EE junior on quarter system, 11 classes left, no internship yet — should I delay graduation for a fall internship?
Looking for advice on whether to delay graduation for internship experience. Targeting embedded systems, hardware engineering, or FPGA roles.
Third-year Electrical Engineering major, quarter system, 11 classes left (3 are GEs and two easy ethics classes), roughly 3 quarters remaining. I have a 3.2 GPA (3.3 upper division). Have little undergraduate research experience, but I am going to get more at a lab full-time this summer, zero industry internship experience, and mid projects that I also plan to improve this summer.
My three options:
Option 1 — Take 3 easy GE/ethics classes this summer + research, then fall internship, graduate in spring. This will be maximum $4.7k summer tuition. But this hinges on whether I even get a Fall internship.
Option 2 — Research only this summer, fall internship, return for the fall quarter, graduate in December instead of summer. This will be a one-quarter delay, I can shoot for a fall internship and a summer internship. But ~$7k tuition plus the need to find 10-week housing near campus.
Option 3 — No internship, graduate on original timeline
The research lab I'll be joining will be CGRA RTL and FPGA-related.