Originally Posted by
mollusk
Thanks. It is hard.
But I think others have a harder path.
What I don't understand is how some undergraduate engineering students that I have known have found the time to be competitive at a national level. And by being competitive I mean actually earning National Champion Jerseys. I've known three of them that actually earned those jerseys and a couple of others that were close to that level. When did they sleep?
I'm not allowed to say much about there academic records due to Federal Laws, but I think that I can say some things that are public record. Two of them graduated with Highest Honors and I was their faculty mentor for their project. I don't think that the two students know it, but one of the members on their committee was a world class triathlete and he was really interested in their "aero" front brake design.
I managed to give up 20 or so hours in a typical week, 13 or so minimum, for almost all of fall quarter and all of winter quarter in undergraduate engineering. There were some weeks where I swear I averaged 4.5 or so hours of sleep a night. I got by with coffee.
Originally Posted by
Flatballer
I had a lot of free time college. I was an engineering student in a tough major, but it really doesn't take that much time. I only graduated *** laude though.
I also skipped a lot of my classes and didn't do the best job on my homework.
The main thing, however, is that it's flexible. I could take 3 hours in the middle of the day and go ride and still have plenty of time to do other stuff. I probably spent a total of 20 hours a week in class or working on class, excluding my final semester which was more like 45 hours/week due to senior design.
I didn't do as well as you, but I got by. Some quarters were definitely way worse than others, and if I'd figured out how to do well in school sometime before spring of my junior year I maybe could have graduated with distinction.
Either way, I definitely remember some weeks really really sucking.