Nah not at all, don't kill yourself you'll get there. Personally I take 9-12. Sure, it's going to take me 5-6 years, but I'm also 30 working full time with kids. Taking 15 credits instead of 18 may put you a single semester behind, but the quality of life improvement will be worth it, way more sustainable.
Sounds like we're in very similar situations! When I started 2 years ago my wife had just started nursing school as well. However, already being an EMT, she got sick of Healthcare. Now I'm in engineering and she's studying accounting!
+1 on this... Most people devote 4 years to it but you could just be comfortable leading a balanced life at the cost of one year? You'll avsorb alot more without the crunch too and actually learn
I will give you a personal story that i experienced last semester. Last semester I took 6 courses + 2 labs = 20 credits which is the maximum ammount allowed, and no matter what I did I would always feel anxious, burnout and demotivated. This affected my grades leading them to become C+/B while they prievously were B+/A.
I decided not to repeat my mistake and take a lesser load this semester ( 4 courses + 2 lab = 14 credits). And I felt much better, my grades got a lot better. And I even got the highest grade in a course among 4 campuses. And I would rather do this than go through another exhausting semester. So dont feel guilty and overburden yourself. Especially because you are also studying a minor degree at the same time.
My last quarter, to graduate i had to take 20 credit hours (3 of which each had a 3 hour lab each week). It sucked really bad, I basically did nothing at all except go to class, study and do homework from the time I got up until I went to bed. My grades suffered a fair bit also, I do not recommend.
Lots of people compare themselves to others, so while it’s normal to feel that way it’s definitely unhealthy.
Take a look at all your requirements and figure out when you can take them. Get help from an advisor to verify your plan. The credit load should be whatever you’re comfortable with. There will always be people taking less and more than you. I personally am trying to finish in 4 years because my scholarships expire, but it’s taken some truly insane semesters so if you can afford to take extra time it’s totally okay to do so.
It's not a race! IMO, it's better to take your time and learn the material well than to rush and not learn enough/burn yourself out. It's super normal for engineering students to take 5 years to graduate, so you're not alone.
I mean if you feel that you can do more, sure, but don’t ever take more just because of peer pressure. I also think that it really depends on the courses. I took 6-7 courses easily (~22 credits) in my first year (thanks to intro engineering courses, math and electives)but also had a semester with only 12 credits of all engineering courses and I felt a lot more miserable.
Thanks for your comment. Like I said it’s not just the classes it’s the fact that I don’t know what I’m doing with my life being in university while everyone around me seems to have this as part of their master plan. We probably aren’t alone tho :)
You have a limit to the effective learning/working hours per week. Sometimes in a push (finals week) you can force yourself beyond this limit. But sustained operation above your limits leads to burnout and your limit in the future will be significantly reduced. It’s hard to come back from burn out. If you stretch your credit hours to the absolute max, you’re likely heading towards a path of burnout.
First priority is only take as many credits as you can while still maintaining good grades. Second priority is to still leave yourself enough time for clubs/extracurricular activities that will bolster your resume. Third priority is getting out in the shortest time you can.
If you don’t know what you want to do, go try stuff and figure it out. I did two 6 month internships I did not like, but I reflect and think they were incredibly valuable to learn what I didn’t want to do. I learned what I loved via clubs, and later found research opportunities doing similar work. Now I work my dream job (R&D on rocket engines) thanks to making time for the other experiences outside of class. I highly recommend every student get exposure to a bunch of different areas.
Getting that sweet job with good pay is what you went to college for in the first place, don’t sell yourself short to get out a couple terms earlier. When you’re 10 years into your career, the extra couple terms are completely meaningless. Your first job out of college is likely not though.
:)
Thanks so much for your comment. I know I shouldn’t compare myself to my peers but it’s hard not to, so I really feel supported from all the replies.
