Dealing with Imposter Syndrome in Engineering

In my first semester, I dealt with really terrible bouts of imposter syndrome. As someone who had always cared about their academics, being in university was a huge slap to the reality of the difficulty of being in an engineering program. I remember my first wake up call being when I failed an exam for the first time in physics, and then having that constant feeling of underperforming in all my classes compared to my peers, who often got straight As. In between struggling through juggling six classes worth of material and being tasked to do something in a club that was beyond my understanding, I felt like I was an “Imposter” of some sort, like I wasn’t understanding or doing enough to belong in such a rigorous program. 

It’s not something that I have solid advice on overcoming as admittedly I’m still trying to figure my way through that. One thing that helped a lot however, was deciding not to pay attention or compare myself to other people’s progress or marks in any class I was taking, whether I was doing good or not. Choosing to focus on myself gave me more internal peace and drove me to learn to understand the content better, not purely for the grades itself, and give me realistic goals on what I wanted to achieve in a semester. If you are dealing with Imposter Syndrome in any way, it also helps to recognize that you are definitely not alone. I guarantee you there will be people every year, every semester that also go through these feelings of doubt. You could also try confiding in a professor, advisor, friend, or classmate that you trust.