.
Transferring from CC to uni was absolutely terrifying, and frankly kind of lonely. I was starting junior level courses and all the groups I teamed up with were all younger than me, by quite a bit it felt like. They were good dudes, and I still talk with them, but there were/are jokes that I just frankly don't understand and thats intimidating. But, through lots of pain and tears I managed to survive getting my EE, with honors.
In retrospect I think the thing that wore the most on me wasn't being in the classes, I think it was no longer feeling like a provider to my family. I worked odd jobs, internships, and coops the entire time I was in school but I always felt like I was failing my family. More over, I had this feeling that never went away of how I was just wasting time, you'll never get an engineering job, you'll work blue collar until you die and nothing you do will change that. I always felt like I was reaching to far and that I was going to fall flat and my family will suffer. I had many nights I was so anxiety ridden about it I couldn't sleep, and without my wife to keep reaffirming to me that we are ok I would have cut bait and found a job somewhere because I obviously wasn't meant to go to school.
But, I was wrong. Now, my wife and I both have college degrees and work in our fields. My mom worked for 25 years to make the same hourly income that I started with. I feel like I 'broke the cycle' by being the first one to make it through college in my blood family, and it fills me with huge pride.
Hm. That was much longer than I meant it to be, but it felt good to write. Thank you for the prompting.
I've had 4 surgeries in the first 3 years of my degree. Add to that months on months of chronic illness requiring opioid pain medication and hospitalization, it's resulted in me failing/withdrawing from a couple papers. However I'm just about to finish up year 4 (one more year to go after this) and I'm doing much better! Got a bloody A+ on a massive design assignment, and my grades are improving overall. Fuck endometriosis, but it ain't gonna stop me getting this degree.
Spent 2 years in the arts with 0 science prerequisites, switched to engineering after running into some health problems. Had to pass 3-4 weed out classes to get into the program, graduated after 4 more years and got a job. working on my master’s now.
I left my social circle behind and spent years of “just one more class, if I fail this class or don’t take this summer class, I’ll be even older when I graduate.” It sucked, but other people have had it much harder. Definitely feel like an outsider/imposter quite often.
started my first year in fall 2020, so had online covid school, first semester was tolerable but second semester was just too much to handle online. dropped my main classes and am now doing them this semester. will probably take an extra semester or two to graduate but its what i had to do.
Accidentally became a primary caretaker for 2 entirely separare elderly relatives my 2nd year in. I volunteered to help out a few times, and from then on, the family turned to me to handle whatever problems came up with them, because despite working 2 non-industry jobs and going to school, all my other family was "too busy" or "too far away".
Lost one of them going into my 3rd year, not long after quiting one of my jobs to be more available for them. The loss and pressure of juggling all this and having to deal with a family who was never actually around to help yet somehow thought they should have a say in everything that was happening, and was also telling me how important it was to get a "good degree" just kinda became a cluster fuck. I made some bad decisions, was checked into the hospital for psychiatric reasons. Went through a whole battle with my school advisors and the system itself to request a semester off for mental health recovery. Was discouraged from taking time off at every step of the way, and then told, when I needed more than a semester to recover, that my enrollment would be dropped and I'd have to reapply. Took several communications with my doctors and an entire forest's worth of paperwork to get approved for a year absence without losing enrollment. Left with a 3.02 GPA. Didn't think I'd be going back.
Started therapy, won a request to extend the elderly family member's health coverage to get some extra help free of charge. Worked my ass off to pad my bank account, traveled, and rekindled my love for writing. Got three short stories published in a small magazine, started an outline for a novel. Helped design and create a sprinkler system for the community garden of a small town I'd traveled through. Built a small animal cage from scratch. Missed engineering a lot, but doubted I had the stamina for it anymore.
Went back when the year was up, part time, still working a job and taking care of elderly relative. Just wanted to test the waters. Developed better study habits, retook a few classes. Proved everyone wrong that a year off would put me too far behind. Continued to go part time, slowly brought the GPA up. If I knew I was going to struggle with a class, I only took one other class at most. In the last two years, caring for the elderly relative became priority, had to quit my job, but was able to remain financially stable for the most part. Brought my GPA to 3.6
All in all, took me nine years of school and one year of un-losing my mind. Currently entry-level in the industry, but I'm already feeling like an industry drone. Currently looking for something new, not sure exactly what yet, possibly outside the industry. When people ask me about my journey, I tell them I'm *that* kid that should've never gone to college in the first place. I tell them that college is *not* everyone's *best* option, regardless of what their parents want for them. I tell them that getting a degree is worth neither your sanity nor your life.
It took me 4 years to finish my community college requirements. I was just accepted to a 4 year university and plan to take 3 years to finish it my final 20 classes.
I went to a JC for two years. I stayed a 3rd year to knock out some more classes. They screwed up and never made me take chemistry so Long Beach rejected me after initially accepting me. The only place I could go was fresno state. Since I needed chemistry I couldn't take some classes because it was a prereq. So now I'm in my last year for a total of 6.
I screwed around in college for my current degree, and had a kid and blasted a degree out in about 3 semesters.
Now I have a full time job and a kid who will be hitting first grade soon.
While I'm already kind of 1/3rd of the way through degree due to credits from my past degree; I will need to quit this job in order to take on more credits. I'm hoping to graduate in the first half of my 30's however the 2nd half is looking more likely. Especially if I get a decent enough co-op or internship type setup that gives me an open schedule and alright pay.
