<p>I'm going to be a freshmen on wednesday, and I was wondering if engineering students generally have enough free time to be able to work on their own projects in their free time. One of the things I like about engineering/science is being able to just play with stuff. This summer I spent my free time learning Common Lisp and using it for web development. I'd like to be able to continue doing stuff during college, but also be able to have a social life, and good maintain a good gpa for grad school. Being able to sleep would be nice too. Can it be done?</p>
<p>It's doable.
There's no huge difference between engineering freshman and other freshman.
You'll have plenty of time if you don't take too many hours. And the rest is all about time management.</p>
<p>My son was a freshman last year and he said that the engineering students on his floor had more work to do than the other majors. That said, they still had free time, just less of it. Yucca was right about time management.</p>
<p>Engineering majors do have more work than other majors even in freshman year. But it will only get progressively worse. Now if you are like me and work while going to school you will have to manage your time very wisely.</p>
<p>Personal example I bring up a lot: I was drum major of the university band my senior year, plus I applied to a bunch of grad schools, and I kept my part-time job, and I changed my concentration and took 19 hours of classes during the football season. It's not like you're not going to have any time, you'll have plenty of time. You just have to structure it wisely. The more stuff you do, the better you have to structure your time. Don't worry about it, you'll have as much time as you plan for.</p>
<p>If you have good time management and work ethic, you will have free time as an engineer. </p>
<p>Of course, for an engineer, "free time" might be defined as an hour or two a day...</p>