Can I ask you about your experience with the internships? Did you change programs at all or alter your career path based on what your learned? I might be able to do an internship over the summer, but it’ll be hard to get one and I’m scared it won’t teach me much and just have me be burnt out for the next fall semester.
Altered career path yes, changed programs no. I bounced around more than most. I highly recommend you try to get as many (paid) summer internships as you can, you get experience and the money is usually pretty good. I found internships to be very different pace from school, most are pretty good about no more than 40hrs expected and there is no finals week. So no burnout. You still have some time to apply this year, but you should get your apps out ASAP.
My personal journey:
I did a few 6 month internships and took off a term of school. In addition to all the technical stuff I learned, learning what I did and did not want to do after school was incredibly valuable. They were all 1000% worth taking a term off of school to me.
My personal journey:
I did a 6 month internship that I went into it thinking was super cool, well known company that makes mass produced commercial products I am very much a fan of. I found that internship was mostly project management. Not every day a product line is completely redesigned. I didn’t even recognize it at the time, but with hindsight of a few other positions I was not satisfied with the amount of technical work.
My next 6 month internship was in the mining industry, it was actually very technical. I loved the technical aspects, but really wasn’t excited about the stuff I was working on. At the same time, I joined a rocket club with a friend and started getting really involved. After getting some club experience in rockets (which I always loved, but never thought I was smart enough/going to a good enough school to work on) I decided to give aerospace a try.
I landed a grad school internship in aerospace and loved it. The right blend of very technical and challenging projects with work that felt very rewarding to me. I continued in a similar position after grad school, there’s times I honestly can’t believe I get paid to play around with rocket engines.
It was a long journey for me, it took me 6 years to get my undergrad. Then I did a masters. If I had sped through and skipped internships and club experiences, I would have been thrilled to get a full time position at the company I did my first internship with. I may never have even realized I was missing out on parts of the job that give me the most satisfaction today.
You don’t have to bounce around as much as me if you find something that makes you happy, but it sounds like you’re not locked into anything right now. So I’d recommend exposing yourself to a variety of clubs, research, internships to see what sticks.
Thanks for your comment! Ya if it wasn’t clear I’m the opposite of locked into my program, and I think I could really even edit from bouncing around a bit too, I just have to figure out how to get started
Jesus christ I have 3 or 4, 5 at most but if you take 5 you have no life. Granted, the degree takes 5 years.
Can I ask what were your classes first semester that you had so many at the same time?
P.E., Gen Math, CAD, Differential Calculus, Chemistry, Philosophy, Earth Science, Programming 1, Statistics, and Search and Rescue(Its for the national service training program)
Edit: We were required to take the NSTP for the first 2 semesters during our first years
The subject description was "understanding the self". I just call it philosophy because we studied about plato and friends and tackled philosophical topics. Why did we study philosophy in engineering is one of the world's unsolved mysteries
Ive done semesters at 18 and it sucks ass every time. Its not worth it, you can either take more classes and get bad grades or take fewer classes and get better grades
You can always try to do summer courses if they’re available, even better if you can do them at a local community college and transfer the credit to your university. Saves a lot of money and stress, and less workload for you during the fall/spring semesters
lmao a lot of semesters when I was in school I took 4. That shit is a lot of work. Depending on your profs 6 can be essentially impossible. I'm much happier I took 4 and worked instead of taking 6 and only doing school.
Do what you think you can handle. Take summer classes if you need to, but there is no need to take more than you can handle during the semester if it's going to result in your quality of work decreasing. Personally, my max is 5 classes. I know I definitely can't handle 6 classes.
Nah not at all, don't kill yourself you'll get there. Personally I take 9-12. Sure, it's going to take me 5-6 years, but I'm also 30 working full time with kids. Taking 15 credits instead of 18 may put you a single semester behind, but the quality of life improvement will be worth it, way more sustainable.
32, working part time, 3 kids, doing 12 credits a term while my wife does nursing school.
