In my country is almost impossible to find a job in Civil Engineering without any experience, due to the fact that the economy is getting worst by the minute. This is the main reason why my friends didn’t find any job related to your field.

To be honest Im glad I decided to do Civil Engineering. I guess I will never know if the other choice was better, but Im happy with my decision.

I concur – I don’t discount folks based on GPA be it a 4.0 or something lower. Communication and reliability are the two most important qualities I would look for in an employee.

I think we all experience a certain level of uncertainty at one point or another during the course of our professional careers and in our personal lives. Your post reminded me of Erik Erikson and his argument about the critical stage in the formation of one’s identity occurring during the same time you mention, college years, where most people are between late adolescence and early adulthood. Here is one of his quotes “The identity crisis… occurs in that period of the life cycle when each youth must forge for himself some central perspective and direction, some working unity, out of the effective remnants of his childhood and the hopes of his anticipated adulthood”. Glad you found your niche!

I think the entire country (US) has a weird obsession with varsity sports, football, basketball, and hockey in particular. Now I am not saying that sports are a bad thing but when it starts getting priority over other important matters such as lives of other people or research/teaching at the university, it rings an alarm in my mind. Also, I was talking to my colleagues about how it says so much about the society that the highest paid person at VT is (or should I say was now that Beamer has retired?) the football coach, and not the president or a department head or a dean or a senior researcher.

I actually cover some international migration in the scholar essay. I also concern that if I could find a job upon graduation. Based on my research, if you are in science, technology, or engineer field, you can feel less worried about your job market. Currently, there is still high demand for PhD students in science, technology and engineering in the U.S. and globally. Additionally, not many local students have PhD degree in science and engineering. I am not sure about the higher education of civic engineering in your country of origin. What do you think why your friend did not end up in the field related to civic engineering?

Yes, sometimes we ask ourselves this question. But I have my own strategy to deal with it Ignore your thoughts and continue doing whatever you are doing So If I was in your case I would have continued in Electrical Engineering. I know this may be wrong, But I believe it is better to “Love what you are doing to do what you love”

I agree. It is a structural issue. How can we structure the Virginia Tech community to give social opportunities to students who do not subscribe to American conventions of what is fun. Also, with parking it does create an environment where the football participators get priority over the entire campus and everyone else just has to make due.

Thanks for sharing the information. It struck me as well! This reminds me that the diversity of students on campus. Not all of students are coming from middle or upper class. And sometimes it may be difficult for students who struggle financially. Not only they were struggle with hunger, but their social life may be impacted. But do you know that VT has Campus kitchen right now? Campus kitchen serve food for students who struggle with hunger.

It is just sad that people still think like that in the 21st century. Thank you for sharing this with the class. I think the best way to approach this type of sexism is to call it out when you see it. I totally agree with you, her health and safety are noone business and her pregnancy is noone business as well.