Why most engineers don’t graduate

I’m Ali Alqaraghuli, a full time postdoctoral fellow at NASA JPL working on terahertz antennas, electronics, and software.

I make videos to train and inspire the next generation of engineers.

0:00 why most engineers don't graduate
1:10 mindset vs. skillset
2:43 workload vs. difficulty
4:20 my student loans
5:20 rational vs emotional quit
6:13 things you can't control
7:33 preparation
8:30 better opportunities
9:20 urgency

[glitchbanana]

I think the biggest reason is the fear of failure. You can have the curiousity and the discipline, but you also need perserverence because you are going to fail at something. Its what you do with failure is what you'll be tested

[randallmcgrath]

I had a Civil Engineering grad tell me, "if you can pass calc 2, you can be an engineer."

Perhaps I remember his statement wrong, but Calc 2 is a big weed out class for sure. But for me, Ive found that with tons and tons of math practice, eventually things do "click". I won't stop, because now I am finally seeing some gains and results.

[douglasstrother]

Success = Talent * Effort^Focus + Random Events.

[divyangvaidya]

Calculus 2 was one of the toughest math courses. However, doing practice problems repetitively helped a lot. Most engineering courses are like this. You just have to grind out as many practice problems as possible until you understand the material.

[CloudLadder-ce]

It's also worth noting that most engineering students who don't graduate with an engineering degree do still graduate with a degree in something, just not engineering. Transferring into another program is much more common than outright dropping out and students transferring from engineering programs tend to do well in their new field since the workload is much lighter by comparison.

[dominickjuarez]

Im taking calc 3 and physics 2b this fall, I was never great at math but just worked on it over and over. I just took courses on udemy before each of my classes to help me prepare so far it has worked out.

[GeneralKratos]

Physics isn’t to be feared. Chemistry is.

[FunTimeAnimations]

Struggling at learning basic electrical circuits analysis. This video made my day. Thank you! 3rd yr mechanical engineering student here

[pinesyeet]

2/3rds+ of the engineering students at the university I went to (across diciplines) dropped out. Mind you, this is in northern Europe, so things are a little different especially money-wise and culture-wise from the US, but I can still see a lot of your points in the reasons the people in my class quit.

We were 8 mechanical engineers who graduated with a bachelors degree in my class. I, like most others, did feel a sense of panic every other day in this program. I never felt I was ahead, always either caught up temporarily or behind. The good thing for me is that I'm stubborn as hell plus I have both great interest and no problem with learning stuff. Even with that, the classes was hard, the time management was hard and just forget having a part time job. I didn't cause I knew I wouldn't get through the course if I tried to have yet another thing on my plate.

Now, after the degree, I'm so extremely happy I pushed through.

[Ranbo]

Brings to mind the old adage "love what you do". if you are not fascinated by math and physics engineering will probably be an uphill battle all the way!

[Zxymr]

Golden rule in engineering: do not assume unless you have tested (or at least verified the necessary literature). There is not enough data to claim that most engineers don't graduate. Most of these claims are anecdotal and should not be accepted as an engineer.

[jimatreidēs]

My pillars for graduating from engineering were my mindset, my love of science and technology, and humility.
That’s it.
People who dropped out were people who wanted to party and have a “life”, and people who were daunted by the amount of work involved.
To each their own. I was there to learn and willing to put it the effort for something I really liked.

[newvitality]

My biggest issue is money, I don’t come from money, so sometimes I had to take a break to save up money and it was discouraging

[reygamingchannel]

I'm a AE graduate (2022) working full-time and part time for 2 years and 3 years full-time school, mainly part time because if you fail any AE classes you had to wait a year to retake it in my university NMSU. But if I could do it, anyone can just don't give up I wanted to be a graphic designer and now I'm a design engineer, thank god...

[ninjaoftherift]

Im a post bacc student in computer engineering at the age 24. I first started out with computer science at 17 but i ran away from the math I switched to IT, focused on front end web development built my own startup. Worked in web dev but now i want really puruse what i think i was meant to do all along i want to work with things hands on design boards, write code for chips etc. i plan to stop working full time after this semester and stick with my startup

[HappyLearner-jbjp]

Awesome video. Thank you, these videos are immensely helpful bro

[robertburnett]

Man I’m in a really tough spot. In fact I’m in the same spot as 1 year ago. I’m very depressed with maybe 3 semesters of engineering school left. I have done well, some how. I’m not smart, my iq is probably average or maybe slightly below. In my labs I can hardly participate because I just don’t know what to do, even when reading the prelab stuff. People run circles around me in environments where fluid intelligence is useful. It takes me hours longer to do the hw and I do well on exams, I just study my ass off. I don’t know whether I’m smart enough for this, for engineering, I don’t even know if it’s what I want to do. But I’m so far in, I don’t want to do anything else, and I too have to take out loans to pay for school. I look at people like you and the people that surround me and they are just so much smarter than me. And I’m not trying to invalidate your hard work, I’m not saying you don’t work hard but youre just way smarter than me. Iq is a real thing and has real consequences. I don’t know if I am depressed or lower iq man. I just don’t know. I don’t know what to do with my life, what I’m smart enough for. When it’s all said and done, given I don’t have another set back like last year and this semester, it will have taken me 6.5 years to graduate. And I don’t have a part time job, never had one. I have to spend basically all my time doing classes, even if it’s just part time. I can’t figure stuff out on my own unless the professor solved similar problems in class. It’s so hard being of lower intelligence and seeing people like you excel. I know I’m bitter, it’s just I am very depressed and unsure of what to do man. Anyways nice vid and you are a cool guy

[StephenBoothUK]

I did a joint honours degree (this is a UK thing, I guess the nearest equivalent in the US would be something like a Dual Major) in Biochemistry and Electronics because in secondary school I’d been good at all three sciences and Electronics. The problem I found was that moving from secondary level to tertiary level in Electronics removed nearly all the actual electronics from the subject. Practicals, circuit design and problem diagnosis I was acing but I didn’t have the foundational mathematics for the maths heavy parts of the course. A lot of the time I ran into issues because not only did I not know the maths but I didn’t know that I needed to know the maths. Unfortunately the lecturers were uninterested in helping me identify gaps. There was also an issue with one lecturer who had errors in his lectures and the book he’d written and made the required text for his courses, so if I didn’t understand something there was always the question of is it because I’m wrong or he is. Fortunately, in my final year I was able to switch the single honours Biochemistry and graduate.

[mzanganeh]

I've seen at least one example for all of the reasons you said around me, thanks for your helpful videos !

[eddieansumana]

From my understanding and experience most students just view STEM especially engineering as a no-go because of the maths and physics.
Am aiming to study either mechanical or electrical engineering in Texas or California by God’s grace
I will do it
I love maths and physics
Thank you professor Ali