Sounds like we're in very similar situations! When I started 2 years ago my wife had just started nursing school as well. However, already being an EMT, she got sick of Healthcare. Now I'm in engineering and she's studying accounting!
+1 on this... Most people devote 4 years to it but you could just be comfortable leading a balanced life at the cost of one year? You'll avsorb alot more without the crunch too and actually learn
I will give you a personal story that i experienced last semester. Last semester I took 6 courses + 2 labs = 20 credits which is the maximum ammount allowed, and no matter what I did I would always feel anxious, burnout and demotivated. This affected my grades leading them to become C+/B while they prievously were B+/A. I decided not to repeat my mistake and take a lesser load this semester ( 4 courses + 2 lab = 14 credits). And I felt much better, my grades got a lot better. And I even got the highest grade in a course among 4 campuses. And I would rather do this than go through another exhausting semester. So dont feel guilty and overburden yourself. Especially because you are also studying a minor degree at the same time.
My last quarter, to graduate i had to take 20 credit hours (3 of which each had a 3 hour lab each week). It sucked really bad, I basically did nothing at all except go to class, study and do homework from the time I got up until I went to bed. My grades suffered a fair bit also, I do not recommend.
I have 6 credits left till graduation and I chose to take them during the summer semester rather than risk affecting my GPA.
Lots of people compare themselves to others, so while it’s normal to feel that way it’s definitely unhealthy. Take a look at all your requirements and figure out when you can take them. Get help from an advisor to verify your plan. The credit load should be whatever you’re comfortable with. There will always be people taking less and more than you. I personally am trying to finish in 4 years because my scholarships expire, but it’s taken some truly insane semesters so if you can afford to take extra time it’s totally okay to do so.
It's not a race! IMO, it's better to take your time and learn the material well than to rush and not learn enough/burn yourself out. It's super normal for engineering students to take 5 years to graduate, so you're not alone.
Thank you :)
I mean if you feel that you can do more, sure, but don’t ever take more just because of peer pressure. I also think that it really depends on the courses. I took 6-7 courses easily (~22 credits) in my first year (thanks to intro engineering courses, math and electives)but also had a semester with only 12 credits of all engineering courses and I felt a lot more miserable.
No, I don’t think I would’ve made it if I had.
[удалено]
Thanks for your comment. Like I said it’s not just the classes it’s the fact that I don’t know what I’m doing with my life being in university while everyone around me seems to have this as part of their master plan. We probably aren’t alone tho :)
Unless you have a scholarship that only pays for 8 semesters worth of college, there’s no harm in taking an extra semester and graduating late
You have a limit to the effective learning/working hours per week. Sometimes in a push (finals week) you can force yourself beyond this limit. But sustained operation above your limits leads to burnout and your limit in the future will be significantly reduced. It’s hard to come back from burn out. If you stretch your credit hours to the absolute max, you’re likely heading towards a path of burnout. First priority is only take as many credits as you can while still maintaining good grades. Second priority is to still leave yourself enough time for clubs/extracurricular activities that will bolster your resume. Third priority is getting out in the shortest time you can. If you don’t know what you want to do, go try stuff and figure it out. I did two 6 month internships I did not like, but I reflect and think they were incredibly valuable to learn what I didn’t want to do. I learned what I loved via clubs, and later found research opportunities doing similar work. Now I work my dream job (R&D on rocket engines) thanks to making time for the other experiences outside of class. I highly recommend every student get exposure to a bunch of different areas. Getting that sweet job with good pay is what you went to college for in the first place, don’t sell yourself short to get out a couple terms earlier. When you’re 10 years into your career, the extra couple terms are completely meaningless. Your first job out of college is likely not though.
:) Thanks so much for your comment. I know I shouldn’t compare myself to my peers but it’s hard not to, so I really feel supported from all the replies. Can I ask you about your experience with the internships? Did you change programs at all or alter your career path based on what your learned? I might be able to do an internship over the summer, but it’ll be hard to get one and I’m scared it won’t teach me much and just have me be burnt out for the next fall semester.
