<p>Hey everyone,
I'm in a position where I need to decide soon whether I should keep my current job because I would be able to transfer, but I'm also worried it's gonna be diffucult to make time for studying, socializing, adjusting to new surroundings, and working altogether. So I'm just interested to hear maybe from anyone who held a job during freshman year, if it was easy/hard to maintain your job while adjusting to Berkeley during your first year? Thanks!</p>
<p>Well, I've worked since the end of last September, and I'm a freshman. I worked at the Student Store first semester, approximately 13 hours a week? And this semester I have a paid internship, but I work from my laptop...I do about 10 hrs a week. It's definitely doable, but be careful not to overload on your other extracurriculars. Plenty of kids here work, so you should be fine =)</p>
<p>What kind of work do you do from your laptop?</p>
<p>And I currently work for an off campus library. So its def possible.</p>
<p>I'm an intern for a nonprofit organization (a nonprofit that PAYS, what a novelty). So I research, interview (by phone), and write articles, case studies, write-ups, and the like about immigrant / refugee issues.</p>
<p>sweetdreams 87, so do you think that about 10 hrs a week should be ok with regular freshman classes?</p>
<p>yah; i just wrote above that i did about 13 hrs a week my first semester and i was doing 17 units (above avg.)</p>
<p>I had 16 units first semester and worked for 9-15hrs a week.</p>
<p>Working >15hrs a week isn't good, as statistics have shown dropout rate increases and grade point averages decreases.</p>
<p>Nah, it's alright if you manage your time well for any year you're in.</p>
<p>I work 12 hours a week with 16 units. On top of that I have music practice for a campus club 4 hours a week and I have an internship for another 7 hours a week.</p>
<p>So total, 23 hours of ECs with 16 units.</p>
<p>SweetDreams87, your job sounds very interesting. How can I find out more about it (I'm an immigrant/refugee, and would love a job where I can write and interview people)?</p>
<p>workstudy.berkeley.edu</p>
<p>Tara251088 - Hehe, I don't know if they're currently looking for more interns, but I found out about this internship at Cal's Early Bird Internship Fair in like October or November last year, so maybe they'll be there at this fall's fair. the group's called Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees.</p>