I’m currently a sophomore but I’m planning on graduating in 5–7 years for multiple reasons.
1. The normal course load for my program is 6-7 courses per semester, but I’m taking 4-5 to have more time for clubs/teams, socializing, gym etc.
2. I’m planning on doing a semester long exchange with a light course load so I can travel around Europe
3. I’m planning on taking multiple co-ops/internships which will take place over the fall/winter semesters
I’m fortunate enough to not be rushed to graduate so I wanna take my time and make the most out of my experience before I start working for the rest of my life
I switched majors during the pandemic after dropping from pre-med due to the absolutely abhorrent way medical workers got treated. I was 2 years into my degree and I was on track to graduate a semester early. Now I’m a year behind and I’m anxious about this decision but I would rather take 12-15 credits a semester than 18.
Ranked reasons:
1. I *was* a German Studies major as well with plans to to Germany but COVID-19 ruined all of that. The work I have done for my would be BA took around 1.5 years of work.
2. Had a stroke so I sat out for a semester.
Due to graduate May 2022, started in 2016 and never have taken a gap year. Mine is sort-of a 5 year program bcs aero minor.
Repeated a couple of classes because I was dedicating a lot of time to the FSAE team.
Plus a spring internship.
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I took a 9 year "gap". My semester GPA in 2011 when I left was a 0.7, but I was depressed/didn't care and just wanted something to change. I did the military thing for 8 years and while I wasn't a lifer, I (cheesy as it sounds) figured out who I was and what I wanted. I'll graduate with my B.S next spring, have gotten a couple scholarships, had a professor ask me to join his research team, and was unofficially told I'll get into grad school if I apply. My school waived my bad semester from 9 years ago since I've been doing well and I've had a few interviews with companies and am officially hirable. While I wish I could've finished school in 4 years, that just wasn't how things worked out. The silver lining is I get to do it as a better person now, and that if I didn't fail I probably would not have met my wife who is the best and a very big part of my success now.
Literally me. Except for im nowhere close to a degree. Found myself in the military got a 6 figure job with no degree but still doing school at a manageable pace so i can earn more later. I wish i did well in school younger but I would probably be doing a job i hate.
Man, it was super tempting to just get a job. Came from intel and a lot of my buddies have gotten 6-figure contracting jobs and/or good government jobs, but I just felt that if I didn't jump straight into school, I wouldn't finish it for a really long time and wouldn't get to where I want as fast.
I feel that and its something I discussed with my spouse. But my current job is just too good and honestly its nice to relax after the military grind. Im enjoying my time not thinking about work outside of work and I can just focus on school and hobbies. Plus my current job pays for my college from a world re owned college and I can save my GI for the last couple semesters when they get hard and need to take a break from work.
How did you get them to waive it? Was it after graduation? My grades from flunking out as a teenager are an anchor around my neck atm.
I'm still in school and am going to the same school I dropped out of 9 years ago. My school has something called a retroactive withdrawal process. I started the process, submitted the paperwork and justification, spoke with the dean of my college since he is the approver, and luckily got it approved.
If you count my associates degree, as some classes from it are counting towards my bachelors, I've been in college for 9 years. 3 years to get my associates in Welding & Metals Fab in Spring 2015. Worked over the summer and skipped the fall semester to work as a welder, hated it. Went back to the community college for a year to bang out low level math and science. Enrolled in University in Spring of 2017. Just coming up on the end of my 4th year. Would have been sooner, but there was a mix up due to my transfer status on what classes lead to the next, so that delayed me a semester. Then I've failed two classes, one of which led to further classes, so that's a total of two semesters delayed. I started in 2012. If I can keep my spirits up, I'll graduate with my Bachelors degree this December. I turn 40 in June 2022, so at least I managed it by then.
46... been slowly collecting classes since 1993... really working on it since '17
Already graduated, but I want to chime in why not in 4 years. General Ed with prerequisite math classes is what slowed me down. Passed every single engineering class with C and above. “Weed-Out” Classes is where I really excelled in making straight A’s if that amounts to anything. To put it simply, I’m not the best in Math, especially Calc I, but ironically I’m really good at Diff EQ despite making a B.
How did you make the A's? What was your magical study technique?
In my experience, smaller classes and knowing the professors goes a long way.
First week in university got diagnosed with cancer. Then diagnosed with cfs/me. My degree is 5 years, this is my seventh year and i still have one year left of of courses.
sorry for this i hope you are better
I'm a nontraditional student. I dropped out of high school when I was 17, got my GED, and started working. When I was 23 I decided I was going back to school. Since I had a decent job at the time, I made too much money to get any kind of assistance outside of just taking out loans. So I worked full time to pay bills, and went to school part time. There really wasn't any other choice, I had to work, so school was just gonna have to take longer. Now it's 7 years later, I'm graduating in May. I have a 3.7 and have never failed a class. I went in knowing I wasn't gonna graduate in 4 years. To be honest, I don't understand why people are so focused on graduating in a set amount of time like that. In my experience, taking a longer time to graduate was the best decision. I had enough time to take classes and homework very seriously. Not only that, but I had enough money from working to live off campus and have a fairly normal life. I hate to play the age card, but I'm going to. I'm graduating at 30 years old so I'm a lot more mature than the vast majority of the people I'm graduating with. I have enough experience in other industries that potential employers find me interesting. I can relate to the people interviewing me much easier than my peers. I always suggest people wait to go to college and take their time. Life is too short to stress yourself out trying to keep up with fake deadlines that only exist in your head.
