<p>I was recently emailed by an engineer at a campus lab stating that he prefers if I can work during this semester, and then he will decide if he wants to hire me full-time for a summer position.</p>
<p>As of now, the courses I'm taking are 15 semester credit hours:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Engineering Math II (parts of Calc 2, most of Calc 3, and Wolfram Mathematical programming crammed together)
-Large HW every Tuesday and Thursday, probably going to get somewhere around a B+ or A-</p></li>
<li><p>Engineering Math III (Matrix Algebra)
-Two large HW and a quiz every 2-3 weeks, probably going to get somewhere around a B-</p></li>
<li><p>Physics I (calc based)
-Small prelab and HW every week, probably going to get somewhere around a B+</p></li>
<li><p>Statics
-HW every Tuesday and Thursday, probably going to get somewhere around a B-</p></li>
<li><p>Engineering Problem Solving II (intro to C programming and Matlab)
-Large assignment every 2-3 weeks, , probably going to get somewhere around an A-</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I am currently heavily involved with SAE Baja, AIAA, and Engineers Without Borders.</p>
<p>With my schedule as of now, it's somewhat manageable unless if I get 3 midterms in one week or midterms every week back to back. Or if I have no idea how to do my Math 2 or Statics HW, both which covers a new concept with every assignment.</p>
<p>I can drop all of my extracurricular activities to try to fit in a part-time research job, but I will not drop any of my courses since I am unlikely to get a C or below. On the flip side, I would prefer to avoid getting overwhelmed and end up with a C in one of my courses.</p>
<p>EDIT: I should clarify that I do not need the money. But I am very interested in the engineer's research, and I want a better chance at getting an internship/co-op with a company in the future.</p>
<p>Given that AIAA probably takes approximately zero time, keep that on there. It is a professional society anyway and definitely may come in handy down the road, especially if you do research and get the chance to go to a conference.</p>
<p>Just nix whichever of Baja and EWB that you enjoy the least.</p>
<p>I’m still worried about trying to fit a part-time job with a 15 semester credit hours schedule, which consists of entirely core engineering courses. </p>
<p>You literally just said you will not drop any courses, so I don’t know what you are getting at here. People do those kind of schedules all the time. 15 hours at most universities really isn’t that much. I think I may have had two total undergraduate semesters at 15 hours or fewer.</p>
<p>15 credits are normal but you have an unbalanced schedule. Working 10 to 15 hours with a 15 credit schedule is what work/study students do and I do believe there is a study showing that student do better when they have a p/t job if it doesn’t exceed that amount of hours. Drop everything else for a the rest of the semester, it is a good opportunity. I see that the midterm and finals times could be hell. Ask for flex hours for those times.</p>
<p>For 15 credits, budget 45 hours per week for school (class time/hw/studying/etc).
Then tack on how many hours per week you’ll be working. Let’s assume 10 hours.
Then decide how many hours per week you’re willing to commit to total.
If you’re willing to commit 60 hours per week to “work,” then you have 5 hours per week left to commit to a club or project.</p>
<p>Obviously there will be ebb and flow in your school schedule, but this form of time budgeting has worked well for me and I also have a wife and daughter to spend time with in addition to fixing up our house.</p>
<p>The engineer stated that due to my academic schedule, he can’t hire me until the summer.</p>
<p>He said that he needed students with blocks of more than 4 hours of free time per day for 3-4 days per week, and that due to his research project, he can’t break up the blocks into something like 2 blocks of 2 hours per day.</p>