Schools Thinking of giving up on college

[Tyrion101]

Everything is conspiring against my ever attaining a degree, even an associates. I'm struggling to work a part time job and do class, and do homework even with one class. I just can't do it. Also things keep popping up that require me to miss whole semesters, I'm 34 and will be 50 by the time I graduate at this rate. I can't give up the job, so I guess the class has to go. Trouble is I don't see any way to improve my current situation without some sort of degree. I don't want to work a job anymore that's never going to amount to anything. Yet that's all I'll get if I'm ever able to find anything it's just going to be the same but with more hours. I feel lost and hopeless. Can anyone help me?

 

[jedishrfu]

What degree are you shooting for?

Some undergrad degrees can be done online. and some graduate degrees support weekend classes.

 

[Tyrion101]

This class is not offered online at my school. The homework is, but I don't want to keep having to ask for extensions. Electrical engineering.

 

[jedishrfu]

WHat about some other school? and you still haven't said the degree.

 

[gleem]

Perhaps you are going in the wrong direction. What are your interests? What are your current commitments e.g.. family. ? What was your current plan?

 

[Tyrion101]

I'd have to go through all the prerequisites again, and it's just not worth it. I just know no matter where I go they're not going to accept the grades I did here because that's just my story. It won't matter that this school is transferable or not. Electrical engineering.

 

[jedishrfu]

Since you want to stay at the same school, then you must do something about the job. Are they paying for your courses?

 

[Evo]

Sounds like you've already given up. I don't know what you expect us tell you other than what has been suggested. Sounds like you had bad grades, so you'd need to start over, if that's even possible. There are many schools that offer online electrical engineering courses.

 

[Tyrion101]

Trouble is there isn't really anything here at this school that interests me, I chose EE because it sounded interesting and I'd be able to get a job with a lower degree. What's killing me is the pure amount of homework my professor is giving me. He said at one point he believes that homework should take 6 hours outside of class to do. It generally takes me an entire week of doing nothing else. Is this overkill for a trig class?

 

[gleem]

Is electrical engineering related to your current job or do you find it particularly interesting or does it just seem to you as a way to go?

 

[gleem]

A whole week for a trig assignment is way too much time. Perhaps math intensive subject are not your strength.

 

[Tyrion101]

Math is not my strength but I need it for EE, so I'm in a hard place. I wouldn't mind a language degree of some sort, but they don't offer that here. Besides I probably wouldn't get a decent job with it either. This is a community college and I had intended on getting what I needed to transfer to a better school. Why I'm worried about transferring anyplace is that when I first tried college I nearly failed out and just quit for a very long time. I'm worried they will see that, rather than the fact that until now (this go around) I've made A's or Bs in every class I've taken. I've actually got a GPA above 3 now, when I started back apparently they kept my old GPA, which was at 2. something.

 

[gleem]

Look, You need to believe in yourself. No confidence and you cannot take the first step. You have been out of school for a long time and you have lost some of the discipline for studying that you once had. You may have forgotten how to study. You need to get back into that groove sort of like getting into shape before you take up a specific sport.

 

[Tyrion101]

You're right about the confidence thing, I've never really had very much to begin with, how do I gain it with a subject that obviously isn't my best?

 

[gleem]

You gain confidence with success. So you go to your strengths or at least familiar subjects with which you feel comfortable.

 

[Almeisan]

Well, maybe you are setting yourself up for failure, doing a part-time job and a full-time study alongside whatever other responsibilities you are taking on.

I don't know what advice you are asking for, but if the study load is too great, the obvious next step is to give up on the part-time job. If when forced to decide between your degree and your job, you pick your job, why invest in the study you are doing anyway?

You say you have A's and B's and GPA is 3 (donno if that is high, if I translate to 1 to 10 scale it seems high), so what is the problem? You are studying parttime and forgetting stuff faster than you are learning new material, making it all take too long?

 

[Tyrion101]

My GPA before this class was a 3.2 or 3 I think it's out of 4 . I don't want a degree or job just because, I'd like to be interested in it. I'd also like to have a reasonable salary.

 

[gleem]

In any case you have to match your skills with your goals. Interest is an important element for success for most people. Have you considered an Associate degree or certification program in some electrical/electronic subfield.

 

[Tyrion101]

I dunno, my real interest is in language interpretation, this community college only offers what seems to be mostly vocational type job degrees. I had hoped to combine my love of language and EE somehow.

 

[Tyrion101]

I just reread what you wrote, and I'm working for an AS in EE.

 

[Almeisan]

Wait, you don't like EE/don't want a job in EE?

A full-time study should take about 40 hours a week, less for better students and less for better students.
If you are spending 60 hours a week in total studying, something is wrong.

