Is my Schedule too Much to Handle with Work Study?

[sheldonrocks97]

Hello,

I'm an incoming freshman EE major at a small engineering university and I need to have an on campus job to pay for personal expenses. Tuition, Fees, and Room and Board will all be paid for, but I still need to get a campus job for personal expenses.

I was just wondering if my schedule combined with 10 hours of work study will be too stressful for my first semester. I have already taken many college classes in high school so I know how much it takes to succeed in college, so I'm prepared, but I don't want my first semester at university to be too stressful.

Here is my schedule:

MATH 335 Differential Equations (3)
PHYS 122 and Lab (5)
EE 101 Intro to Electrical Engineering (2)
EE 252 Mathematical Engineering (4)
MENG 189 Robotics (1)

Total: 15 credit hours

Do you think I can handle it or am I just being paranoid? I've never had a job before so I'm a little nervous.

Thanks for the help!

 

[TitoSmooth]

There will be absolutely no social life what so ever. It is possible if your work study is no more then 10 hours a week. I would withdrawal from one class if it does not effect your scholarship/student aid or eligibility for programs you are enrolled in.

Hopefully your work study is in the stem field tutoring others, so the job isn't really a job but more of studying.

 

[ModusPwnd]

Honestly, it looks like a normal schedule and work load to me. 10 hours working is not much and you have 15 credit hours of course load which is fairly normal but slightly high.

 

[NATURE.M]

To be frank, it doesn't seem that bad. It seems rather typical. And plus since you've taken college courses before, you'll now what to expect and what's required of you.

 

[pmr]

I think that's a really insane workload. You won't be able to delve into any of those subjects with any satisfactory depth given that sort of schedule. Especially not with work study on top of it all.

Sure you'll be able to chug through problems related to conservation of energy in the electric field. But you won't have any time to think about why the electric field is conservative in the first place.

Sure you'll memorize the fact that mass inflates by a factor of 1/sqrt(1-v^2/c^2) when a body moves, and knowing that fact will earn you points on tests. But you won't have any time to think about why mass must inflate in that way.

Sure you'll learn that electrons create magnetic fields when they move, and you'll crunch through a bunch of problems involving vector cross products, and you'll get A's on your homeworks. But you won't ever have time to explore how magnetism is really just a byproduct of the union between vanilla electrostatics and relativistic space-time.

If you want to treat your university education as a plug-and-chug marathon with a good GPA as the end-goal, then you can probably still do it. But if the end-goal of your educational experience is to become intimately and professionally familiar with high level physics and mathematics, then you definitely need to allot more time for each subject. I'd drop some of the course load, or the work-study, or a bit of both.

If you don't take my advice, and you go through with that frantic schedule, then perhaps just try to remain aware of your level of engagement over the course of the hectic semester. Try to keep a tally of how many times you don't fully understand a concept but have to move forward to the next chapter just due to time constraints. And after a semester like that, if you find that you haven't retained any of the material, then perhaps you can re-evaluate before signing up for the next round of classes.

 

[heatengine516]

^ If he's receiving any kind of financial aid or scholarships that require him to be full time, then dropping more than one of those courses would likely result in being non-full time. Two of them aren't even 3 credit hours. If he's ready for differential equations straight out of high school, then this doesn't look like a bad course load to me.

 

[TitoSmooth]

^ If he's receiving any kind of financial aid or scholarships that require him to be full time, then dropping more than one of those courses would likely result in being non-full time. Two of them aren't even 3 credit hours. If he's ready for differential equations straight out of high school, then this doesn't look like a bad course load to me.

True that if he picked challenging teachers that actually make you work. If he the pushover s gl

 

[TheKracken]

This does not look bad at all. Like what has been said, two of the courses are sub 3 credits. I am sure those won't be too difficult. The two math courses on top of physics will be tough but not too insane. But then again, have you ever taken a college level course before at a community college or university? Much more is expected from you than high school ( from my experience) so be aware of that. Good Luck to you.

 

[sheldonrocks97]

If you want to treat your university education as a plug-and-chug marathon with a good GPA as the end-goal, then you can probably still do it. But if the end-goal of your educational experience is to become intimately and professionally familiar with high level physics and mathematics, then you definitely need to allot more time for each subject. I'd drop some of the course load, or the work-study, or a bit of both.

To be honest I can't drop any classes, because I must stay full time in order to keep my financial aid and scholarships. I have been talking to people at my university and they say that many of their students work and they consider it a good thing to make connections with the departments, since it is a very small university. Also, I am considering starting with 10 hours, but cutting back to 5 hours if I find I'm struggling too much.

^ If he's receiving any kind of financial aid or scholarships that require him to be full time, then dropping more than one of those courses would likely result in being non-full time. Two of them aren't even 3 credit hours. If he's ready for differential equations straight out of high school, then this doesn't look like a bad course load to me.

As I mentioned earlier you are correct. I must remain a full time student in order to keep financial aid and also to make decent progress on my EE degree.

This does not look bad at all. Like what has been said, two of the courses are sub 3 credits. I am sure those won't be too difficult. The two math courses on top of physics will be tough but not too insane. But then again, have you ever taken a college level course before at a community college or university? Much more is expected from you than high school ( from my experience) so be aware of that. Good Luck to you.

Thank you!

I have taken many community college math classes before. I have taken Calc I and II and I'm in Calc III right now during the summer. I have also taken Linear Algebra. According to the chair of EE at my university, Differential Equations is next.

I agree though, college classes are way more demanding than ones in high school and require much more effort, yet they are much more rewarding when you get a good grade.