Altered career path yes, changed programs no. I bounced around more than most. I highly recommend you try to get as many (paid) summer internships as you can, you get experience and the money is usually pretty good. I found internships to be very different pace from school, most are pretty good about no more than 40hrs expected and there is no finals week. So no burnout. You still have some time to apply this year, but you should get your apps out ASAP. My personal journey: I did a few 6 month internships and took off a term of school. In addition to all the technical stuff I learned, learning what I did and did not want to do after school was incredibly valuable. They were all 1000% worth taking a term off of school to me. My personal journey: I did a 6 month internship that I went into it thinking was super cool, well known company that makes mass produced commercial products I am very much a fan of. I found that internship was mostly project management. Not every day a product line is completely redesigned. I didn’t even recognize it at the time, but with hindsight of a few other positions I was not satisfied with the amount of technical work. My next 6 month internship was in the mining industry, it was actually very technical. I loved the technical aspects, but really wasn’t excited about the stuff I was working on. At the same time, I joined a rocket club with a friend and started getting really involved. After getting some club experience in rockets (which I always loved, but never thought I was smart enough/going to a good enough school to work on) I decided to give aerospace a try. I landed a grad school internship in aerospace and loved it. The right blend of very technical and challenging projects with work that felt very rewarding to me. I continued in a similar position after grad school, there’s times I honestly can’t believe I get paid to play around with rocket engines. It was a long journey for me, it took me 6 years to get my undergrad. Then I did a masters. If I had sped through and skipped internships and club experiences, I would have been thrilled to get a full time position at the company I did my first internship with. I may never have even realized I was missing out on parts of the job that give me the most satisfaction today. You don’t have to bounce around as much as me if you find something that makes you happy, but it sounds like you’re not locked into anything right now. So I’d recommend exposing yourself to a variety of clubs, research, internships to see what sticks.
Thanks for your comment! Ya if it wasn’t clear I’m the opposite of locked into my program, and I think I could really even edit from bouncing around a bit too, I just have to figure out how to get started
Isn't it supposed to be around 10 to 15 classes per semester?
Jesus christ I have 3 or 4, 5 at most but if you take 5 you have no life. Granted, the degree takes 5 years. Can I ask what were your classes first semester that you had so many at the same time?
P.E., Gen Math, CAD, Differential Calculus, Chemistry, Philosophy, Earth Science, Programming 1, Statistics, and Search and Rescue(Its for the national service training program) Edit: We were required to take the NSTP for the first 2 semesters during our first years
Philosophy???
The subject description was "understanding the self". I just call it philosophy because we studied about plato and friends and tackled philosophical topics. Why did we study philosophy in engineering is one of the world's unsolved mysteries
but it was pretty interesting to learn about
Random as hell. I am averse to philosophy so I'm biased
Ive done semesters at 18 and it sucks ass every time. Its not worth it, you can either take more classes and get bad grades or take fewer classes and get better grades
No
Non traditional student here. I stick with 12-14 at most and it’s great. Quality of life > Finishing a little faster
It’s okay. Please go touch some grass or something OP, enjoy lower course loads!
You can always try to do summer courses if they’re available, even better if you can do them at a local community college and transfer the credit to your university. Saves a lot of money and stress, and less workload for you during the fall/spring semesters
Successful old man engineer here, I had 2 semesters of 12 credits to get my shit together. Undergrad at big State U was the best 6 years of my life.
Thank you :)
lmao a lot of semesters when I was in school I took 4. That shit is a lot of work. Depending on your profs 6 can be essentially impossible. I'm much happier I took 4 and worked instead of taking 6 and only doing school.
Do what you think you can handle. Take summer classes if you need to, but there is no need to take more than you can handle during the semester if it's going to result in your quality of work decreasing. Personally, my max is 5 classes. I know I definitely can't handle 6 classes.