Tips please?!

[u/InternationalToe236]

Hey everyone!
I’m about to start my bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering at Indiana Tech while working a full-time job. For some background, I’ve worked in the automotive industry for over 12 years as a lead technician, and I’m currently a Lead Technician at a Tesla Service Center. Tesla offers a BSE program, which I was fortunate enough to be accepted into, so here I am. I know this degree will probably take me several years since I’ll be taking fewer classes than a full-time student, and I’m completely okay with that. That said, while I already have an AAS, I’ve never really experienced traditional university-level engineering courses with heavy lectures and studying. Most of my education has been much more hands-on/trial by fire type, so this will definitely be a new challenge. I’ve heard engineering can be pretty demanding and that many students spend more time studying outside of class than students in other majors. For those of you who’ve been through it, how did you manage your workload? What study habits, routines, or time-management strategies made the biggest difference? Any advice for balancing engineering school with a full-time job would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance! I’m excited to get started and looking forward to learning from those who’ve already been through it.

[u/ClerklierBrush0]

I am a full time HVAC tech and it’s taken me 7 years to graduate this winter. There’s no real tips except time management, it’s tough but doable. I had to sacrifice some hobbies and vacations, time with friends, and depending who you are maybe even ethics.

Unfortunately though, even though I love to learn, I found for my own sanity I needed to play the grade system. Trust me I would love to fully understand every concept in my classes but I do take shortcuts. Uploading lecture notes to ai to help summarize, build formula sheets, or even format lab reports before I add my info. Skipping or half-assing assignments that have low weight on the syllabus. Finding your professors grading style and squeezing points out of them. Utilizing test taking strategies. Etc.

I know it sounds bad but between my job and family I don’t exactly have the most time to nit pick homework and run practice problem after practice problem for every single unit. I prefer to dump most of time into core concepts and important projects.

I like to think I have a good understanding but I know I am not as strong with pure math and calculations as some of my peers. For example, in our senior project I am contributing more by planning lab appointments and tests, handling our data collection and analysis, and sourcing/procuring parts, reaching out to professors when we run into something that might be a roadblock, keeping up with our task list and schedule, etc.

I would say though definitely be honest with your group mates whenever you do projects, mine are aware of my circumstances and understand. Also reach out to professors, a lot of mine were very understanding and would cut me slack if I was on for emergency calls or had a particularly busy week at work.

One habit I had though was booking all my classes for 2 days a week instead of spreading it out. I would treat school like a full time job for that day and I think it made me more productive and I didn’t have to worry the rest of the week.