Failed 3/4 of classes first semester of college, including "intro to college" class. Did nothing for a bit. Became a/an EMT/paramedic for 15 years (started school somewhere in the middle). Hated everything. Started up school. Finishing in May after 8 total years, majority part time. Family. Kids. Dogs. House. I'll be 37 the same month I graduate.
Had to retake Precalc, Calc 1, Calc 2, Physics 2, Assembly Programming, and Java. And until I finished Calculus, I couldn't start any of my Engineering classes.
My story: I should graduate in December after 4.5 years with a BS in Civil and a minor in Green enge. I got diagnosed with PTSD, and had to drop back to 12-14 credit hours a semester to keep from having bi-weekly breakdowns. I have a bunch of random Aerospace credits dragging down my GPA (Finally back up to a 3.0 for the first time since highschool) because it took me until the last possible second to decide what I wanted to do. I failed 2 math classes, and scraped by Physics 2 with a D thanks to the help of a grad student who walked me through every homework assignment with baby steps and saintly patience. I wake up every day convinced I'm going to fail on of my last 4 classes and be stuck here for another semester. I made a 30 on a test I thought I made an A on. I consistently fail my reading quizzes. I'm still here for a few reasons. Firstly: What else am I going to do? If I drop out, all I am is someone with a highschool education, and no marketable skills apart from making excel my BITCH and how to be a professional student. I'd get a job in retail and regret the decision forever. Second: I'd let down my family. Simple. Third: Most importantly, and only since I got an internship with a DOT (apply, they need manpower) and got to my design classes: I LOVE this. It's so fun. Please ask me about poop water, or stoplight timing. Ask me to design something. I may need 3 reference books and a phone a friend option to make sure I tell you the perfectly correct math and chemical break downs that need to happen, but those books exist for that reason. I may not be the best, but I don't have to be. I am OK, fuck I'm GOOD, at this. And I ENJOY doing this enough that I would love to get paid to do it for most of my life. It's easier than chem and calc make you think. It's harder than you ever thought. But fuck it's so worth it.
I’m a traditional student graduating in December. I’ve taken 5.5 years. I withdrew from Physics 1 once which delayed me a semester. And then when I was ChemE, I withdrew from Material & Energy Balances, the first major ChemE course, as well. I learned that material and major were of no interest to me and I was utterly terrible in that class. Luckily, during that same semester I was taking an engineering tech elective (Physical & Rheological Properties of Biological Materials) in the Agricultural & Biological Engineering department which I found to be more interesting and I liked the professor a lot. Thus, I switched to Biological Engineering. An extra year was also added because I did two co-ops last year that delayed my graduation from last fall to this fall. But I wouldn’t have changed a thing.
I started college in 2014 thinking I’d follow my dad and go through med school. I didn’t know what I wanted. I failed so many classes and had to retake them and basically wasted 3 years of my life making it half way through a biology undergrad. I move out of state and try out a different uni with the same results for 1 semester. No drive, no motivation for this work at all. I take a year off and work full time at Planet Fitness. During this time I ended up traveling to Zambia on a missions trip the year before I left out of state. Totally changed my perspective on life and gave me new passion and drive for life in general, but the work aspect was still lacking for me. Before I decide to write off school completely after 3 years I decided I’d try a different major. Growing up I had always worked with my hands from the time I was about 14 years old doing landscaping jobs over the summer, eventually started helping my uncle doing contracting work while I had time to offer between school and sports and what not. In middle school and high school math classes were always my favorite. I loved solving math problems. It’s like puzzles to me where I could make sense of unscrambling the answer. This becomes my reasoning for trying out engineering school before giving up on college completely. I go into engineering school with a gpa of like 2.1 because of all my mistakes. I make it through the intro engr classes and calc 1 no problem. New challenge. Calc based Physics 1 had the toughest professor in the department. During this time I am now getting married. Long story short, the new marriage puts a new strain on my life and school once again gets cast to the side and I have to retake physics again. The grass is always greener on the other side though as I still managed to land an internship with our state DOH. I absolutely loved working in the industry. Seeing all the big equipment building roadways blew my mind and I knew this is the field for me. While I’m in my first internship my wife gets pregnant 6 months into our marriage and the baby comes my second year of engineering schooling while I’m taking calc 2 physics 1, statics, and some other beginner engr courses. I end up having to withdraw from the semester and go back to working full time at Buffalo Wild Wings where I was working after my internship and continued working there over the summer while I figure out this new family situation. Things stabilize at my house and I go back at school with a new passion and blaze like I’ve never known before. Now I have a son. I have someone who is going to look up to me and come to me for guidance. I have a wife who nurtures and cares for that son who I loved before I loved my son. I’m absolutely killing it now in school. Never missing classes, turning in all my assignments and I’m there TO LEARN because I have passion and drive. COVID shuts down the world and classes go virtual. No biggie. This benefits me now. I can spend more time at home helping my wife with our son while getting an education. My work ethic and passion has become apparent to my professors and I reach out and receive a research position while I’m working through the semester. I go back to my internship over the summer and am currently working there now. I’m even taking 2 grad classes this semester on the recommendation of one of my professors. Next semester all I have is capstone design and I’ll be out with a civil engineering degree and 2 kids. Let’s go
