[Erin Rapacki]

Its taking me 5 years to graduate college because of how my program is set up:

From when I start September of Freshman year (year 1) to Graduate April of Senior year (year 5):

- 7 normal sememsters (14 weeks), 16 credit hours = 4 classes
- 2 mini semesters (7 weeks), 8 credit hours = 2 classes
- 2 summer vacations (7 weeks), after freshman year and before senior year
- 3 six-month coops (DEKA, UTC PWA, & Gillette SBMC)

I too noticed a lot of engineers drop out after freshman year. It seems that if you can survive freshman year, you have what it takes to survive the other years. You just really have to want that engineering degree.

So in five years I got:

- An Industrial Engineering degree
- 18+ months of work experience
- Lots of time to do FIRST because I was doing coop from Jan-June