Major Questions

Unfortunately, because I didn’t realize that this assignment was assigned until Monday and because of a Tuesday on which I had commitments from 9:30 A.M. to 9:30 P.M., I was unable to schedule or complete all of the interviews. Earlier, though, in talking to my major advisor and looking forward to my future at tech, I am pleased with my future as an EE, and I am ready to schedule for next semester and know the path I need to take. However, I was unable to speak with an older student or a professor. I chose my major because I have always been interested in science and invention. In particular I want to be a part of the advance of technology. As such, I went to engineering camps and did a good deal of research on my own with two different potential end goals: nanotechnology and quantum computing. Both of these fields fascinate me and I would be satisfied being involved in either. Because I know where I want to end up, all I had to choose was a major that would route to that end. I chose Electrical Engineering because I talked to multiple advisors and others in the EE field and learned from them that EE was one of the many routes to nanotechnology. At the engineering camps I’ve been to I found that I enjoyed toying with computer hardware and soldering things, so that additionally pushed me towards EE since EE and computer engineering are very closely related. I feel confident about the major I’ve chosen, though that may change next semester when I take my first actual EE courses and get a taste of what the subject is actually like. If I were to change my major I would likely pursue materials science engineering. I didn’t enjoy chemistry very much in high school but I believe that that was mostly due to the teacher, so I would be willing to try again. The things accomplished by MSE are very interesting and if I weren’t trying to get involved in nanotech or quantum computing I would definitely be working with the various types of materials.

Mid-Term Progress

On a scale of 1 to 100 I would say my progress thus far this semester is around an 85. I have been doing fairly well in my classes, but the amount of homework I have been doing is not sufficient to maintain my current averages. Luckily, I am fully aware that I need to increase the amount of work I've been doing, and I will do so in the coming weeks to ensure that my grades do not suffer. As it is, I've been spending too much time socializing and not enough time doing actual homework. The most difficult thing to adjust to academically has been the expectation that you learn and understand on your own rather than having the teacher spell out how to do a problem for you. You are expected to spend your own time as opposed to class time learning and understanding concepts, which was difficult for me to adapt to. Socially, it has been difficult for me having friends around living in close proximity. At home, I would have plenty of time alone to peacefully complete my work with free time to spare. Here, however, I find it hard to turn down enjoyable opportunities to do work instead, and I end up procrastinating longer than I should. Particularly in CS 1371 – this class causes me no end of trouble because of the large amount of homework given every week and the difficulty of that homework and the concepts contained within. To start the second half of the semester, I plan to focus on spending enough time on homework. If I can spend a sufficient amount of time on my homework, everything else should work out.