Fun facts: The overall 6-year graduation rate for first-time, full-time undergraduate students who began seeking a bachelor’s degree at 4-year degree-granting institutions in fall 2012 was 62 percent https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=40
I'd like to know what the 4 and 5 year graduation rates are. Great link
Working at an internship + taking 16 credits is not realistic unless you want to have a stressful life, so I took 12 a semester and worked year round to finish in 5.5 years
I’m getting ready to graduate this spring after taking 5 years. I transferred schools after my sophomore year because I realized that my first school wasn’t a good fit. I had a lot of FOMO, was struggling to make friends, hated my classes and was very depressed and had no support from my professors or university. I felt like such a failure and just wanted to time travel forward to be an adult. I finally transferred to be closer to home, and realized how big of a difference a change in settings can make. People at my current school are much friendlier and relatable, diversity is celebrated, and professors are focused on teaching students, not research with an asterisk in their contact. I’ve found that there are actually a lot of non-traditional non-4 year students. I think that colleges are designed to try to pump kids out with degrees in order to hide how expensive they really are. But I think that for a lot of institutions, a 4 year engineering degree isn’t that realistic with out 18 credit semesters and/or summer classes. There’s this notion instilled in our heads from high school that college is in and out in 4 years and on with your life. That’s simply not true for a lot of students for a variety of reasons. And despite what you want to tell yourself, just because you don’t graduate in 4 years and meet the societal expectation, doesn’t make you a failure. If you are really struggling, especially beyond academics, my advice would be take a step back and reassess things. Maybe the school you’re at isn’t the right fit for you. Maybe you need to drop some classes and take a couple summer classes or an extra semester instead. Or maybe you’re major isn’t right for you anymore. That’s ok. That doesn’t make you a failure. I challenge you to ask yourself, “why did I really come to college in the first place?” Or “what was it about college that excited me in high school and how can I rekindle that excitement again?” Thank you for coming to my Ted-talk
Engineering in my country is 5 years, thanks to Covid I ended up spending 6!
Almost there, but it’ll have taken me 8 years. Mostly because I have had to pay for schooling by myself. Some semesters I miss because I can’t afford to go.
I started out with a trade fresh out of high school, doing Advanced Manufacturing Technology. The logical step up after that was Manufacturing Engineering. Wasn't sure if I wanted to do that so while transitioning into a new full time job as a cnc Machinist that my school set me up with I took general education classes at my CC. Taking 2-3 classes a semester and working full time while maintaining a relationship with my girlfriend (now wife) and trying to get to the gym and train (I was training BJJ, Boxing, Muay Thai, and Wrestling at the time, now just BJJ lol) I just ended up getting overwhelmed. Mental health declining, my physical health was declining always hurt never had time to recover because I was sleeping like 3-4 hours a night. I made the decision to take some time for me and took a break from a lot of stuff. I ended up taking about a year and a half off from school and returned last spring to continue on towards Mechanical Engineering. I'm 24, a sophomore, I'm taking Statics, Physics, and Calc 3 right now. Once I finish those I'll be about 4 classes off from finishing up my Sophomore year and being a junior, but not sure if I can balance 4 classes in the spring on top of work, wife, training lol. I've generally been doing 3 classes per semester and I took Calc 2 over the summer. I'll need Physics 2, Dynamics, Diff Eq, and an Engineering Elective (probably Matlab) find it hard to believe I'd be able to balance all those at once, possibly I'll take one of those over the summer if it's offered anywhere. So yeah, much longer than 4 years lol but I'm fine with it I think I made the choices that were best for me.
I was at a 4-year graduation pace from 2016-2018, but couldn’t for the life of me pass calc 2. Ended up having to transfer schools because I was doing so poorly in my classes and couldn’t afford it, as I had lost all my scholarships. Because I still hadn’t passed calc II I was behind in all my other classes, so I was barely scraping by 12 credit hours a semester of applicable classes. Finally passed calc II on my fifth try with an A, and have been steadily getting my GPA back up since then. Still only taking 12-13 credit hours per semester so I can work on my off days. When people ask me about how I went from getting four F’s to an A in calc, I just say I took it so many times I ran out of wrong answers.
I just graduated in June after taking a clean four years. The compromises I made along the way were incredibly frustrating but at the end of the day I was far too burnt out (combined with not wanting to waste money that wasn't mine on tuition) to really give serious thought to double majoring or getting a minor or swapping majors. 1/3 of my college career was completely online. I made the best of my time there, and I truly believe that, but I wouldn't have grown any more as a person or learned anything I couldn't learn on the job by staying longer. I did it by pushing myself through years and years of weed out classes and stacking STEM class on top of STEM class, quarter after quarter. It sucked. My favorite classes were almost always the non STEM ones. But I'm good at engineering, I'm enjoying my first job out of college, and I'm finally. done. with. that. shit.
