<p>How doable is it? I could definitely use the extra cash I could earn from an off-campus job (maybe 20 hours a week or so), but I'm worried that I won't have enough time to study/do my lab work and that my GPA will take a nosedive. Are any of you managing to hold down a part-time job and get all of your work done while still getting a decent amount of sleep (call it at least 4 hours a night)?</p>
<p>Bumpity-bump. I also forgot to mention that I’m doing work-study as part of my financial aid package (though it’s supposed to be limited to 12 hours a week/$900 per semester).</p>
<p>You could do 20 hrs/week (especially if it’s in say your freshman year.) However, be warned you always want to keep your grades up and it’s easy to start falling behind. It’s really all about time management.</p>
<p>get an A in your calc/physics courses and go to the schools tutoring center… i have been doing that since i was a freshman…you just sit around and wait for tutees…if people dont show up you can do your homework…its better if you apply for a tutoring position with someone in your major…then you can do your homework together if noone shows up for individual tutoring…gets busy during midterm and final exam periods though so be careful…</p>
<p>During my junior and senior years my senior class petitioned to have classes on Monday-Wednesday-Friday only. We had a small class, so it was doable. Also our curriculum was not loaded with tons of labs and recitation sections. Many of the students would work at engineering jobs on their days off from classes. There were several local companies where they worked. I worked on campus in the student union at least 20 hours per week. </p>
<p>It really depends on the person though. Some people can work long hours on a job and still do well in school, but not me. I don’t do well when I have to cram studying into a short period of time. I knew some other students who would work 12 hours on their days off from school and still get A’s and B’s.</p>
<p>I worked at the law library, shelving books, one summer for maybe 30 hours a week. I was able to study a lot while on the job. It was a work study job because I was a summer student. They were freely given then no matter your financial need because they needed students to work the jobs cheaply. Anyway, once I shelved a bunch of books, I was able to sit and do homework for 20 minutes or so, and then go back to shelving. Now, the question is, do they still have books in libraries? I mean, this was about 25 years ago.</p>
<p>My other job was working in the cafeteria. I cannot recommend this job enough. If you are willing to get up early on the weekend and work the breakfast shift, and even the lunch shift, you can have the rest of the weekend to study. I worked the dinner shift during the week. Was usually back in the dorm before 10. My college didn’t require purchase of a meal plan after soph status, so I ate for free after one semester, thanks to 18 hours of CLEP. You did not have to be work study to work at the cafeteria, however, you made a lot less than the work study students did. Think of it like a waitress. They get less than minimum wage, but get tips. We didn’t get tips at the cafeteria, but free food for a starving college student is nothing to sneeze at. Of course, you only ate for free when you worked, so it would be in your benefit to work at least one shift every day. There’s always Ramen noodles when you’re off!</p>