<p>I posted this in the College Life forum as well, but I think some parents could give me some good advice so I am asking here too.</p>
<p>I tried to get an internship over the summer but was unable to. I've not done any research in the past and it's not realistic for me to at this point try to find a professor I can do research with (and I have no interest in graduate school). I could try to get a part-time unskilled job for minimum wage or something but I really don't need the money (the few grand I'd make wouldn't really do much for me) and nothing I could get at this point would provide much useful work experience for me.</p>
<p>So this leaves me with the options:</p>
<p>-Try and learn some useful skill on my own, which in honesty I probably won't really do. I need the pressure of grades and a class to push me along, otherwise I just screw around.</p>
<p>-Try to get that some job, even if I don't need the money and won't likely get any useful experience out of it. This will atleast let me seem like I didn't screw around for a summer in interviews for internships next summer, but nothing else much will come from it.</p>
<p>-Take classes at my university. I commute to the university so I won't have to pay additional rent or anything. However, the only classes I could take won't really count for any major or minor I currently have planned. Though there are some interesting classes that I'd like to take and otherwise wouldn't be able to (and graduate in 4 years), and I could get potentially add another minor. However I don't think adding the minor will make me any more employable and it's a lot to pay. The cost if I take something like 16 credits will be like 8.3K though, which is a lot. And I don't think it sounds good in an interview to say I took classes my sophomore summer, though it's probably better than neither working or taking classes.</p>
<p>I was leaning toward the first, but now I'm thinking about the third. I'm just looking for some input. My parents are currently paying for school and they can pay the 8.3K, but I don't know how long they'll be able to support me.</p>
<p>Just looking for input. I register for classes tomorrow for the summer and fall so I'd like advise before then, but I won't have to pay for a few weeks.</p>
<p>Have you ever held a job? If not I’d recommend working, even if it’s just grunt work, demonstrating that you can be a good employee is an important skill when you go looking for work that is more related to what you want to do in life.</p>
<p>I worked a pretty good retail job from the summer between my sophomore and junior years of high school until almost the end of my senior year of high school (I left and gave a 2-weeks notice and everything, everything was on good terms). I think I got some good experience there.</p>
<p>Part time job and a class or two sounds like a good plan. Maybe it wouldn’t cost $8K. Lots of kids are taking classes in the summer because they get shut out of classes during the school year. Won’t affect you for job interviews. You don’t need another minor. I think this double/triple majors/minors stuff is way overdone by this generation of college students.</p>
<p>The pay structure of the school is that you pay the same amount until you take 9 credits (in spring and summer terms - 18 for fall and winter) so I couldn’t save money by taking fewer credits.</p>
<p>Need to know what year you are in and what your major is. Can you take summer classes elsewhere and transfer the credits? You could use the summer as a way of getting a start on a minor that might be better for jobs after you graduate.</p>
<p>If you do opt for classes, don’t limit yourself to what your university offers if they don’t work for your degree. There are online distance learning classes that you might be able to take from another university if the credit transfers. You might even find some community college classes that would be inexpensive and transferable to your university.</p>
<p>My major is Industrial Engineering and Operations Research (the dept here is called IOE, I will be focusing more on the OR side) and I am a sophomore. I have currently declared minors in Computer Science and Mathematics. Only the CS minor am I doing for the employability, I just wanted to do a math minor. There’s nothing really worth taking at the local community college, I could take classes like Intro to Psych, Intro to Sociology, Intro to PoliSci there, but that doesn’t really do me any good. I’ve already completed all my HU/SS requirements.</p>
<p>The minor I might consider (because I will be very close to it, and I just like the subject) should I take the classes I signed up for during the spring and summer would be Economics.</p>