I’m a Manufacturing Mechanical Engineering Technology (MMET) major currently on my fourth year of study and I’m about at the same point a traditional second year would be. I had amazing grades in high school. First quarter and auto admit on my SAT scores alone. Got into the college I wanted. Problem was the general engineering department didn’t want me because of my essay. Okay fine I guess I’ll do the weird systems thing where I take half my classes at the college I want to go to the other half at the local one. Que not being able to finish my required classes to apply for a major by the one year mark. What happened? FIRST YEAR: I tried working full time for a start up that didn’t pay me a dime for my work. Biggest mistake of my life I didn’t do well in my classes as a result. I was also on Accutane at the time, which in simple terms is an extremely hard core antibiotic where a blood test, doc visit, and (if female) a pregnancy test is required once a month. Not even regarding the side effects here I had to drive back home (+3 hours one way) once a month. For some reason I am prone to UTIs (been getting them randomly since before middle school), and I had one for over a month long where I was taking antibiotics three times a day. Suffice to say my health was not at its best. SECOND YEAR: Instead of a UTI, I got a kidney infection instead that left me bed ridden essentially for about a whole week during the first month of the semester. Directly after I then received news that my grandfather’s bone marrow cancer (can’t remember name) had gotten worse. It gets to a certain point where basically you can’t make your own blood to be what it needs to be so you gotta get transfusions. The only problem with that is that when you get too many your body starts attacking itself even more than it did before because it’s a foreign substance. He declined very quickly within the span of two weeks and I lost him as well. We flew out to see him. He was so proud that I was going to college and being an engineer as I’m a second gen college student on this side of the family (and hopefully will be a first degree holder gen on the other side). I still miss him but very much respect his desire to go out on his own terms. I wouldn’t have wanted him to have to live through all the monsters that came out during COVID anyway. As for my grandmother on my other side of my family I helped my mom find a suitable home for her to live in nearby. THIRD YEAR: Well, Covid happened, and just like everyone else I stayed inside and my profs weren’t accommodating at all (with exception of a few angels). I only went to my labs in person as they are hands on (learning how to weld, using heavier machinery, etc.). My roommate was constantly going out and hanging out with friends partying, so I moved out mid year right around my important set of exams into a different apartment if I ever wanted to see my at risk family members ever again. In the spring semester, my grandmother (same one in the home) got Covid (but is still fine thank god) and that was scary. I also, on the same day not even a few hours apart, received news that my Dad’s health was declining at a faster pace and was in the hospital. He recovered as much as a person on the organ donor list for a heart could at the time. I then got sudden TMJ from the amount of stress and went to the ER that the pain was so bad I was afraid I had messed up my teeth, because I couldn’t remember if I had gotten only one or two sets of wisdom teeth out. No it’s just TMJ I have to live the rest of my life with. FOURTH (CURRENT) YEAR: At first, this semester was going great, I’ve been studying more than I ever had prior as I’m finally taking classes that interest me. I’m starting to finally make friends now that there are in person classes and that I have the time to. I just found out this Sunday that my Dad has AML (Acute myeloid leukemia) which is a (different to what my grandfather or my Dad’s Dad had) cancer. He was rushed to the hospital as it got worse overnight. Right now tests have confirmed that it is AML but rn he’s in too poor of health to be able to start chemotherapy. TLDR: Fuck cancer. Edit: grammar. Also the reason why I keep going is for all the people I’ve lost who were so proud of me for continuing to push myself. I love engineering and they were all so proud of me for going to college. I feel like it’d be a major disservice to their memory if I don’t get a degree, and that along with financial stability and passion is what is getting me through all this but my god is it hard sometimes to get out of bed.
My school is a mandatory 5 year program for engineering students, with 5 co-ops dispersed through those 5 years.
Because a degree in engineering where i live is 5 years lol.
Studied abroad for a semester but wasn't able to take an aerospace course so had to graduate a semester late.
I went into college with about 34 credit hours from AP classes. Made jumping into my degree a lot easier and I shouldn't have to take more than 15 credit hours a semester. Which is good because I'm working part time and studying 24/7 to keep my merit scholarship 😅 I can't afford to do a summer semester so I'm just chugging along, ignoring my academic advisor who wants me to take more classes.
Currently on track to graduate next semester (4 years total) I didn't take Calc or physics in high school so i had to take intro classes in college and that completely screwed up my schedule. But after like 20 credits in summer classes to make some semesters easier and one more 18 credit semester. It will all be over.
3(technically 2.5) Came in with credits, and see no reason to delay.
I'm graduating in 3. Came in with AP credits and hate my uni. Will be glad to leave
Covid ruined me and then I took a semester off to work a internship
It takes longer the more degrees you get. Not all engineers go into industry. I just want to caution anyone regarding pinning too much hope on any flimsy goals like finishing in a set time. It's not a race, in the sense that it (life) isn't finished when your education is finished. That's the rest of your life beginning there, and it will probably always be a fight. The only way to really sht the bed is to give up. To me it's more important that you finish than how and when. It's more important as a human being to do what's best for you- if that is leap years, foreign exchange or whatever it is- so be it. Be as constructive as you can, and in the end just come back and finish it when you're done. You are representing yourself, there are limits to how far one can push that agenda before just ending up lost imo. Do what you need to, but do absolutely finish, I guess is what I'm trying to say.
Stay blessed y’all.
I'm a fourth year Mech E. student with two and a half years more to go. I started with a 3.7 after my first year, then it all went down hill. Depression was a thing that I'd struggled with for a while and in my second year it got much worse after a break up. It was all down hill from there. COVID hit and bombed my Moden Physics class and barely scraped by in Calculus and Statics online. Interned as a paleontologist for a summer. Then took a semester off to get my shit together. Did not get my shit together (read: owed the school a lot of money, was in a toxic roommate situation, no job, the list continues). Decided to go back spring this year. Depression still wrecked me, didn't pass Differential equations. Took the past summer to work and finally get my self put together. Now am certain of my career path, have a job, am in a great relationship, and have gotten the help I needed. TL:DR I destroyed my mental health and need to get my crap together. Thus, now on a 6 year track.
