Most of my first two semesters have went by and although I am ahead in my coursework being where after next semester i will be over a semester ahead of where I am supposed to be in order to graduate in 4 years I feel behind because of how I have been spending my free time. I don’t have any research position, I didn’t join a design team and I do not have an internship for this summer lined up yet. I really want to get a co-op for next spring but dont know what I can start doing this late to set myself up for that. I think I will try and join my schools Formula SAE team next fall but that may be a tad too late for it to matter anymore. Ive been spending a lot of my free time running on my club team or just messing around watching movies and I feel like I wasted so much time that I could have better spent. Any advice?
Don’t worry about it yet. You are absolutely not behind. Your first year should be spent getting your studying chops in line. You can dip your toes into clubs, but until you get your top priority in line, there’s no point in adding anything else. Start looking into SAE next year. You’ll actually have some skills to offer them.
My son sounds just like runnerbro, only he is now finishing his sophomore year. His free time has been spent with marching band and other music related endeavors. I keep reminding him he is there to get an engineering job, not a music one. With that in mind, how important is it to be on one of the design teams? He fears he does not have enough time and his studies will suffer as those clubs seem to be big commitments and he doesn’t want to give up marching band.
The beauty of clubs is that you can take as active a role as you desire. Certainly if he wanted to be a system lead, he’d have to devote lots of time, possibly to the detriment of his grades. If we’re talking 3.8 down to 3.5 that’s probably OK, 3.0 to 2.7, probably not.
In reality though students who do well in school tend to get jobs even if they haven’t had club experience or internship(s). This is really a continuation of the parental and student drive to over achieve (get perfect grades, test scores, go to highly ranked schools, etc.). It’s probably not as important as we as parents all think it is. Both are nice feathers in the cap, but don’t really trump good grades and most importantly, solid command of what they’ve been taught.
Take it with a grain of salt as I’m just a parent of an engineering student. Maybe the hiring engineers can comment. My guess is that there will be a split, those who feel the devotion to music means that engineering isn’t his top priority and those who feel it humanizes him. It’s so situational with respect to each individual job, that both opinions are really correct.
@runnerbro - Sounds like you are doing fine and aware of things you should consider. I like the idea to do spring co-op. Drop by your campus placement center and ask them how the timeline works for applications, interview etc.
Both of my kids have said the hiring people that interviewed them seemed very interested in their other activities , such as athletics. It sounds good that you have other interests. The internships after junior year may be the most key, as well as maintaining a good GPA. You don’t sound behind at all. Engineering is not easy and blowing off steam with running or watching movies doesn’t sound bad at all. You still have time to look for co-ops and internships. Good luck and try to relax some!
You’re doing fine. Most don’t get their first internship, or start a co-op, until their junior year. Try to join the design team in the Fall, and go to your schools career fair. You’ll need the practice interviewing and putting together a resume, so the career fair is a good excuse to start. Your schools career center may offer help with resumes, mock interviews, etc., take advantage of it.
Good Luck!
Thanks for the reply, eyemgh. My student is on the 3.0 fence, hence the anxiety about overcommitting. I am hoping employers take to the well-roundedness that his involvement in music offers rather than focusing on the lack of engineering extracurriculars.
@incadinca, I wasn’t speaking of involvement period, but taking a leadership role. He should start kicking tires (pun intended if it’s SAE :D) of lots of different clubs until he finds one that resonates with him and then commit only to one and only to the level that will allow him to keep his grades where he wants them and still pursue marching band if that’s an outlet he loves.