<p>I'm not sure where this should be posted, but why not here. I'm a rising sophomore engineering student and planning on taking 17 hrs next semester. Well i just found out about a research internship opportunity at a major company in the south. It requires 20 hours a week commitment. </p>
<p>I was wondering if it sounds reasonable to take this course load and work 20 hours a week and still maintain a good gpa? </p>
<p>I know the gpa should come first, but this also seems like a very good opportunity to get work and research experience.</p>
<p>It’s not something I would personally want to do, but the internship would be a very valuable experience if you can pull it off. How did your first year in college go? Retrospectively, do you think you could have worked a 20-hour job in addition to your classes? If the answer is “no”, you would probably struggle next year as well. </p>
<p>Also think about potential scheduling conflicts. Can you set aside 20 hours per week during regular business hours?</p>
<p>Well i took a total of 34 credits last year and pulled off a 3.9 despite an insane English comp class. I’m not sure if i could handle the extra hours or not. I had free time but i didn’t tally it. Lol.</p>
<p>As for the conflicts, they are willing to work around my schedule which is pretty free 3 days a week. </p>
<p>Same here. I currently go to school part-time-ish and work full-time, but come this Fall I will be switching it around to focus more on my education. This Summer I am taking 2 classes and I’ve realized that I had just enough time to work 40 hours/wk and go to the classes and have a bit of time left over to do assignments or study for tests and such. If I had taken 1 more class I would have been swamped. Going into next term, while I know I can fit 4 classes (worth 18 units) into my schedule with ~30 hours of work, I can see now that it would leave me with just enough time to work and go to class and I’d have the most minimal extra time (without sacrificing sleep) to study or do homework. So, I’ll opt to drop one class and take 14-15 units instead.</p>
<p>My job isn’t particularly demanding though. I’d suggest you look into the duties and responsibilities you will have with this research internship and if they seem demanding, then you may want to consider taking less units or not going for the internship. What I plan to do is actually still take the 18 units and see how it works out since I’d have a couple weeks to drop a class with no record of it on my transcript. You can attempt this as well to see how spread out you are with the time commitment. Usually, students can drop a class a little before the mid-term with a W or equivalent on the transcript which is preferrable to having too low of a grade as the W won’t have an effect on GPA.</p>
<p>EDIT: To clarify, work nor school seem demanding, even when placed together, but it’s just the time commitment. I have to be at work from this time to this time and I have to be in class at this time and this time, but it doesn’t leave any useful time outside of those realms.</p>
<p>^^After looking at it again I do see the word ‘year’ I saw that 34 and my mind kinda shut down in panic and shock. That would probably be education suicide otherwise!</p>
<p>If I were in your shoes, I’d say do it. Just try to make sure you get enough sleep because without that you will not survive this particular semester. </p>
<p>The point is…if you’re going to be sacrificing sleep, don’t do it. If not, it should be a good thing going for you if you can pull it off.</p>
I saw that 34 and my mind kinda shut down in panic and shock. That would probably be education suicide otherwise!</p>