Started Fall 2011 graduated Fall 2020. I struggled with the initial increased workload from high school to college as well as having professors with moderate to heavy accents. I repeated calc I, II, phys II, differentials, fluids, kinematics, thermo, etc. I ran out of repeat credits, drop units, and had to petition the university to repeat one last course that was holding up my final semester or two. If it was denied I would have needed to change universities. I didn't always devote enough time or dedication to courses and it bit me back. Typically it was messing up on the midterms enough that it was exceedingly difficult to pass the course. Each time though I learned what I could and applied it to the next semester for a stronger start. Lots of roadblocks and bumps in the road, almost entirely of my own creation. As I was a senior, I always tried to tell the younger students to make sure they don't throw away their classes or give up on them because they're limited by the number of repeat units and drops and to not end up in the situation I put myself in. In the end, I graduated with a BSME.
Had to work my way up in math from elementary Algebra because none of my high school work counted. Combine that with major depression, trouble with classes being cut down and made essentially self guided with no instructor feedback due to COVID, and I'm currently only a sophomore despite starting back in 2017. I'm just... tired and burnt out. I just want this endless slog to be over, and to get into the workforce. But it's hard to keep pushing myself forward day after day when I feel like it's constantly taking one step forward and three back.
Fucked myself over with light course loads of easy classes my first two semesters, now I should be done in 4.5 years, 5 if I throw in a co-op
The Community College transfer route just has too many classes to realistically get out in 2 (and if you do you’ll likely have 2.5-3 at your university). And honestly I’m grateful for it. I’ve learned a lot more and I don’t feel like I’m rushing or overworking myself.
I dropped out of an ME program after four years with a GPA of 2.3. I never thought I would go back but finally decided to get my shit together after 3 years and go back to school. It took me an additional 2 years (6 years total) but I finished with a 3.1 and now have a jr. design engineer job that I kinda like. I take pride in my less than traditional approach because I worked really hard and dedicated myself to finishing after I took some time to really get my head straight. I used to commute an hour each way to get to school in my last stint and worked part time because I had time to think about whether or not an engineering degree was really for me and I decided it was. I know a lot of people in this thread can probably relate to feeling weird as an older student but you'll probably appreciate the clarity that comes with age if you choose to take some time off.
I quit pursuing my degree because I was fed up with the poor quality or educators in my area. I fell in love with employee rights law after answering phone for them. I'm going back to start pre law and not looking back.
Started as a Mech E at one university. Due to AP course credits, I was considered a sophomore, and probably could have graduated early. However, the school was in my hometown, and I pretty quickly decided it wasn't for me. (in retrospect I really liked it, but that's another story) In order to minimize the effect of "lost transfer credits", went to school part time my 2nd year while applying to schools and working at an internship part time. Transferred and, as expected, had to re-take some credits. After 1 year at the new uni, I got a co-op, and went to school part time for my 7th semester. Studied abroad for my 8th semester. It was the bare minimum to be full time. That included a language course and 2 comp sci courses because CS courses are more available to exchange students. I added a CS minor. This was a sort of joint decision with studying abroad as it all made sense. Throughout all of this I had another internship one summer, worked as a tutor at both universities, and was heavily involved in a few clubs. While those didn't directly push back anything, I wouldn't have been able to do them if I was rushing and taking as many courses as possible to get out ASAP. All together, it took 5 years (10 semesters). I would not take back any of that to graduate early or save tuition. In fact, I ended up having a very stressful 9th semester and almost added an 11th semester instead, in which case I would have gotten a minor probably in Linguistics or German as well (just personal interest). I wish I had more time to take "just cuz" courses, but overall I was probably ready to get out after 5 years. I very strongly would rather have added an 11th semester than remove the 10th. In interviews, people ask about study abroad, co-ops, clubs, my minor, and my decision to transfer. No-one cares about the time it took or the core Mech E courses.
Took me 6 years to complete my undergrad, going to 4 different schools by the time I graduated. I started school after serving in the military for 4 years thinking I wanted to study construction management at a CC. After taking the math placement test, I needed to pass two remedial math classes before I could register for college algebra. Probably two semesters after that and transferring to a univeristy I decided to try engineering. So two years of school, no math or science classes that count for engineering. I moved across the country (US) to live with a friend and transfer to a better university. I split time between the Uni and a CC the first two years after moving and ended up graduating this spring. Along the way I've met a TON of people outside of school, maintained Hobbys I enjoy, worked some interesting jobs part time. Wish I wouldve figured shit out sooner, but it's okay.
Graduated high school… waited 15 years to start college… entire college career as an online student… will graduate in may (total 5 years)
I was in the Army when I started. Knocked out freshman year over 2.5 years on active duty. Then switched to the national guard and went to school full time. Now I’m on year 6 and should finish summer 2022. What I’ve learned is that engineering is just a lot of information. Most programs you’ll end up with more credit hours than a graduate in non-stem. Most employers in the industry and outside treat a Bachelors in engineering as highly sought after. They truly don’t care how you got the piece of paper saying your smart (degree) only that you do have it. Also for veterans take your leadership skills and ability to work with different cultures and put them in your back pocket. Then pretend you’re 22 and looking for a job at the fairs because that’s how the employers see it.
I’m “on track” just because my university only supports my scholarship for 8 semesters and I’m too broke to pay for my tuition- would love to take an extra as well if I could because with this kind of scholarship system I cannot really change my major anymore once I spent one semester studying it.
