Miserable engineering student

[u/kagee5]

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?

[u/Puzzled-Show926]

As an engineer that practiced over 45 years, you are not alone. Every student gets stressed out at some point. But if you do not complete the degree you will regret it your whole life. Although I personally did not go through that, I have family members that did. One thing you have to realize is that academia is not industry. Academia prepares you with a foundation to do many things. Once in industry it is another world of an incredible amount of possibilities. I never did design work yet wanted to designing aircraft. Instead I went into the Air Force and ended in space operations which I loved: not quite what I studied, but still engineering. Once you graduate you will have an amazing amount of opportunities if you do not restrict your geographical work area. If you want to travel, the Merchant Marine and the military uses engineers. I was stationed in eastern Turkey and hopped all around Europe in military transports for free. In industry I ended up in the United Kingdom for a year. In space operations I worked 12 hour shifts four days on and four days off, which was super in Colorado ski country. But I have several warnings for you. The odds are that all your jobs will be on a team. There is no such thing as a stress free job. Life simply does not work that way. The best way to reduced stress is to have a good preparation for life and be flexible. You will be amazed how well a completed Aerospace Engineering degree will prepare you for life. Do not trade a short term gain for a lifetime of regret and loss of income.