Balancing School and Work
As a student at any level, it’s important to know how to balance your classes and extracurriculars. As a student in college, your schedule can be a lot more fluid than a typical high school schedule and this can allow for extra time to get involved in clubs, organizations, and even work. In this blog, our blog team members talk about their experiences working and balancing classes, clubs, and free time.
Since I started college, I have worked two different jobs while being a full-time student. My first job was in a fast-food service role on campus where I served mainly students at a retail dining location - of which Purdue has many such as Chick-fil-A, Qdoba, and Panera. In that job, I worked mainly night shifts which allowed me to spend the rest of my day going to classes, doing homework, and attending office hours. Working was important to me, it was a chance for me to make my own money and be more independent financially while in school. However, it is essential to be able to reach a balance between working and taking classes.
The second job that I have worked while in school is as the student worker for a college of Engineering staff member in laboratory safety. As a part of this job, I have to work between the hours of 8am and 5pm because it was not allowed for me to be in the laboratories outside of these hours as an undergraduate student. For this reason, it was essential to be smart about scheduling my hours between classes. Another thing that I took into consideration was planning to attend office hours for my classes and scheduling work around those times. As I moved through my college years, I found that depending on my schedule and class load, I would change the number of hours I would work to avoid becoming too overwhelmed. Club involvement was something that I also factored into my schedule for work and my efforts to balance classes and work led to some sacrifices. In particular, I decided to withdraw from a role I had in one of my clubs due to the lack of time I had between working regular hours and completing classwork.
The best advice that I would have to students when it comes to balancing work and school is to trial a schedule for a couple of weeks before making a decision about adding or removing hours. It’s important to also take time for yourself and for seeing friends and classmates, so don’t try to do everything at once between work, school, and clubs to avoid burning out!
-Lily Brodzinski, ChemE ‘25
Over the past few months, I have worked as a barista between classes and on the weekends to pay for tuition and day to day expenses. When I chose Purdue, I knew I would need to pick up a job to cover the extra cost of attending an out-of-state college, but it has been worth it because of Purdue’s highly-regarded engineering programs and the resources they offer.
When I was searching for a job, it was very easy to find opportunities because locations around campus are constantly hiring students. I contacted a few coffee shops that I was interested in and heard back in no time to set up interviews. Less than a week later, I was working at Indie Coffee Roasters, a coffee shop right off campus.
Working a job on top of being a full-time student can be quite stressful at times, especially when exams and homework begin to pile up, but overall it can be a positive experience. When I am at work, I can take a break from homework and studying to socialize with customers and my coworkers, who I genuinely enjoy talking with and getting to know. As a barista, part of my job is being creative with flavors and making latte art for customers, so in a way, my job serves as a creative outlet among my STEM-focused studies.
From my time as a student-worker, I have learned that it is important to prioritize your classes over everything else. I make sure my work schedule allows me plenty of time to get to and from my classes so there is no extra stress of going to class. It is also important to make sure you do not overwork yourself by adding on too many work hours on top of school and extracurricular activities. I always make sure to put a strict limit on the hours I can work because I know how much time I need in a week to complete homework and study, and taking on more than that will cut into my academic and social lives.
-Madison Meunier, ChemE ‘27
Overall, working on top of being an engineer is not impossible. If you know you will need to work if you come to Purdue, we hope it would not negatively affect your decision because we have had positive experiences and know working can even add to your life at Purdue.
Lily Brodzinski ChE '25, Madison Meunier, ChemE ‘27
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