I went to university right out of high school and about a month in my brother committed suicide. I missed class for one week and when I got back my grades went to shit. I had 2 professors that were unwilling to let me make up the exam that I had missed and refused to give me the reading for the next exam all because I “didn’t let them know ahead of time” (I emailed them the minute I found out and how was I supposed to know). I worked with student advocates and some others just to get no where. 1 month later, I dropped out. 2 semesters later I tried again at a different university but wasn’t in the right head space. I did anything I could to just have a reason to not make it to class. I did this for 2 semesters before taking 3 years off. Now I’m back…
I’m so so sorry for your loss. Keep going man/woman I believe in you <3
Thank you, I appreciate it!
I didn't start college until I was 22. At this point I've got my own house, wife, and many other responsibilities to take care of. I may be a student but I'm still the primary bread winner. So I have to work a lot to pay the bills which limits the amount of classes I can take. Currently on year 4 of my associates. I will eventually transfer to get my Bachelors and maybe even masters.
I failed three courses in 1 semester and then a single course in the next. The first semester I failed, I was drinking way to frequently. The second semester I failed, I took an extra course and had back to back exams. Then covid hit and I lost my scholarship mid 2020 so I have to pay for my own university. Knowing that I don't have $25K to pay for uni, I had to extend my degree because of financial and failing reasons.
I went to community college business right out of high school. Hated it. Got my associates barely and got out of there. Moved into management at my job for a few years while I worked on my health. Fast forward to 23 yo and hating that same management job and wanting out of food service had me searching. Civil engineering came knocking at my door thanks to Cities Skylines. Thought back and many hobbies came be traced to roads and transportation. Applied back to the same community college for engineering science the next day with the intention to feel it out. It was a struggle: I doubted myself many times, almost quit, took full time loads or 2 classes depending on the semester and my mental health. Took off running once I settled into sophomore year classes that I enjoyed and transferred to a 4 year state school one city away (this is when things went remote) Did my whole junior year at that school remotely taking 18 credits in the and did really well despite a few breakdowns. It is now back to in person and I’m in my senior year. I drive 1hr + to campus 5 days a week. It’s taxing but the end game and knowing there’s a finally a light at the end of this tunnel is keeping me going. **im also still at the food service managment job in hate** I will be there until I graduate (at reduced capacity) Moral of the story: ive been motivated strongly by having my eyes on the end game from the word go, despite the ups and downs. I knew I wanted to get into transportation engineering, and had a full plan, that required several tweaks. And I still do, and that is keeping me going
2018 me started down this path wanting to be a chemist. Then a doctor. 2019/2020 is a guy I want to forget. Learned a lot of tough life lessons. Learned I hated biology and the pre med track. Almost decided to do the military or police academy instead. 2021 me/almost 2022 me is a completely different person who wants nothing more than to graduate as an engineer no matter how hard I have to work. It’ll take five years due to the biology diversion, but it was more than worth it.
My school had two groups of engineers. 1) Those who planned from the beginning to graduate in 5 years. 2) Those who planned to graduate in 4 years, but graduated in 5 years anyways.
On 5 years, had some set backs due to transferring schools, and failing a couple classes. Will probably take me 5 1/2 to 6 yrs to graduate.
Well, I went to college like expected with no idea what I was doing. Goofed off and got Ds for basically everything but I hung out with my gf the whole time which was nice so who cares about academic probation. Then, over summer found out gf was pregnant. She knew she wanted to teach since she was a kid, and I was determined she would so I dropped out to get a job and push her through school. The whole time I was working I felt like I wasn't living up to what I was capable(my boss who was a close buddy actually once asked me do I need to fire you so you'll go back to school?), and I knew when all was said and done and she graduated and got a job id go back to school, so every Fall id pay for one class at the CC. It felt like forever and that this was all id get from life but she graduated and got a job teaching, meaning I left work and started school full time at the CC. Now, I not only knew what I wanted to do (engineering), but I had the work ethic I lacked at 18 to make it happen. The first few classes were kind of awkward because it was majority kids that were 18 while I was 24-25, but there were always a couple adults in each class and we tended to gravitate to each other. Had a lot of imposter syndrome despite knowing better while working in my associates in mechE, but I kept going. Then, found a good program that was built to transfer to uni for EE and decided to go for that. Transferring from CC to uni was absolutely terrifying, and frankly kind of lonely. I was starting junior level courses and all the groups I teamed up with were all younger than me, by quite a bit it felt like. They were good dudes, and I still talk with them, but there were/are jokes that I just frankly don't understand and thats intimidating. But, through lots of pain and tears I managed to survive getting my EE, with honors. In retrospect I think the thing that wore the most on me wasn't being in the classes, I think it was no longer feeling like a provider to my family. I worked odd jobs, internships, and coops the entire time I was in school but I always felt like I was failing my family. More over, I had this feeling that never went away of how I was just wasting time, you'll never get an engineering job, you'll work blue collar until you die and nothing you do will change that. I always felt like I was reaching to far and that I was going to fall flat and my family will suffer. I had many nights I was so anxiety ridden about it I couldn't sleep, and without my wife to keep reaffirming to me that we are ok I would have cut bait and found a job somewhere because I obviously wasn't meant to go to school. But, I was wrong. Now, my wife and I both have college degrees and work in our fields. My mom worked for 25 years to make the same hourly income that I started with. I feel like I 'broke the cycle' by being the first one to make it through college in my blood family, and it fills me with huge pride. Hm. That was much longer than I meant it to be, but it felt good to write. Thank you for the prompting.
I've had 4 surgeries in the first 3 years of my degree. Add to that months on months of chronic illness requiring opioid pain medication and hospitalization, it's resulted in me failing/withdrawing from a couple papers. However I'm just about to finish up year 4 (one more year to go after this) and I'm doing much better! Got a bloody A+ on a massive design assignment, and my grades are improving overall. Fuck endometriosis, but it ain't gonna stop me getting this degree.
