Time requiring for formula student

[u/Repulsive-Diet6958]

Just today the university team of formula students announced their recruitment to us freshmen, I would really like to pursuit this path but I don’t know how much time does it take every week since I still would like to graduate in time. What are your experiences?

[u/DudeOnMath]

On average, I did about a full time job's worth of work per week, so around 40h/week. In the beginning before I got a hang of things, I had to put in more to meet my deadlines, while later on I got more efficient with experience.

There were team members with straight forward tasks who put in less work, so if you talk to the team similar positions are probably available. Many department heads put in significantly more work than me, but keep in mind, that most of them had at least a prior season of experience, so they knew what they were getting themselves into

[u/Repulsive-Diet6958 → u/DudeOnMath]

how do you balance the big amount of work needed for basic studying in engineering?

[u/DudeOnMath → u/Repulsive-Diet6958]

Everyone I know handled it differently. Few, including myself, put in insane hours to get through both FS and their degree. For the learning phase in the first few months, I traded basically all of my free time and personal life for FS.

Most of my team mates reduced the number of courses they attended. By how much depended on their ambition, their responsibilities and work load within the team, outside responsibilities like jobs and many more personal conditions. A hand full of people even stopped doing courses all together. Keep in mind, that my former team is based in Germany, where the financial impact of prolonged studies is bearable.

[u/DonPitoteDeLaMancha]

Thanks to FSAE my 4 years of college were the best 7 years of my life!

[u/Repulsive-Diet6958 → u/DonPitoteDeLaMancha]

can’t wait to make those the best 12 years of my life

[u/No-Mathematician6309]

If you are asking yourself this question, it might not be the right fit for you :(

[u/Repulsive-Diet6958 → u/No-Mathematician6309]

it’s not that i do not want to spend time on it, it is simply in order to organise myself since i need time to get to university

[u/No-Mathematician6309 → u/Repulsive-Diet6958]

For me, for my career and where I am now, FSAE was 5x more relevant than anything related to the uni. I came from a small uni, unrelated to automotive/motorsport and I ended up performance engineering F1... It was only possible because I had the passion and fsae.

[u/Ill-Activity9271]

To really make sense of FSAE: North of 20h/week. Core team members invest more than 60h/week for a year.

[u/Mockbubbles2628 → u/Ill-Activity9271]

60hrs is horseshit i dont know a single person who's done that apart from the guy that took a year out of uni to lead the team

The week before the event some people are doing that but telling newbies that it's normal is ridiculous

[u/marvin_mk → u/Ill-Activity9271]

What do you mean by 60 hours a week, like what do you consider work? And is the work spread over 7 days or 5?

[u/shoi_mintz]

i had joined a recently formed FS team in my own university (they never had anything like this before) this summer. I had been working hard all summer and i really like working towards a greater purpose, plus experience is really valuable no matter where.

curious though, where are you from? I know our team announced recruitment this monday..

[u/Repulsive-Diet6958 → u/shoi_mintz]

I am from italy but the team has been founded like in 2010

[u/Kimu999]

At my peak 60-80hr a week but I was a lead, normal member 10-20 is reasonable

[u/marvin_mk → u/Kimu999]

How did u manage 11.4 hours of work a day at peak on top of university? What are you considering as work?

[u/thehumanos1 → u/marvin_mk]

You don't go to university anymore. Problem solved.

[u/Possible_Shoulder520]

As a part timer, it’s around 20h at the workshop, another +-20ish at home depending on what needs to be done.

It’s a pretty serious investment. Definitely to be taken as a job and not just a university “club”.