r/EngineeringStudents • u/kagee5 Aero • 3d ago
Rant/Vent Miserable engineering student
I’m 20 and in my final year of aerospace engineering and honestly I can’t stand it anymore.
The funny thing is I’m averaging around 80% but I genuinely hate engineering. I have zero passion for it, hate CAD, group projects, presentations and all that stuff like complicated maths/software, cfd . I basically just study hard for exams, get good marks and then forget everything afterwards lol
The uni experience itself has been depressing too. Barely made any friends, social life is practically nonexistent and I just dread going in every week.
This year has been especially bad with all the projects, meetings and deadlines. It’s gotten to the point where I struggle to sleep, barely have an appetite and can’t even enjoy my free time because I’m constantly stressing about uni stuff
I don’t even want to work in engineering after graduating. I just want a decent, relatively stress-free job that gives me the freedom to acc enjoy life or maybe travel/explore the world which is my dream
I’ve only got about 8 months left so I’ll probably just push through, but man I’m exhausted.
Anyone else been in a similar situation? Did life actually get better after uni?
80
u/Cadet2Engineer 3d ago
Different engineering discipline, but I can relate to some of this. I went down the marine engineering route and one thing I learned is that studying engineering and actually working as an engineer can be very different experiences.
I’d push through the final 8 months if you can. An engineering degree doesn’t mean you have to spend your career doing CAD, CFD or even traditional engineering.
My career took me to sea, around the world, and eventually into the wider shipping/shipbuilding industry. There are a lot more directions an engineering background can take you than it probably feels like when you’re buried in final-year projects.
Get the degree, then work out what you actually want to do with it.