<p>This semester has been hell so far and after speaking with my parents and my advisor. I am going to have to reevaluate what I am doing. I am not changing majors but I am going to have to reevaluate my approach.</p>
<p>Which leads me to the following question. Does it really matter if it takes me, lets say another 3 or 4 years to graduate? I am an older student. I have a B.S in Economics and I am working on my 2nd B.S in Industrial Engineering. </p>
<p>If I just follow my graduation plan, I only have 4 more semesters until I graduate but I am feeling overwhelmed this semester and it is affecting my mood, my personal life and everything else. Opinions?</p>
<p>It all depends on you and how soon you need to have the degree. If you are working while going to school then trying to take too many courses will probably be very stressful and result in sub-par performance. Changing to part-time status might well be the thing that saves your sanity.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine taking an extra semester (or even year) will effect your job prospects. As an aside, if I were a hiring manager, I would love to see an engineer with a strong economics background.</p>
<p>Speaking as a fellow non-traditional (31, wife, toddler, house), if you don’t find a balance between school and the rest of your life you won’t make it 2 more years. I personally treat school like a full time job in terms of how much time I put into it (and part time job when was a stay at home parent). I should note that in my previous salaried positions full time really meant between 45 and 65 hours per week depending on workload. Now that I think about it I’m not sure if that’s healthy/sustainable with a family long term…</p>
<p>Anyway between school and my internship I spend ~60 hours per week; ~40 hours per week between 3 classes and two part time jobs when I was home with daughter until she was 15 months old (~48 hours per week at home with her), so you can imagine that was an incredibly stressful year.</p>
<p>Figure out what is sustainable for you and go from there. Could I have taken 4 years instead of 5 to graduate? Technically yes, but I’ve already been at my limit for the past three years and have definitely had a couple moments where I’ve curled into the fetal position crying due to all the pressure. Better to avoid those moments. I’m still going to end up with 151-154 credits by graduation, so it’s not like I am just skating by D8</p>
<p>Thanks for your suggestion. This semester will hopefully be my worst. I had a lot of financial problems in the beginning of the semester and I went from wanting to get a 3.0 this semester to being happy if I pass all my classes which really sucks.</p>
<p>Calculus III turned out to be a lot harder than I anticipated, not so much the material but the way the professors grade it here-everybody that I know is doing way worse than in Calculus II.</p>
<p>Engineering Economic Analysis is probably the hardest course I have ever taken- not so much about the material but the tests are incredibly hard. Open book test and the professor had to curve the grade + added 16 points. </p>
<p>It is very stressful to take 4 courses-all graded on a curve. I have no idea where I stand gradewise</p>