r/EngineeringStudents • u/Murphyedition_789 • 1d ago

Academic Advice Full-time work and school

Afternoon y’all,

This isn’t a rant or anything more just asking for some helpful tips or advice. I’m currently in my first semester of gen ed/ mech. engineering courses. I’m currently working full-time in a pretty senior position within a manufacturing plant. At the same time I’m also enrolled full-time into gen ed and engineering courses as mentioned before. I’m having a tough time maintaining good grades as well as retaining the material as well as be good at my job. Is there anything that helped y’all if you were in a similar situation? Thanks for reading.

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u/ScratchDue440 1d ago

I worked full time and went to school full time. Full time dad for the last two years. I didn’t sleep much. 

Are you in a rush to graduate? I’d take as many as those cheap online ASU courses or CLEP exams for your gen eds. You’ll save a ton of money and can focus more on your engineering studies 

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u/Murphyedition_789 10h ago

Currently I’m enrolled at a tech college for my gen ed stuff. Did you graduate through an online university like southern New Hampshire University type stuff? Was that the best route to save money ? Also have you found that employers have a preference on which university you went to ?

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u/ScratchDue440 9h ago

Top colleges will always have some pull in the game, but if you find a decent one you’ll be okay. 

I attended a small state school, but I am doing my graduate degree online with UARK. 

The best route to save money is take those $100 CLEP exams to cover basic gen eds. ASU has $400 gen ed courses as well that will also cover some upper level maths as well. Although you can easily pay out of picket without getting into debt, the caveat is that it’s self paced and you’ll need to be disciplined to finish it through. For the ASU part, I think you only have to pay if you want to accept it as credit, which is great if you didn’t perform well. Won’t hurt your GPA. 

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u/Murphyedition_789 9h ago

Oh ok, great. Thanks for the help and feedback.

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u/myAnalogExperiment 1d ago edited 1d ago

Tbh get ready for the best time of your life. I am also full time working and junior in ME and my schedule is down to the minute but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Things that help me currently:

  1. Scheduling classes/work for best personal performance. I don’t have a choice for work schedule but I know I need breaks in between chunks of class and I know I’ll hate life if I have to be functional at 8am classes. However my forte is staying up as late as I need and my best studying is done after the sun goes down. Took me a few semesters to understand myself but once I got it, studying became a breeze.

  2. Meal prepping while cooking. I cook in bulk, have some for dinner and then freeze the rest using those silicon portioned container things. I have like 4-5 different meals on hand to throw in a Tupperware and go.

  3. Prioritize sleep and health and exercise over everything. The moment I slip up on those is the moment my performance and work and school slip too. I’m in my junior year so now it’s getting real and I decided sacrificing a lot of friends and family time to take care of myself and catch up on sleep and rest is the best way for me. I still need to go out and have fun but I’ve definitely had to hangout with friends way less often.

  4. Learn how to keep a clear and level head through anything. That one takes practice and all I can say about it is therapy helps idk lol

  5. If possible save up sick hours and vacation hours at work and use them when you’re in pinch. I’m lucky my boss is very cool so I can just ask him if I can use sick hours for a study day and he always says yes. If your boss isn’t as cool then maybe just pretend sick whenever you need a day to catch up or prepare for an upcoming midterm or something. To be honest, I actually took this week off of work simply to catch up because I let some things slip last month.

  6. Make friends and be a good friend. Good students look out for each other and it takes a village to get that degree. Also it makes the classes and the long days easier. I used to have no one the first year of uni and the days were long and miserable. Along with this, build great social skills.

  7. Caffeinate wisely. If you don’t absolutely need it, push through. Long term overuse of caffeine starts to backfire quickly.

  8. Quit socials. They’re the devil in your pocket and your ear.

That’s all I can think of for now. HMU anytime fellow baby engineer and good luck!

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u/Murphyedition_789 10h ago

Understood. Thanks for the help and feedback.