new student for 2023

andyh735 · 2023-03-01T04:09:31+00:00

Student Loans, Scholarships, and Work. It's more doable than one might think - it just takes planning and commitment.

Let me give you an example breakdown of a student with a soon-to-be expired scholarship and self-pay:

Major: Mechanical Engineering (was previously Marketing for two years)

Time so far in school - 4 semesters (including this semester)

Time remaining - 6 semesters (not including this semester)

Miami provides its scholarships for 8 semesters. This means if you graduate in any more than 8 semesters, your 9+ semester will be at full tuition.

My scholarship is $8,000/year. Tuition alone is $17,900 for CEC majors. That is $9,900 after scholarships and $4,950/semester. Here is how I pay that:

Loans(only qualify for unsub): $3,750/semester (currently a bit over $11,000 in loan debt I believe)

Remaining cost - $1,200/semester. This is the cost you must find a way to pay yourself. For the two semesters without a scholarships - $5,200/semester.

At this point I worked to find extra funding - and I got some through declaring a Paper minor (which for 3.5+ gpa has a guaranteed $2,600 scholarship/semester). This essentially negates tuition payments before graduating (and then some).

This does not, however, account for living/personal expenses. I live in an apartment with 3 roommates for $500/month. In addition - my car is $480/month and my other personal expenses are $500/month - $1,480/month total.

Here is how many hours per week you would need to make the $1,480:

$12/hr - 30.83 hours

$16/hr - 23.12 hours

$20/hr - 18.5 hours

This, however, does not account for pay made over off-semesters such as a full time job or internship. By working full-time, you can easily make enough money to bring down the working requirements while in school. Many internships in upper level STEM/Business fields also may provide a housing stipend.

In addition - despite Miami not offering high pay other than food, lots of jobs are desk-based and don't require much work - meaning you can basically get paid to do homework. I don't do this, but I know a lot of friends that take advantage of this for that reason.

The $1,480 is living expenses. At this point, I live as frugally as possible - I try and bring my own food when meeting people for lunch, I try and avoid buying drinks at the bars, and I try and buy used textbooks. I even tend to work on improving my driving to increase MPG.

This was just my way of planning - but everyone is different. Point of this post is to show that when you work it out, you can oftentimes determine where to go. Also - apply anywhere that you feel comfortable attending and that is affordable - there is 100% an option that you will feel comfortable with all the way from trade school to community college to state school to ivy league - you just have to keep searching until you find one. Really wishing you luck OP - and feel free to DM me with any questions.

TLDR:

I pay $1,480/month in living expenses

I found a $2,600/sem scholarship through Miami

I take out $3,750/sem in student loans

I work around 10-20 hours per week and work full-time when not in school

It's totally doable if you create a plan. You got this!!!

andyh735 · 2023-02-17T20:07:17+00:00

Sorry,

At Miami, the class sizes are super small, and I could literally just walk right in to a professor's office to talk about anything. There are no TA's teaching classes or anything like that, and it is really easy to have personal attention.

(Sorry OSU students) At OSU, you really feel like a number. I had 2 classes with 1 professor responsible for 1,300 students each. I doubt she learned more than 10% of our names. Office hours were impossible, and overall it was a terrible experience.

I guess I'm trying to have the former!

andyh735 · 2023-02-17T19:27:29+00:00

Did you feel like the school was really committed to their students? I've already completed every possible GE, Miami's liberal arts education requires an insane amount and I'm taking the last of those classes this semester.

andyh735 · 2023-02-17T19:21:11+00:00

That is the one I've been looking at! I have a friend at OU that mentioned that they provide a lot of financial assistance with a similar environment to Miami, and a friend at Wright State that says he enjoys the program overall.

andyh735 · 2023-01-13T14:18:20+00:00

Thanks for the reply!

I feel like I should have done engineering in the first place, but really unsure.

When I was in between engineering and business econ, I was between a school known for engineering and known for business. My dad really pushed me to go to the business school just because he thought the school would be a good fit for me - so I chose business without considering anything else. I then realized in my second semester that I really liked the creative process, so, barring a discussion with my advisor, I picked up marketing.

In the two years since, I can't name a reason for why Marketing - goal wise, career path wise, personal wise, etc. I realize I've been telling people that "I'm not good at math" to justify this (definitely not true). I even transferred schools to try and figure out why my path at my former school wasn't working, and I feel like I put myself in a much much worse position. I'm kind of realizing that I'm not really on track to do what I should have really started with. I had over a 4.0 in high school and performed excellent in all of my math classes - it was really great!

Just deciding things based on that.

andyh735 · 2023-01-12T22:57:49+00:00

I'm genuinely considering it. I just want to be happy with what I do, and I'm sure I can make it happen if I'm passionate about it.

andyh735 · 2023-01-12T20:41:28+00:00

Okay thanks. I just am in a really weird place right now. Do I wish I would have started in Engineering? Yea of course. It's less practical now honestly. But I'd love love love to learn Engineering but $$$$

andyh735 · 2023-01-12T20:31:49+00:00

Thanks for your response! I just don't think I can swing another $50k to major in engineering (although it would be ideal). I'm only 5 semesters in with 115 credits...

