Working full time while in grad school

<p>I am a full time civil engineer working in the Chicago area for a construction management firm and graduated with my BSCE from Purdue in 2009. I want to pursue my MSCE with an emphasis in structural engineering and got into Purdue (out of state tuition is too expensive) and the University of Illinois at Chicago. My company would probably support me going to UIC, but I am concerned about the reputation difference between Purdue and UIC and the fact that I would be going to school while working full time. Does anyone have any input or advice about either issue?</p>

<p>you would not have the time to work full time while in grad school unless you take one class, or maybe two, in each quarter. as a structural engineering master student I am taking 4 classes and it really drains out all my energy already. I tried working part time and it didn’t work out so well. i happened to work over 40 hrs in one single week because of deadline and it wasn’t pretty. you simply won’t have the time or the energy to work if you are full time student. that’s why here at Stanford they limit students who TA/RA to only 3 classes a quarter to even out the workload. you may go to school part time but that’s gonna take at least 2 to 3 years to finish. why not just take a year off and do full time? i know in this economy it’s hard to quit a job but your company might understand your situation.</p>

<p>I don’t know much about the two schools so i wouldn’t comment on that.</p>

<p>Thats what I wanted to do is take a year off, but like you said, in this economy I don’t want to quit. Plus I recently got married, so I am really considering working but only taking 1 or 2 classes a semester. Thank you for your input, I know I won’t be taking that many classes at one time!!!</p>