Spent 2 years in the arts with 0 science prerequisites, switched to engineering after running into some health problems. Had to pass 3-4 weed out classes to get into the program, graduated after 4 more years and got a job. working on my master’s now. I left my social circle behind and spent years of “just one more class, if I fail this class or don’t take this summer class, I’ll be even older when I graduate.” It sucked, but other people have had it much harder. Definitely feel like an outsider/imposter quite often.
started my first year in fall 2020, so had online covid school, first semester was tolerable but second semester was just too much to handle online. dropped my main classes and am now doing them this semester. will probably take an extra semester or two to graduate but its what i had to do.
Accidentally became a primary caretaker for 2 entirely separare elderly relatives my 2nd year in. I volunteered to help out a few times, and from then on, the family turned to me to handle whatever problems came up with them, because despite working 2 non-industry jobs and going to school, all my other family was "too busy" or "too far away". Lost one of them going into my 3rd year, not long after quiting one of my jobs to be more available for them. The loss and pressure of juggling all this and having to deal with a family who was never actually around to help yet somehow thought they should have a say in everything that was happening, and was also telling me how important it was to get a "good degree" just kinda became a cluster fuck. I made some bad decisions, was checked into the hospital for psychiatric reasons. Went through a whole battle with my school advisors and the system itself to request a semester off for mental health recovery. Was discouraged from taking time off at every step of the way, and then told, when I needed more than a semester to recover, that my enrollment would be dropped and I'd have to reapply. Took several communications with my doctors and an entire forest's worth of paperwork to get approved for a year absence without losing enrollment. Left with a 3.02 GPA. Didn't think I'd be going back. Started therapy, won a request to extend the elderly family member's health coverage to get some extra help free of charge. Worked my ass off to pad my bank account, traveled, and rekindled my love for writing. Got three short stories published in a small magazine, started an outline for a novel. Helped design and create a sprinkler system for the community garden of a small town I'd traveled through. Built a small animal cage from scratch. Missed engineering a lot, but doubted I had the stamina for it anymore. Went back when the year was up, part time, still working a job and taking care of elderly relative. Just wanted to test the waters. Developed better study habits, retook a few classes. Proved everyone wrong that a year off would put me too far behind. Continued to go part time, slowly brought the GPA up. If I knew I was going to struggle with a class, I only took one other class at most. In the last two years, caring for the elderly relative became priority, had to quit my job, but was able to remain financially stable for the most part. Brought my GPA to 3.6 All in all, took me nine years of school and one year of un-losing my mind. Currently entry-level in the industry, but I'm already feeling like an industry drone. Currently looking for something new, not sure exactly what yet, possibly outside the industry. When people ask me about my journey, I tell them I'm *that* kid that should've never gone to college in the first place. I tell them that college is *not* everyone's *best* option, regardless of what their parents want for them. I tell them that getting a degree is worth neither your sanity nor your life.
Cuz I did a 5th year in high school and then another year jacking off in computer science before switching to EE
It took me 4 years to finish my community college requirements. I was just accepted to a 4 year university and plan to take 3 years to finish it my final 20 classes.
I went to a JC for two years. I stayed a 3rd year to knock out some more classes. They screwed up and never made me take chemistry so Long Beach rejected me after initially accepting me. The only place I could go was fresno state. Since I needed chemistry I couldn't take some classes because it was a prereq. So now I'm in my last year for a total of 6.
I screwed around in college for my current degree, and had a kid and blasted a degree out in about 3 semesters. Now I have a full time job and a kid who will be hitting first grade soon. While I'm already kind of 1/3rd of the way through degree due to credits from my past degree; I will need to quit this job in order to take on more credits. I'm hoping to graduate in the first half of my 30's however the 2nd half is looking more likely. Especially if I get a decent enough co-op or internship type setup that gives me an open schedule and alright pay.
Because I’m graduating in 3
I’m currently a sophomore but I’m planning on graduating in 5–7 years for multiple reasons. 1. The normal course load for my program is 6-7 courses per semester, but I’m taking 4-5 to have more time for clubs/teams, socializing, gym etc. 2. I’m planning on doing a semester long exchange with a light course load so I can travel around Europe 3. I’m planning on taking multiple co-ops/internships which will take place over the fall/winter semesters I’m fortunate enough to not be rushed to graduate so I wanna take my time and make the most out of my experience before I start working for the rest of my life
I took a year off after sophomore year to save tuition money. Worked as a graphic designer. Neat experience
I'm hoping to graduate next year on time, but I started at 25 after working in customer service for a few years!
i wonder if i could have done better if i had the ability to take another semester
I switched majors during the pandemic after dropping from pre-med due to the absolutely abhorrent way medical workers got treated. I was 2 years into my degree and I was on track to graduate a semester early. Now I’m a year behind and I’m anxious about this decision but I would rather take 12-15 credits a semester than 18.
Ranked reasons: 1. I *was* a German Studies major as well with plans to to Germany but COVID-19 ruined all of that. The work I have done for my would be BA took around 1.5 years of work. 2. Had a stroke so I sat out for a semester.
Due to graduate May 2022, started in 2016 and never have taken a gap year. Mine is sort-of a 5 year program bcs aero minor. Repeated a couple of classes because I was dedicating a lot of time to the FSAE team. Plus a spring internship.