- #1
RichardParker
- 23
- 0
Summary:
I'm a mechanical engineering student from a developing country who wants to pursue an academic career in physics. However, there are several obstacles such as financial dependence, conflicts of interest with family members, and the probability of doing undergraduate education in mechanical engineering vs physics, among others. I need your advice on the situation.
Background:
Right now I'm interested in physics (my high school average in physics was 96/100) as well as chemistry, math, and philosophy. However, I tend to perform poorly on other subjects so I never got into my first choice of university.
I got a accepted in a biology program when I was 16. I found the coursework very boring, different from what high school biology made me imagine, and we don't have a laboratory. After a year I decided to change major.
My parents forced me to take engineering, telling me that everything had been discovered and that there is no point in studying the sciences further. My idealism wouldn't take me anywhere, he says, and my duty is to pay for my younger sibling's education. My father has been saying that I was just wasting his money; I thought I'd get a better chance on repaying him with an engineering degree. So I switched... and regretted doing so.
I'm about to finish my first yr in mech. engineering and I can't imagine how the next years would be. It's ugly here. The welding, the combustion engines, the people, the professors who refuse to acknowledge that theirs is not the only mind that works in the classroom, the smell... It's just not what I'd like to spend my 5 yrs on. I think my mind is tunneled to thinking that I'm a science guy. I like it that way. It's something that I can enjoy and be curious/inquiring about and do it for the sake of doing it.
My GPA is fairly high, I'm at the top of my class in BS Biology as well as now in ME, and I'm eligible for transfer to a research university (*). It's the best university in the country and also acknowledge internationally (i.e. some undergrads of the physics program are doing their PhD work at world-class universities like Princeton, MIT, Purdue, etc.)
Problems:
1. The physics program that I would be transferring to is a 5-year program. That means 7 years in undergrad, 2 yrs of my father's money wasted, and not fulfilling my utilitarian duty to the family.
2. My parents will be doing the paying, I can't work, there isn't work available for youngsters like me in this country. It will be a problem bringing it up to my parents. One time I suggested my disinterest in engineering, they said ugly words.
3. If I continue my degree in ME, I would never have a chance to study abroad. Though I still would have the chance to do doctoral work at *. Given I pursue doctoral work at *, it would be pointless/a waste of time to study ME courses since I wouldn't use it later. And I wouldn't be equally prepared for research work as other BSc Physics students.
4. I haven't taken any lecture class on engineering so I don't know if its interesting or not. They don't allow us to take some until 3rd year. I've been taking an automotive and refrigeration technology lab class since last sem, it's tedious. Thanks so much for the patience to read this far! :shy:
I'm a mechanical engineering student from a developing country who wants to pursue an academic career in physics. However, there are several obstacles such as financial dependence, conflicts of interest with family members, and the probability of doing undergraduate education in mechanical engineering vs physics, among others. I need your advice on the situation.
Background:
Right now I'm interested in physics (my high school average in physics was 96/100) as well as chemistry, math, and philosophy. However, I tend to perform poorly on other subjects so I never got into my first choice of university.
I got a accepted in a biology program when I was 16. I found the coursework very boring, different from what high school biology made me imagine, and we don't have a laboratory. After a year I decided to change major.
My parents forced me to take engineering, telling me that everything had been discovered and that there is no point in studying the sciences further. My idealism wouldn't take me anywhere, he says, and my duty is to pay for my younger sibling's education. My father has been saying that I was just wasting his money; I thought I'd get a better chance on repaying him with an engineering degree. So I switched... and regretted doing so.
I'm about to finish my first yr in mech. engineering and I can't imagine how the next years would be. It's ugly here. The welding, the combustion engines, the people, the professors who refuse to acknowledge that theirs is not the only mind that works in the classroom, the smell... It's just not what I'd like to spend my 5 yrs on. I think my mind is tunneled to thinking that I'm a science guy. I like it that way. It's something that I can enjoy and be curious/inquiring about and do it for the sake of doing it.
My GPA is fairly high, I'm at the top of my class in BS Biology as well as now in ME, and I'm eligible for transfer to a research university (*). It's the best university in the country and also acknowledge internationally (i.e. some undergrads of the physics program are doing their PhD work at world-class universities like Princeton, MIT, Purdue, etc.)
Problems:
1. The physics program that I would be transferring to is a 5-year program. That means 7 years in undergrad, 2 yrs of my father's money wasted, and not fulfilling my utilitarian duty to the family.
2. My parents will be doing the paying, I can't work, there isn't work available for youngsters like me in this country. It will be a problem bringing it up to my parents. One time I suggested my disinterest in engineering, they said ugly words.
3. If I continue my degree in ME, I would never have a chance to study abroad. Though I still would have the chance to do doctoral work at *. Given I pursue doctoral work at *, it would be pointless/a waste of time to study ME courses since I wouldn't use it later. And I wouldn't be equally prepared for research work as other BSc Physics students.
4. I haven't taken any lecture class on engineering so I don't know if its interesting or not. They don't allow us to take some until 3rd year. I've been taking an automotive and refrigeration technology lab class since last sem, it's tedious. Thanks so much for the patience to read this far! :shy:
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