I feel stuck in my degree

Very big mistake. Studying engineering is entirely different from working as an actual engineer....

Having visited a few companies it sparked my interest again....do not put off the career until you have actually tried it!

I don't want an engineering job. Idk what I was thinking when I chose this.

Posted from TSR Mobile

I actually had a year placement at a known multinational company and I quit. Yes, you heard me right, I quit because it was terrible and depressing.

Everytime I'm sad, I think about that moment in my life when I worked there and I swear I instantly think 'my life is not that bad!!'

I'm listening. What sort of projects are there that are more mathematically heavy than usual? Because most of the good ones have lots of maths in them. *This is exciting*

How are your grades? Are you averaging a 2.1 or higher?

Is this a fleeting feeling because you're doing exams etc and are therefore focusing long periods of time on your degree, or have you felt like this for the entirety of your degree so far?

You are nearly there with this degree. I would suggest sticking it out, you are one year away from finishing. I doubt there are many jobs you would need a maths degree for that you couldn't also do with an engineering degree, and if you want to do law you can either take the conversion course or the 2 year graduate LLB. It would be a shame to waste your 2 years of hard work. Might be a good idea to try to focus on getting through the end of this year if you haven't already, enjoy your summer and don't think about your work etc and then see how you feel in the autumn. I think it's very easy to feel sick of your subject around exams because it just takes over your life but you're so close to getting your degree!

[e] Also, as someone who did law - trust me, it's no different in terms of feeling like you're just completely living and breathing law haha

that is your choice but my advice would be to actually work as an engineer in an area of your interest! You will be surprised....especially when youre working on cutting edge stuff trust me on that !

but to base it on one industry alone is a bit silly don't you think....that's like a banker saying he will never do banking again just because he had one really bad experience with one particular bank.

You won't just magically find a job you will enjoy straight away sometimes it takes a bit of experimentation to find what it is you actually like. I had a friend who had similar experience to you then he tried multiple other industries and now he loves what he does....

I understand your point, and it's not the company, everything was great and people were so understanding I could have easily changed the projects I was working on.

It's just that if something is not working, I don't care, I'm not interested and I don't want to fix it. I don't want to test circuits, build circuits, open circuits, design, program, code, debug, fix things, engineer things. Hope you understand what I'm trying to say. Even doing my 3rd year project which was veeery practical was the hardest thing to pull off haha.

I understand your point, and it's not the company, everything was great and people were so understanding I could have easily changed the projects I was working on.

It's just that if something is not working, I don't care, I'm not interested and I don't want to fix it. I don't want to test circuits, build circuits, open circuits, design, program, code, debug, fix things, engineer things. Hope you understand what I'm trying to say. Even doing my 3rd year project which was veeery practical was the hardest thing to pull off haha.

I've been feeling this way since year 1. My grades haven't been very good but it's not because I didn't like the degree well maybe a little but I've had major depression for the past 3 years but it's gotten worse since I've started uni and so my grades took a tumble unfortunately. I'm afraid I don't have very many options. Although my final year is worth 60% of the degree so there is room for a turn around.

I like Law a lot but I have no idea what to expect in a degree. It's the same blind feeling I had going into this one, thinking I would like studying it but not actually knowing if I would.
The difference with maths is that I knew how it would be at uni (mostly proofs and not just mathematical methods like A level) and it was scary to 17/18 year old me.

I was this close to switching to maths in year 1, I can't remember why I didn't do it tbh.

Unfortunately I can't really help (as I didn't do engineering!) but maybe for inspiration have a look at unis that offer Engineering Mathematics (cf Bristol) or Applied Mathematics courses and see what kinds of projects they do.

Also some ideas here? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering_mathematics

Are you getting help for your depression? If not, you really should. You can definitely pull your degree round with 60% final year. It's not really worth starting another degree when you've nearly finished this one. Also, I know it's a different subject etc, but I nearly dropped out of my degree SO many times. Like, at one point I had got a place at college to do Access to Science because I was so adamant I wanted to leave. I stuck it out and got my 2.1 and I'm so glad, like after doing 2 years and nearly finishing the thought of going back to first year for another 3 years is pretty soul destroying I think.

If you can stick it out another year I reckon you can get your 2.1 and then decide what you want to do. Like I said I doubt there's many jobs you would need Maths for specifically rather than Engineering. If you want to do Law still, you can. I think feeling 'stuck' is very normal at this stage of your degree and you will probably feel so much better after you've completed second year and had your summer off, one final push for a year and then you're done

I'm midway (2/3) into a mechanical engineering degree and I don't really like it that much. I wish I had decided between either Law or Maths but especially Maths because I still like it a lot....
I like Law a lot too but I have no academic background in it either.

I didn't actually choose to do the maths degree out of fear for it being too hard and I feel like I've made the wrong decision.

What do I do now?

I was seeing the uni counsellor but I'm not sure they're much help. After 2 sessions she wanted ship me off to a psychiatrist to get official diagnosis and to get pills. I can't really deal with all of that right now so I opted to stay with the cbt but idk I think that was a bad choice too.

And thanks a lot you're really encouraging me.

Try going to your GP instead. It depends where you are in the country, some places have self-referral CBT and can give you telephone CBT but others you get stuck on a waiting list for a really long time. I agree it might be better to wait until you've done exams etc because antidepressants can have side effects and you don't want the trouble of that with exam stress as well.

I know how hard it is and not many people will understand, everyone else seems like they're doing great and are super motivated etc. It's hard to ignore everyone and just do what's best for you. But it does sound like finishing your degree would be the best option for you, I don't think you would gain much from swapping to Maths - you might enjoy it more, but do you want to study for another 3 years? Is having a Maths degree instead of an Engineering one really that important to you, or are you just sick of the degree you're doing now and clutching at other options? I did that a lot. Considered a whole range of crazy stuff like dropping out of Law to be a Dietitian etc, I don't even have science A levels! I think it's quite reassuring when you're fed up of your subject to consider other stuff but it's also not very practical or helpful. At the end of the day it's probably best to just do this year, have a great summer off and sort out your mental health, go back in September ready to smash the final year and then you're free to do what you want without the pressure of this degree weighing you down

Wow it's like you can see into my mind. I think you'd make a great lawyer for being so exhaustive in your discussion. Again, thanks a lot. I'll most likely be taking your advice 😊

Student finance wouldn't cover one of your years if you were to start a new degree, so that is something to think about.

If the third year options really look awful, you don't like the uni/course and don't expect to do well then it's probably worth switching.

The maths you've seen (laplace, likelihood functions etc) are the okay bits, not particularly riveting but not particularly boring/difficult either. There are a few more interesting areas and then areas like Algebra and Analysis that some people like but some people hate, and from what I know a fair few maths students have doubts about what they're doing at uni so I guess if you're looking at switching to Maths or anything else, just make sure that it's what you want.

Well engineering maths is just mathematical methods. I can't really do a project based on them because they're all pure maths (except statistics).

I can do something wave related because they're typically really maths heavy but I'm not really interested in waves.

Yeah I struggled with the maths bits because I didn't do any work with them unless I had an exam to write and I'd end up just cramming everything. So I'd have to basically self teach the whole module because I would skip class because of as I said earlier depression. But in just a few days of studying I get by far the best grades in maths modules as compared to my others so I know my maths aptitude hasn't reached its limit.
But as you said I have to be sure and I'm not sure about anything.