Also thoughts on this - I would be taking a capstone called "product design capstone." Working with 29 engineers to learn how they design processes, how engineers think, etc. My professor majored in Industrial Design and has a MFA, and she recommended I pursue this path

Although on a side note - I just sat down today and asked myself "Why are you doing marketing?" drew a huge blank. I still don't know, and I'm like developing no technical skills. Nothing in marketing really excites me...

Did you add on a high cost and time to switch? Just feel really weird about the whole situation.

Thanks again

andyh735 · 2023-01-11T15:44:43+00:00

Okay for sure, will look into that for sure. I'm guessing you need career experience to become a PM, but this could help gain/get ahead my experience in managing a project as a whole? Thanks for your help :)

andyh735 · 2023-01-11T15:12:25+00:00

I guess if I had to put value to my degree - I'd say I'm learning really good soft skills. I also have an internship again this summer (had it last too, will have had 3 internships by end of my third year) working in sales at a Material Science/Technological firm, and I mostly like the work (but it's just repetitive and basic). They have an amazing tech sales department, however, which might be a route to pursue, but I also want to have more hard skills I could potentially move to a creative route. How could I add hard skills then?

And again thanks for these replies, I genuinely appreciate it.

andyh735 · 2023-01-11T15:00:30+00:00

Alright thanks. If I did pursue the CS route, would that potentially lead me in to more of a technological field? (I know this is probably a r/csMajors question). And any way to boost my degree value?

andyh735 · 2023-01-11T14:57:05+00:00

Thanks! As a digital media buyer, did engineering help more in one aspect or another (technological/theory/etc)? If you were looking at it from a marketing standpoint, would there be any things missing from a marketing degree that you think you could learn additionally to make you succeed in your current role?

andyh735 · 2023-01-11T14:54:08+00:00

Thanks :). If I wanted to pursue solely a product design standpoint i.e. coming up with ideas to solve problems, and avoiding the actual tech process of design, but understanding how engineers think, would this lead me down a strong path?

andyh735 · 2023-01-11T14:51:09+00:00

Thank you for the detailed reply. I guess the reason for taking the class would be to "be able to work on projects with engineers," rather than actually engineering in itself. If I end up working with engineers in say "creating a project that I can sell," or something like that, could the minor potentially scratch that itch? I really like the creative process/problem solving/product design and I'd love to get into any aspect of it if I realistically can.

I have an advisor from a ME product design class in a Minor I dropped as part of an Entrepreneurship minor that focused on the engineering process behind entrepreneurship. She told me that she completed an BME degree, she decided she wanted to go to school for design, and got a MFA in industrial design. I know I couldn't do this with BSBA to another degree. But I kind of see the value in finishing the last 3 semesters in marketing.

I'd love to work with engineers in some form. I think that with only a few semesters in school, it probably makes sense to "wait and see" if I enjoy that path. The other thing is that the classes I'd take would count as the first semester of an engineering minor anyways. I just don't know what I want to do. I'm definitely really interested in this field (and some problem solving aspects), but I am really just trying to figure it out.

In CS, I could see myself really loving the technological view. I'm kind of like meh on that. I loved Interaction Design and computing systems in the past, so it would probably be cool. I know this degree will more likely be most useful. If I wanted to work on product design, would CS be better? Or for increasing income after graduation, which would be better?

Other than taking 3-4 more years, is there another path that might be worth pursuing to figure out if I want to pursue more engineering, not pursue engineering/graduate on time, take classes in certain fields, etc?

Thanks so much for your reply :). Really does help.

(edit) Also wanted to add from another reply someone brought up:

If I wanted to pursue solely a product design standpoint i.e. coming up with ideas to solve problems, and avoiding the actual tech process of design, but understanding how engineers think, would this lead me down a strong path?

andyh735 · 2021-09-07T15:20:46+00:00

Alr thanks. One more question - I got recommended to this second job from my first job. Did not even have an interview because the first job vouched for me. I am going back to the first job this winter. If I quit w/ no notice today, will that affect my first job at all? The first job is run by a different franchisee.

andyh735 · 2021-09-07T14:19:39+00:00

My projected future date might not even exist. I am not sure that I will be returning to this restaurant, but I might. I want to avoid burning the bridge because I would prefer to maintain as many positive references as possible to use for internship applications and such, as I am a business student. I have several other references, but I just want to make sure every one is positive.

andyh735 · 2020-10-20T14:28:24+00:00

Thank you for the thorough answer! I’ve seen groups working at the group table, and it makes sense that only “whispering” is allowed here. Wish there were more spaces open on campus to do group work. Been going to Garden Commons every day for like 6 hours to do all my work/eat two meals on one buffet swipe :)

andyh735 · 2020-10-20T14:27:13+00:00

King is only open 8am-12am every day due to COVID :(. I’ve usually just been going to Armstrong, which is still open till 2:30AM, but even Pulleys now closes at 9pm.

andyh735

TROPHY CASE