Ok guys please shine some advice on this one.

I've been in college at the University of Arkansas for 2 years now (this is my beginning 3rd year there) and I really don't know what to do anymore regarding my career and life. Ever since my car broke down and I swapped in the silvertop I felt some type of passion for cars that I can't really seem to explain. School just doesn't seem to be intresting anymore and none of the majors offered here don't intrest me at all. I just don't have the dedication towards college anymore! >>

Therefore I was thinking that I might drop out of college and go to a tech. school in automotive and search for that passion that longs the heart of mine.

What do you guys think? Should I presume my schooling even tho I am suffering deep inside, or should I get out and go towards automotive, a hidden passion that I have?

I have one dream and that is that someday I would build robots for a living and thats why I went towards Electrical Engineering, but this is only a dream. If it came real it wouldn't be a dream at all!

Please post any solutions that you have or any comments! Thanks 6G guys! >>

stick with EE, you will make more money, and then you can buy all the cars you want >>...if you dont have kids that is. im in mechanical engineering, and i love messing with cars but i view it as more of a hobby. personally i would rather design new cars than fix broken ones. i wouldnt drop out after 2 years, but do whatever makes you happy man.

I would stick to where you are now. You can graduate and make a good pay and later on down the road, if you still want to, you can take that automotive course. If you stick with where you are you can get some money and buy the cars you have always wanted, and then mod the sh*t out of them.

i also am a ME. I would suggest sticking with it... any engineering degree (Electrical and Mechanical especially) are WONDERFUL places to start if you want to get into automotive stuff. if you were to take a few courses after finishing your bachelors in EE you could quickly turn all that EE knowledge into useful knowledge on automotive wiring, and controls, a very very big part of being able to properly swap and mess with cars, basically the track you are on IS a track to get you to where you want to be, you just have to know exactly what you want to do, and dont let the school steer you far off course. the best thing to do is get your bachelors as an EE and look for a program that specifically fits what you want to do as a graduate degree, or do the tech stuff after achieving your bachleors... trust me, you will be so far ahead of the game with that type of education you can do exactly what you are looking to do.

the program i really want to get into is the motorsport vehicle dynamics program at Kingston University in London England. Its a dream, but i figure ill do everything i possibly can and atleast apply, its worth the shot.

http://engineering.kingston.ac.uk//mmvd.htm

If your not really into it, it's going to be hard to be pretty much any type of engineer. If you can't handel it, get out and work at Circut City or something. College is not for the weak(EDITTED thanks to chucho).

EDIT: Boy, I am some kind of retarded. I typed to fast, the sun was in my eyes, I was doing other things, bla bla, I'm just an idiot really.

I like college, but I usually use spell check for everything I turn in. If I didn't have that, there's no way I could make it here.

This post has been edited by Bigmeanbulldog55: Sep 15, 2005 - 10:14 PM

-Bigmeanbulldog55+Sep 15, 2005 - 10:01 PM

weak

-chucho+Sep 15, 2005 - 10:05 PM


too funny.

Heh, I'm and senior EE too and love working on cars. But remember unless you can get lucky and score a job at a sweet performance shop, you are mostly going to be fixing exhaust, replacing breaks, ripping off old ladies that don't know anything about cars. At VT we have a lot of different car projects, I'm working on designing a new GM sports car with other universities. You can do a lot more with engineering. And trust me the first two years of EE sucks ass, going into my jr year I really didn't like engineering either, but now I love it after I got to take actual engineering course insted of math/physics/chem/circuits/math/math.

agreed with above. ya, thats what always sucks about technician schools is they think everyone wants to be a grease monkey mechanic... the only reason i suggested maybe taking something like that is it makes you more well rounded, and if you are perceptive enough you can link all the little connections between engineering and the actual technician work and that will be what helps you in the real world. alot of engineers have a hard time right out of college with the regular work force because they dont have real world experience... something like the technician and an intern/co-op job for a little while goes a long way for doing that type of thing.

Dude stick with a University degree. Just make sure you pick a "good" major and stick with it. I know you have a passion for cars but sometimes passions don't pay the bills. Pick engineering, see it through, and then you can anything you want. You will always have that degree to fall back on (or brag about... like my sig >>)

TAKE IT FROM ME: I got my aerospace engineering degree and it was hard at times. But I have never regreted getting my degree.

PS: I hope Arkansas beats USC this weekend!

Hook 'em!

This post has been edited by UTSlickVic: Sep 17, 2005 - 2:06 AM

Stick with the university and try to go as far ahead as you can. I have been a Celica Fanatic since Gen 1 in the 70s and 80s. (You guessed right - i am a bit older - 30 to be exact)

Well, i became a CPA (certified accountant) and now i own a Curren, a GT4 and a luxury appartment. (all paid in full by the way). I recommend that you do everything that you could do academic wise now that you are a bit younger. Your ability to generate or obtain income in the future is what will be the deciding factor for your interests in your life.
Being able to get a good salary was eesential for me to be able to buy a GT4 just to have it for the weekend. Now that i bought my own place to live i am shooting for the next dreams i had such as going abroad to watch formula 1 and WRC rallies and participate in rally driving schools.

I will have to be the first one to disagree with most of the people here. I think that the most important think for you is to do something that you like and that interests you. If you are really into working on cars, than thats what you should do if it makes you happy and you can see yourself doing it for a while. Of couse, there are many more careers availible for someone with a college degree, and many of these jobs can involve cars, but if you really like just working on cars there are jobs availible for you now that you will be able to work your way up the latter if you are a determined person. What ever you want, if you want it enough you can have it and it should make you happy, and that's what's important.

If you really really find no interest in your major at all, then get out. Find another major, any other major. A college degree will always be there to fall back on. I know lots of people who realized that too late, finished their degree and are now doing nothing related to the degree that they got: Computer Engineers going back to school to go to med school, countless CS, Chem E, Mech E, Mat Sci, people going to Law school, getting their real estate license, nursing school, even dentist school.

But if you still find the idea of your major interesting, stay in!! Especially engineering, its tough. The classes are hard, you crunch numbers all night, spend your weekends in the lab, and all your hard work gets you average grades. But trust me, once you actually get out there and are able to focus, youll learn to re-love your major over again.

I was in Aerospace Engineering, and just like you, i was questioning if i should switch to something the nurtured my love of cars more. I would just get the work done, not always getting it done correctly, just so i could go do car stuff. Of course that gave me mediocre grades. But then i got an internship at the propulsion directorate research lab at edwards airforce base. Actually seeing everything come together, all the things i was learning actually being applied and make sense rejuvenated my love of my major. Senior year i flop a 4.0, and now im in grad school! If you told me sophomre year that id go to grad school for Aero, id say you were crazy. But here i am!

I bet if you actually get into building that robot of yours, youll find out why you chose your major in the first place. But if you dont, then youll at least know.