nonsense. I typically worked at least 30 hrs a week while a full time engineering student. There were some semesters that I was TA'ing 15 or so hours per week and working another 20-30. Honestly I did better then because I was forced to focus on time management.
EDIT: I should add that a lot of this was by necessity because of American college costs...but I look at it as a long term benefit for me personally.
American undergraduate classes are typically easier in my experience,. At the universities I went to (University of Washington and KTH) the Swedish undergraduate classes were more like the graduate classes in my experience. When I say 60+ hours a week I mean it. Who in their right mind works that much and gets a second job? And even if you could that doesn't mean that most people can.
As an example: in the engineering programs of KTH, typically half of the students don't make it through the first year. Many classes has a 70%+ failure rate.
I totally agree with all of those points, I was just providing some anec-data that it does happen.
I paid my tuition almost entirely through co-ops (6th month internships) and then worked while in school to pay my day to day bills. I was also very lucky to have a safety net from my parents if I needed it, although I didn't.
Having the "living and supportive family safety net" is definitely under-appreciated as an advantage here in the US. Many who have it don't even realize what an advantage it is.
Plenty of engineering students at top universities have jobs (not just internships).
Time management is key.
As someone who hires their own interns and Jr eningeers, it's shocking how few applicants have ANY prior work experience.
I had a 15-20hr/wk internship, and worked retail on weekends.
However, I often turned in homework that only outlined the knowns, unknowns, drew a diagram, listed equations that were applicable, and that was it. 50% credit for 30min of work.
That speaks more for the simplicity of the courses of your university more than against my position. Are you really Swedish? I'm going to assume not. Engineering classes at Swedish universities typically don't give points that add up to a grade cutoff point. You might get an average grade of all projects and finals. The final exam is typically 5 hours long with 5-10 very difficult questions. In my CS program we had to work 60+ hours minimum a week, and classes often had 70%+ failure rates. This is not an environment where you can get a second job, and to my knowledge, none of my classmates or anyone I knew did so, except during summers.
Heavily impacted engineering program at one of the top University of California campuses.
It spoke for the grading structure of the homework and did not apply to all courses.
Exams and projects were graded much more rigorously and there was a similar drop out/fail rate as you describe.
Not all engineering courses required homework for a grade. Often homework was only worth 5%, exams and projects the remainder. However, weekly problem sets easily consumed 10-15hrs per course, 3-4 courses per quarter.
Professors left it to the student to prove their understanding of coursework through exams. I often suspected due to the high rate of plagerism on homework (copying peers or access to solution guides).
Edit: don't get me wrong, I never had free time as a student. Every free moment outside of class was consumed by studying, working, eating or sleeping. I occasionally skipped lectures to buy free time.
It all came down to risk assessment which is a valuable skill to be learned for industry.
Time management I learned in school has paid off tremendously in my career and is something I seek more than a minimum GPA threshold in my interns and Jr. Eng's.
EDIT: I should add that a lot of this was by necessity because of American college costs...but I look at it as a long term benefit for me personally.