Anyone Can Engineer: My Non-traditional Path into Electrical Engineering
I dropped out of high school without completing the 9th grade and opted for a GED. I later enrolled in my local community college. The lack of formal completion of the 9th grade left me with an incomplete understanding of math, a reflection I delved into in a previous journal entry. The placement exam at my community college initiated me with a remedial introductory algebra course, leading me through a progression of college-level math before reaching my first calculus course.
Calculus is the prerequisite, corequisite, and overall gate course for all subsequent classes, a progression detailed in a flow chart below. The flow chart outlines the required courses for my associate’s degree and illustrates their interconnectedness. It's worth noting institutions typically outline degree requirements in a catalog and provide advisors to guide students. The coursework for a degree varies from institution to institution. I categorize the classes based on my college's catalog, including remedial, core, and electrical engineering courses.
During the pursuit of my associate’s degree, I juggled full-time work and initially took only one or two courses before gradually increasing my course load per semester. I transitioned from general studies to engineering after realizing its attainability upon completion of my pre-calculus course (Trigonometry and Analytical Geometry). The journey spanned nearly six years, commencing with remedial math.
Upon completing my associate’s degree, I transferred to a four-year institution and eventually enrolled in the School of Engineering as a full-time student. Since I fulfilled most of the pre-requistes at my community college, I hopped right into core electrical engineering courses and upper-level electives at my four-year institution, see the flowchart for more details. While some core electrical engineering courses from community colleges served as transfer equivalents, others were not accepted as transfer courses. Nevertheless, with exposure to the topics previously at community college, the classes proved more manageable. I also retook a course, despite transfer acceptance, to supplement areas not fully covered in community college. I highlight the transfer equivalent courses I retook in the flowchart.
The electrical engineering curriculum centered around math and physics, with Partial Differential Equations (PDE) emerging as one of the most challenging yet beneficial courses. My exposure to PDE facilitated my understanding of core electrical engineering courses, particularly Introduction to Device Physics and Electromagnetic Wave Propagation. PDE dived into the solutions of the wave equation, a topic relevant to quantum phenomena in device physics and wave propagation in electromagnetic phenomena.
Reflecting on my unconventional path into electrical engineering, I draw parallels to Remy, The Rat, and Anton Ego, The Critic, from the heartfelt film Ratatouille. Ego's realization of Chef Gusteau’s motto, "Anyone Can Cook," resonates with my belief greatness can emerge from any background. Inspired by Remy's journey from humble origins to becoming the “finest chef in France”, as Ego describes, I navigated from remedial courses to upper-level mathematics at a distinguished four-year state university. My mission is to be the finest version of myself, embracing non-traditional origins. I encourage others to do the same.
