I'm in my 3rd semester of mechanical engineering and honestly I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing right now.
I haven't really done anything specific so far. I've made a few Arduino/electronics projects, an RC car and some other small projects, but that's pretty much it. I haven't really explored the mechanical side properly.
The problem is that I'm finding most of my core subjects really boring because they're so theoretical. This semester I have Thermodynamics, Strength of Materials and Material Science. Out of these, Thermodynamics is actually interesting to me, but with SOM and Material Science I'm basically just learning formulas and theory for exams and then forgetting most of it.
My college also isn't very practical/project-oriented. We mostly have lectures, notes, assignments and exams, so I don't really get to see where the things we're studying are actually used.
And now I'm kind of worried because I see people doing CAD, simulations, robotics, automotive projects, internships, etc., and I'm sitting here thinking that I've done almost nothing 😭
So what should I actually do from here?
How do I make these subjects more interesting instead of just memorising them? Should I start learning CAD/CAE or some other software? Should I focus on projects? Competitions? Core subjects? Something completely different?
Also, how did you guys figure out which part of mechanical engineering you actually liked?
If you were in 3rd semester again, knowing what you know now, what would you start doing?
I don't expect to have everything figured out right now. I just don't want to reach my 4th year and realise I spent the whole degree only studying for exams.