Okay, offa work, here I go:
You're considering switching to ME; here's my take from the MEs that I've talked to about their career. It basically turns into babysitting and supervising in most jobs. EEs tend to have more of a hands-on involvement in projects. That being said, let me talk about my schooling experience in both fields.
As a mechanical student, things were very competitive. Classes filled up quickly and the acceptance rate into professional school (the last two years of the degree program) was very low. The classes we called gen-eds were generally geared to wash people out by making them unnecessarily difficult. These would be the classes you took the first two years of a four year degree program.
In the Electrical school, things have been very different. The professors seem to care a lot more about your success, the class sizes are much smaller, and the work done in class is much more practical, as opposed to the theoretical studies done as a mechanical. If you asked two students, one mechanical and one electrical, in their junior year of school, the mechanical student couldn't do anything with the education he had received up to that point. Meanwhile, the electrical student could make an audio filter, a simple robot car using a microprocessor, a computer program to do just about anything he wanted it to (not anything interactive, but it could do work). The best the mechanical student could do is tell you where the weak point is in a bridge or tell you the name of different thermodynamic cycles. All that to say, you get to the "fun" part of your education much quicker in the EE department.
As far as the classes you're struggling with: I've failed at least two classes and have retaken quite a few too. I'm not sure how the school handles things where you are, but for the most part, there should be an academic forgiveness policy. Meaning you can retake classes you've failed and the grade is replaced on your retentive GPA. Unfortunately that F sticks around on your cumulative GPA.
Another thing to keep in mind is that regardless of the program, there are going to be classes that are just like pulling teeth. There is no reason the class is as hard as it is but for whatever reason, the professor has decided the class should be difficult. There are also going to be classes that are completely useless. One of those for me was Digital Logic Design. That was the class where we learned about logic gates and different ways to use them. While I really like the professor, everything I learned in that class could have been taken away in a couple of afternoon seminars.
Last thing, then I'll stop talking. EEs are going to be in HUGE demand very soon. The dean of my school gave me the impression that not only has the program been shrinking at our university, but across the nation enrollment has been dropping in the electrical program; while enrollment in ME schools has gone up. This translates into a high demand for us in about 2-3 years.
These are just a few things to think about and if you have anymore questions you should ask. College has been a pretty big struggle for me, and I probably wouldn't be as determined to finish as I am if it weren't for the help of others.
Best of luck!
