<p>First of all, overall I've been hearing very different stories about "time" in college. I'm a Senior in HS and...</p>
<p>1 side of it that I've been hearing is that in college, you study hardcore. About 2-3 hrs per credit hour is devoted to studying ouside of that class! Which means, you have to do a lot of sacrificing, such as NOT having a job, NOT doing clubs, NOT doing sports.</p>
<p>The other side says "No, you have SOO much free time in college" - this stems from the fact that you have about 3 classes a day, as opposed to HS when you're in school from 8am-4pm. This means you're be BORED unless you take a job, do a sport, or join tons of clubs.</p>
<p>I'm going to the Engineering School of U of I. The Eng is hardcore and real selective, but on the other hand the campus has soooo many things to do! Here are the main activities I'll plan on doing:</p>
<ul>
<li>Cross Country (Fall)</li>
<li>A job</li>
<li>Bringing a Wii (gaming sessions)</li>
<li>handful of clubs (fencing)</li>
<li>Track (Spring)</li>
</ul>
<p>Is this too much? Or does it depend, cause I don't know how to balance Eng and the campus.. Overall, which "side" should I believe?</p>
<p>college turned out very different from what i thought it would be. mind not in a bad way, and in a lot of ways much better than i thought. i have far less time than i thought i would, but not all of it is spent doing schoolwork. and i'm taking a tough engineering load, going to be a DJ at the school radio station, i play and write music with friends, spend time recording some of their performances, and heck...i party quite a bit for an engineer haha. i don't have a job, but i still easily could. the thing is, it's easy to get distracted in college. </p>
<p>i pay for all of this in sleep :D there are many nights that involve less than 5 hours of sleep.</p>
<p>college is all about time management. if you can manage your time efficiently, you will have more than enough time for studying and extra curricular activities (like the ones you mentioned).</p>
<p>Yeah, right now I am doing Model UN, College Dems, Student Government, and a leadership program and along with all of my classes I find myself to have a full plate. Try to do a few things you really like. Most folks here it seems do like 3-4 ecs max in addition to the rather heavy workload. I was going to do Mock Trial too, but several of our teams made nationals last year and that is rather intense. Don't be afraid to drop things that you can handle to do. Last semester I had to drop Dems and ballroom dancing because I simply did not have enough time.</p>
<p>Not you, I meant in general. I mean for those girls that whore out the organic chemistry classes and then just drop them after their first 40% on a test. They pretend they're all smart and then they settle for something like marketing. Those are the kind of girls that don't do any real work except drink and screw.</p>
<p><em>Dang, more conflicting responses</em> -_-</p>
<p>"college is all about time management. if you can manage your time efficiently, you will have more than enough time for studying and extra curricular activities (like the ones you mentioned)."</p>
<p>What does it mean, time management? Are there really people that sit around in the lounge doing nothing, "zoning out" during essays and studying, or do people just take TOO MUCH time doing certain things, like taking too long to eat, to get from A to B..</p>
<p>Cause I zone out a LOT. Like 75% of my studying is spent zoned out, but then again I'm a Senior..</p>
<p>Its all about spending your time wisely, not wasting time surfing the web for hours or watching movies all weeked. Its quite manageable to balance 2-4 groups/clubs and a part time job. Look into how much time your cross-country/track will take though...that might take away lots of your weekends and evenings, prime times for clubs to meet, job hours, and study groups and such.</p>
<p>cyrone, "all the clubs exist" so that people can find things that interest them... not so that one person can join hundreds of clubs.</p>
<p>and yes, zoning out is a pretty big issue in college!! i have a lot of free time (on top of my job, my sorority, and my classwork) and i spend most of it zoning out on the computer or in front of the tv, rather than doing productive things like going to the gym.</p>
<p>the truth is a mixture of the two. You'll have days where you just got to class for 2-3 hrs, and come home and do just a bit of homework, if any. And right before tests, you'll have days where youre holed up in the library all day and all night. If you dont get involved, you'll be bored on those uneventful days, but if you do get involved, you'll miss a few meetings and events because youre busy.</p>
<p>My roomie runs cross country and track, so she has sports on top of classes all year. It seems to me that a sport takes up just as much of your time as it did in high school, with practice Monday-Friday and games/meets on weekends. If that's the case at your school, I'm not sure when you would have time for a job or to join a club that requires a fair amount of time for meetings and whatnot.</p>
<p>I think, considering that you are in Engineering, you could do a club and a job OR play a sport. No matter how excellent you are at time management, there simply aren't enough hours in the day to do all three, go to class, study, sleep, and still have down time to play Wii or whatever.</p>
<p>You will most likely be spending more of your time overal on schoolwork than you did in high school, because while you have less classtime, there is much more homework. But, if you manage your time well, it is certainly possible to get all the work done and stay very involved in other things. As for your list, sports take up a lot of time (but, if you love them, definitely do them), gaming sessions I find to be pretty unproductive even if fun, clubs I find to be very worthwhile, and as for a job I'd only focus on that as a freshman if you need the money.</p>
<p>I'm a freshman in electrical and computer engineering at CMU. I'm in tons of clubs: Allies (webchair, super involved), cmuOUT (Co-president, becoming sole president in 1 month), Explorers club, Carnegie Aeronautical Association, KGB, Eclectic Studies Group, as well as minor involvement in a few other clubs. I find myself to be extremely busy, but it's well worth it because I love the clubs I'm in and it's how I made a lot of my friends. First semester I brought my Gamecube with me, but found that I never had time to play it, so brought it home at Thanksgiving.</p>
<p>The thing about Wii is, it's not the kind of system you play hours on end. I don't really have one yet, but my friend has one and the games are suited for short-term fun. It's not something I'll be devoted to.</p>
<p>This is what I'll do. I'll find out how much the jobs pay, and if they're worth the money, I'll try to take one perhaps 2 days a week. My current job is $12/hour, so I hope the jobs in college pay well! That's what it boils down to, anyway.</p>
<p>Cross country I'm 90% sure I'll be doing. Can't live without it. </p>
<p>As for clubs, that's a grey area I guess. But I regret not being more involved in HS. I was for a while, but then I stopped doing them cause they were kinda lame.</p>