Should I delay my graduation ?

ptvo90
Sat, 24 Jan 2015 05:44:45 +0000

I am a senior engineering Chemical Engineering and I am debating between graduating and trying to find a co-op/internship before graduation. I only have 2 more classes left to take to graduate and they are both technical electives, thus I can take them whenever I want. I will attend to the Engineering Expo next week at my school and hopefully I can get an internship/co-op offers. My question is if I don’t get any internship/co-op for the summer, should I take the remaining classes in summer and graduate? or should I delay my graduation and take those classes in Fall and try again at the Fall Engineering Expo?

I heard that it is extremely hard for fresh out graduate college students to find a job without prior experience (internship/co-op) and it also applies to engineering students.

Should I consider graduate school if I can’t find anything after graduation?

Here is a little bit about myself:

1. Non-native English speaker—> limit in communication. This is my weakness and it is frustrating. Although, some people said that my English is good for a person who has been here for only 5 years, I feel like my English is not good enough for me to talk to others confidentially. I understand 99% of what I listen to, however I cannot response to the question being asked fluently. I sometime have to rephrase my answer couple times to make my answer understandable.

2. U.S citizen.

3. First generation college student—> no networking

4. GPA: 3.94/4.00 --> I am 90% sure that I will graduate with Sum Cum Claude honor.

5. Attend to ABET school
6.I don’t have any relevant working experience beside working for a professor as an undergraduate lab assistant since Jan 2015 (1 month).

6. Hardworking and self-motivated person

7. Not a ice-breaker type of person i.e I won’t come up to strangers to talk to them. However, I am very friendly once I get to know them and I am willing to do anything to help them within my capability.
I am really worrying about my future.
I started another thread back in November after I was not successful in getting any internship/coop offers at Fall Engineering Expo and I received lots of helpful advice. I hope that you guys can help me making decision in this situation. I appreciate any comments.