 

[Tyrion101]

I want a job in EE, I'm just saying that I'd rather have one as some sort of interpreter.

 

[gleem]

Combining EE and language to me seems a stretch. However a language especially Arabic and Far Eastern languages are very important today especially in business and social programs. How are you with people? Do any social sciences seem attractive how about health care?

 

[Tyrion101]

I spent my childhood in hospitals and prefer avoiding them, I seem to do ok with those I've communicated with, and do not know about actual interpretation I've never been in a situation to do it. I'm going to Italy next year, and may get a chance to try it out with who's going with me. My language interests tend to be Asian in origin, though circumstance seems to bring me back to European ones. I've not looked into social sciences, or how I could combine them and language.

 

[russ_watters]

I'm not understanding the math here: you have one class plus six hours of homework and a part time job...so, what are you doing for the other 50 waking-hours each week instead of taking 4 more classes?

 

[symbolipoint]

I dunno, my real interest is in language interpretation, this community college only offers what seems to be mostly vocational type job degrees. I had hoped to combine my love of language and EE somehow.

I want a job in EE, I'm just saying that I'd rather have one as some sort of interpreter.

I spent my childhood in hospitals and prefer avoiding them, I seem to do ok with those I've communicated with, and do not know about actual interpretation I've never been in a situation to do it. I'm going to Italy next year, and may get a chance to try it out with who's going with me. My language interests tend to be Asian in origin, though circumstance seems to bring me back to European ones. I've not looked into social sciences, or how I could combine them and language.

I'm not understanding the math here: you have one class plus six hours of homework and a part time job...so, what are you doing for the other 50 waking-hours each week instead of taking 4 more classes?

So up to now you are avoiding what could be your very important and strong interest. Have you thought honestly about change in major field? LANGUAGES or some one or two languages for either (a) Interpretation, (b) Translation, (c) Teaching the target language or languages, or (d) Teaching English As A Second Language? Would you be much much better dealing in a language than in getting nowhere chasing electrical engineering? Langauge study although hard, is usually easier to get grades of "A". Do you believe you may have better talent in learning (and studying) languages and culture? ESL and TESOL are still very big and important field(s).

 

[Tyrion101]

I've been told that unless I'm interested in teaching there isn't much of a job opportunity for someone like me. I'm not interested in teaching, so I got to find something else. I'd love to be an interpreter but if it's not going to pay the bills then why would I do it? I enjoy language, and culture learning but as I said before unless I can find some way of paying the bills with it that doesn't involve a classroom, (or a hospital) then I'd just rather do something else.

 

[symbolipoint]

I've been told that unless I'm interested in teaching there isn't much of a job opportunity for someone like me. I'm not interested in teaching, so I got to find something else. I'd love to be an interpreter but if it's not going to pay the bills then why would I do it? I enjoy language, and culture learning but as I said before unless I can find some way of paying the bills with it that doesn't involve a classroom, (or a hospital) then I'd just rather do something else.

You wanted to combine scientific or engineering education with languages. WRITER! Software documentation, translation to or from human languages; instruction or user manuals. TECHNICIAN? Assisting communication between workers and employees where some at the company or site come from a different language background. RETAIL WORKER(probably not your interest)! Customers in consumer electronics retail shops often have different language background than the English language and people who are fluent in their languages are very valuable.

 

[Tyrion101]

I have been intentionally saying interpretation which is between two individuals who do not speak the same language, translation is what you describe, I'd rather work with humans than a dictionary. I am not a writer.

 

[dipole]

For someone who feels like he's out of options, you sure are picky when it comes to reasonable suggestions. Ever consider your attitude is part of the problem?

 

[Tyrion101]

I'm not understanding the math here: you have one class plus six hours of homework and a part time job...so, what are you doing for the other 50 waking-hours each week instead of taking 4 more classes?

My "part time job" more or less at times feels like a full time one, I had two months where it was every weekend 8 hours most days, 12 a couple in a row, plus on top of that someone volunteered me for a few things I couldn't get out of. Lately though it's more normal, I literally spend most of my time focusing on this one class, even when I'm not doing homework I'm worrying or studying. If I could figure out a way to just transfer to someplace where I could take a degree I wanted I'm all for it. I'm open to the idea of being an interpreter if I can pay the bills with it. It's just that thing seem pretty bleak at the moment, I wish I could be faster at comprehending math.

 

[symbolipoint]

You are employed. Stay employed. School is not so urgent. Find out what kind and amount of Mathematics will be necessary for an undergraduate program, and complete that only; and change your major field choice, UNLESS you know exactly what job and career you want in science or engineering. The suggestion to switch to a language education and career is because you are interested in that and are possibly more talented in that area. Earlier, you discussed having dyslexia, so how this affects your career choices is not clear.

