<p>While carrying a full load of engineering classes at the junior+ level, what is the maximum # of hours it would be practical to work? With 15 semester units (including classes like Heat Transfer, Equilibrium Thermodynamics, Environmental Chem., Linear Algebra) how many hours or work is reasonable. Would 16 hours be too much after adding in 1/2 an hour travel time each way? 10 hours? Responses preferred from engineering students who have attempted it. Thanks.</p>
<p>I’d say that depends on the reason why you are working and the salary. Is it for pocket money? 10hr/wk at $10/hr - taxes should be enough for some moderate weekend fun. You gotta pay bills? Then you must work until those bills are fully paid.</p>
<p>But you are probably in the former situation. So, if your wages are $10/hr I’d recommend no more than 14hr/wk + 2hrs travel time = 2 workdays/wk = $140/wk - taxes. For every extra $0.80 above $10/hr you make, you can reduce your work hours by 1 to maintain the weekly amount at or near $140 - taxes. Just make sure you keep the number of days you work below 3; every time you go to work adds an extra hr to your total work hours. (e.g. if you spread 15 hrs over 3 days your total work hours are 18 whereas if you work a single 15hr day, your total work hours are 16). Include your transportation costs to everything above.</p>
<p>Enginox, thanks for the calculations. Actually, the pay would be $12/hr., but the job is for the ‘experience’ (or at least for putting something on the resume) not really for money. Tuition, etc. is paid for by a scholarship so it is not out of financial desperation. Travel would be by bus (which is why the 6 miles takes so long) and a monthly bus pass is $30.</p>
<p>My real question is how much working 4 afternoons a week would impact school work.
Is the load too heavy? What is the rule of thumb for class loads vs. weekly work hours?</p>
<p>It would decrease your flexibility if you needed to study a lot or work on a project. It might also limit your choices on courses that you can take. The experience is always very good to have but you may have to compromise elsewhere for it.</p>
<p>Is there a possibility of a coop? Where you take a semester off and work full-time?</p>
<p>Not sure how this translates to the semester system but…</p>
<p>Took 18-20 units/quarter for the last 2 years (double engineering major)
Worked 20-30 hours/week in industry during those 2 years
Worked engineering research the entire time
Overall GPA for all quarters was 3.5-4.0 depending on how hard I worked. Deans honors list for all quarters. </p>
<p>Pretty much I finished all of my engineering lower divs (thermo, statics, dynamics), and the majority of my upper divs (fluids, more thermo, etc.) while working 2 jobs and of course continuing to persue my hobbies, passions, etc. outside of school. </p>
<p>I will be taking 25 units/quarter next year because I want to persue some other areas of interest before I graduate in addition to 2 senior design projects (one for each engineering degree). </p>
<p>My take on the situation would be to do as many hours as you can reasonably handle. For me, I was able to do all of the above and maintain a nice 2-3 day weekend depending on how effectively I managed my time. Of course, I was getting paid much more than 10/hr otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered working in industry at all.</p>
<p>I had taken approximately 18 credits each semester for my junior and senior years and worked typically between 8 and 15 hours a week. It was a few hours 2 or 3 days a week. On occasion, I would work 20+ if needed for a special project. It was a 15 minute walk from campus to the office.</p>
<p>This too was for experience (it was an engineering internship) and I too had a full tuition scholarship. The good thing for me was the company was very understanding if we had to take time off for finals or school projects. Many of the full-time employees were former interns so they knew what we had to go through.</p>
<p>BCEagle - Work would have to be in addition to school, so no, a semester won’t be taken off.
Anteat3r - Impressive.
ken285- Did your GPA suffer much/any due to the work hours?</p>
<p>No my grades did not suffer but I consider myself to be above average in terms of time management.</p>