# Stuck in the college maze (typical engineer story)



## Introvert89 (Apr 25, 2011)

I hope I get the title of the thread correct, I'm not native English speaker lol. Anyway, back to the point. I want to rant that I feel stuck and like I failed in my college education. This year I'll be 23 and I will have something over half of the total exams passed. 

It's not a fact I should be proud of knowing that my generation is going to graduate in 5-6 months. However, I'm very sure only little % of those people who enrolled in college 4 years ago (including me) will graduate in 4 years. I think a lot of them will go additional 1 to 2 years most (like me). It's a tough college. Computer Science isn't something you want to mess with. You are being punished for the smallest mistake on exam and the professors fail you on exam just to make your life harder. 

The field of study is really huge and it's not just some text that you need to learn, there are tons of practical problems (which require lots of time) and even if you solve many of them, you can still be given a problem that will make you think for the solution for half of the exam time.  Those studying engineering will understand me.

This is just probably a rant post but I can't take it anymore, I ask myself will I ever see the light at the end of the tunnel? Comparing myself to the high school years when I was one of the best students, now I'm not even half the man I used to be. It's not that I don't try hard, it's the stupid college that is really hard and so many students complain. 

What age do you think is "normal" for graduating from college? Does that depend on the type of college? As things are going now, I'm going to graduate during my 24th year of life, several months before turning 25. F u c k! That's a lot of time, almost 1/3 of my life I'll spend in education! 

I hope to get some replies and feedback from "tortured" students like me.


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## Propaganda (Oct 26, 2010)

About the age thing, I am 29 and currently working on completing just an AS. I won't have a MA for five years from where I stand now. (engineering program) Does this bother me? Not in itself, the only thing that bothers me is that most the girls around me are too young for my tastes.


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## uffie (May 11, 2010)

I'll be roughly the same age as when you graduate as when I graduate. I spend hours a day studying as well. It does suck, but it is something I know I have to do. My biggest issue with school, is the anxiety part. I feel like i'd do so much better if I wasn't always so socially anxious. I think 25 isn't that old. I look at age as in how well of shape you are in. There are plenty of 22 yr olds that are fat and eat completely unhealthy.


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## tribute311 (Apr 8, 2008)

I did civil engineering. I graduated in four years, but I got poor grades. My GPA was about 2.5, which is not very good. Like you, I was a top student in high school. So I can relate to you in that sense: going from being a good high school student to a struggling college student. It is tough now for me. I have been out of school now for half a year and still can't find a job. I have to apply to graduate school now, but who knows if I can get it in with my low grades. 

Anyways, good luck to you.


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## sherbert (Jun 24, 2005)

What's another few years really? You may feel self-conscious, but I would be money that if you asked a few people they would neither know nor care. I've met several people well into their forties that are tackling school for various reasons. One man was pushing sixty and was a pretty successful businessman. He just wanted to finish his degree. Just keep chipping away at it. I mean, what else is there to do?


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## biggame (Apr 28, 2011)

Do they still teach Assembler language in college?


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## sansd (Mar 22, 2006)

I've spent almost 45% of my life so far in college and still don't have a degree. I don't think it's at all unusual to not graduate until age 24 or 25, at least in the US. Do you think it's going to make much difference to you that you spent a couple of extra years in college when you look back on it twenty years from now?


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## PharmaPhunk (Jan 25, 2012)

biggame said:


> Do they still teach Assembler language in college?


EE students will definitely take it. Most CS programs have a class or two on it as well. It's an important subject so I don't see why any CS program wouldn't include it the curriculum.


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