College Fever

[Amelius]

I'm somewhat over halfway through with my undergraduate education(I'm majoring in electrical engineering and have a minor in philosophy). However, throughout my college experience I've been very depressed. Most of the experience has felt like merely going through the motions; I look around me and all I see are people who don't appreciate the pursuit of knowledge as an end, rather they treat it as some loathsome burden which they can't wait to get rid off. I've also suffered from OCD and paranoia which have made my learning experience very bad at college.(I used to be top of my class in high-school) When I see other people nagging about how they loath some upcoming exam, I start feeling angry and wish I were in their place with some peace of mind because I sometimes feel like most students don't deserve the brains they've been given by the millions of years of evolution.My question boils down to this: How should I approach my learning experience? On one hand, I can view it as something to get over with and aim to get good grades, without necessarily learning anything of value.(There are tons of people I know who just solve previous exams and do well on exams without understanding the essence of the material). But with this approach, I get tempted to slack off since I would not be as engaged. Also, this lack of interest and curiosity inevitably permeate to other parts in my life. For example, call this weird but every time I get into this mode, I start taking everything else less seriously(like my atheism, anarchism, veganism,...) and just non-chalantly say "Fuck it!"On the other hand, I could approach the learning experience from the perspective of the love to learn(and of course with the purpose of securing a potential job in the market), yet I have seen that people who do this do not do so well with grades since the way the educational system is is that it rewards people who practice to take exams and not to actually learn anything.(...and the college I go to is considered to be one of the best in the Middle-East...pfft)What do you think? Any type of feedback would be appreciated; I apologize if the question is somewhat ambiguous.

[wdiaz03]

My two cents, Take advantage to projects that could show future employers that you have experience in your field. In my opinion 90% of the classes I took had no actual value in my job other than to exercise the brain. 10% or less of the stuff I studied had actual value for employment.

 

So take the projects seriously and try to get involved in aspects of the project that you can later talk about in interviews. One too many students sit back and let other do the group projects or do the easy parts. For example say you had a project to implement a stepper motor controller, be involved in all aspects of the project and from the circuit design to the programming. and this will be something you can put on your resume in the future.

 

Remember you can coast by if you like, but the consequences would be a resume that doesn't stand out or an job interview where employers are not impressed.

 

The aim of your education should be at providing the most possible value for your labor assuming you will be working for someone.

[Panoptic]

There have been multiple topics just like this one. I started one just like this about 2 months ago. I had been electrical engineering at my college for 3 years. I started my 4th year a few months ago and I came on here. Here is my topic. It sums up how I was feeling.

 

Since I started that topic, I have made a bunch of important decisions. Even though I was very stressed out about the way school was going for me my best option was to stay in school. I ended up switching majors to systems engineering which has made my life much easier. All of the other engineering fields dismiss it as the "easy" engineering field, but it turns out that I enjoy the material much more. You do not have to switch majors to get the most out of school though.

 

Here is what I did to get myself back on track:

First I switched majors and got my classes all figured out

I then sat down with myself and thought about the things I need to improve on the most

I realized that I had no project experience, which is the #1 thing employers look at

I also realized that I had no connections/college buddies

 

So I laid out the last two years of my college career on paper and wrote down what I was going to focus on each semester. My main goals for this year are to get some sort of project experience in my area of interest, and to network as much as possible. This includes joining clubs in the field you want to work in which will allow you to network and get project experience. My plan next year is to continue to get more project experience and also start applying for jobs before I graduate. This plan is great because I used to put huge expectations on myself such as join all of the clubs, get all A's, get tons of new friends. I of course would fail at one thing and the entire plan would collapse and this caused me to procrastinate. This plan gives me 2 simple tasks for the entire year aimed at strengthening my weakest points.

 

I understand the apathy thing. It is so difficult to find effort to put into other parts of your life that are important to you when school sucks that effort and motivation out of you. Also, I feel like in college, you realize how much you want to do with your life and attempt to do it all at once and fail. This is what I did. I realized that you cannot change your entire life that quickly. You really need to simplify the things you want to do to make them easier for you to perform, and work at them slowly until you get better.

 

Motivation is key. What I do is imagine myself taking that last final exam of my college life and walking out the door screaming with excitement. I then play with the time after in my head. What would I do that day after the last final? What would be the first things I do after the graduation ceremony? Your life will be waiting to be written out without school in the way. You can write your life out now as well, but you must factor in school. I am not saying to feel like a slave until you graduate, but ask yourself what you can improve on and how you can best use your time in your last years of college because in this world that degree will only help you, especially if you used your time in school wisely.

[Hugh Akston]

Taking things less seriously, is stated as a problem. Perhaps that is the solution to your depression. When I was young I was a serious dickhead too.

[LovePrevails]

suck up as much value as you can from being in the education system, squeeze it like a lemon

get student discounts, get free counselling, join student societies that match your interest and get involved with whatever those are theatre, sport, music, wine tasting lol whatever student societies take your interest get involved because when you're out of there you won't as easily or cheaply have access to groups of time rich people with similar interests

i went to uni and started writing plays after getting involved in the theatre society ok there was a lot of hoop jumping and crap i had to do but I got something of value because i used the resources on offer to students