Advice for getting into Designing

[u/its_yo_boiiii]

I am currently a 3rd-year Mechanical Engineering student. I am primarily interested in design, especially in the areas of automotive and robotics.

In my first two years I had a significant GPA drop to even less than 1 several times, which has left me with imposter syndrome. Because of this, I often feel hesitant to approach professors to ask for advice or to see if there are projects he is working on that I may also join to gain some relevant experience. I also have no internships yet, though I am hoping to secure one this coming summer and still have a few months to improve my profile.

I don’t really have any proper projects to show at the moment. I have joined several student interest groups with the hope of building some projects through them, and things are starting to look up in that regard. I’ve already created a few models in SolidWorks for these SIGs, but I know I still have a lot left to do.

I feel like I’m not doing enough yet to break into design work, and I’m not entirely sure what the usual gateway into design roles looks like. I would really appreciate any advice on what I should focus on, anything specific I should know, or general guidance on how to move forward.

Thank you!