If you were to become an interpreter, you would still need to write a significant amount; if you were to be a translator (not what you seem to want), you would naturally need to write as a big feature of the work. The reason for the suggestion of ESL or TESOL teacher is because (1) you are a people person, able to communicate, (2) good job-finding possibilities both into public schools and into private schools. You might very well be able to teach well. You on your own are the person to explore this idea and decide how you relate to it; learning to teach language (or being taught how to teach) might contain many details but is not entirely difficult to do. Reject the teaching idea ONLY if you know you are not a people-person and do not like helping people to learn. If you are worried because of not being comfortable preparing and giving speeches, be aware that YOU prepare a plan to follow in order to present and deliver lessons. Basically, you design a plan and then you follow your plan.

 

[Tyrion101]

Maybe I should explain what my plans were in the beginning. I was hoping to get the lowest degree that I needed for finding a decent job, then pick up shop and move to Europe, preferably some spot that is safe and I'd come in contact regularly with the languages I'm either studying or know. It's my understanding that you can't just move to another country with the main reason being: learn the language. French is my best language at present, as I use it most often. I'm highly interested in aircraft (or spacecraft like satellites) I am also interested in astronomy, and you may notice that all of these require mathematics. I'm going to tough out this semester and see what the end is, but I would like to ask is my plan at all flawed?

 

[lisab]

Trouble is there isn't really anything here at this school that interests me, I chose EE because it sounded interesting and I'd be able to get a job with a lower degree. What's killing me is the pure amount of homework my professor is giving me. He said at one point he believes that homework should take 6 hours outside of class to do. It generally takes me an entire week of doing nothing else. Is this overkill for a trig class?

How do you spend your study time - do you read and re-read the chapter? Or do you work on the problems? Or something else?

 

[CalcNerd]

Look into Thomas Edison State College in Trenton, NJ. This is a state college that has a distance learning and online program that offers a degree in Electrical Engineering Technology. It HAS no upper limit of transfer credits unlike most colleges who cap off their incoming transfer credits at 64 ie you might be able to transfer 90 or more semester credits.

An Engineering Technology major is not nearly as math intensive as a regular Engineering degree which may also help you complete your studies. They have a couple of ways to pay for your courses and they accept other state accredited courses to transfer even after you are enrolled. And some of their enrollment schemes can actually be comparable to instate tuition.

Do I consider Thomas Edison State College to be a top tier school? No, but it can be as good as YOU make it. ie you are the one taking the class and learning the material. Once you graduate, you represent the school. However good or bad your own education is, is dependent more on yourself than the school. What classes, how much you learn, and where you take the classes are on you.

Check this school out, it is oriented towards the older non-traditional student such as yourself. They will look over your transcripts for modest fee and tell you where you are really at. IT is NOT a diploma mill, unlike many other private programs, it is a state funded college with a real campus as well!

 

[Tyrion101]

Would I get the same job if it was ET vs E? My study time is either homework, reading how to do homework or seeking outside help with things I don't understand.

 

[Travis_King]

You need a plan, not a degree.

 

[CalcNerd]

Would I get the same job if it was ET vs E? My study time is either homework, reading how to do homework or seeking outside help with things I don't understand.

Maybe. Maybe not. That depends upon how good of a student you are. Your knowledge will show when you interview for that next job, if you study.
The reality is, an Eng Tech degree IS easier to obtain than an Engineering degree. However, if you cannot get ready access to math when you need it, you should certainly give the Eng Tech degree consideration.

My own boss is an Electrical Engineering Technology major. He is a smart guy and the company has promoted him quite quickly (and it is a midsized engineering firm). However, I suspect he is the exception. Engineering Technology majors generally do NOT have to take the difficult math courses, and trigonometry or pre-calc is usually sufficient for their degree. Their course work often includes many of the same classes, but all will be non-calculus based. The degree is focused more on the practical aspects of the design vs theoretical issues. He is compensating for this by being enrolled in a Masters of EEng program (and over half way through). This type of education will dispel any issues of his theoretical background.

However, you will be at a handicap vs having an engineering degree. Not sure what your state board of engineers requirements are for a licensed engineer, but these rules kind of spell out what the industry feels about an Engineering versus an Engineering Technology degree.

In my state an Engineer with an Engineering degree needs to only wait 4 years before being allowed to take a PE exam. With an Engineering Technology degree, the engineer has to wait 8 years before he gets to take that same PE exam.

But, you will be allowed to take the PE exam, it is just that you will need more experience to compensate for the lack of advance theoretical study you will not get as an Eng Tech major.

 

[Tyrion101]

Is it possible to get hired by an international firm and request overseas work?