Balancing Class & an Internship

[SJR]

I am trying to decide between two MPP programs-- Duke and Georgetown. My main concern with Georgetown is that when I spoke to the Admissions Director, he said that most students have a part-time internship during the year while they take classes. While I am pretty good at managing my time and energy, I am now having pseudo-nightmares about running from my internship to night classes only to study into the early morning and do it again the next day. Does anyone have insight in balancing full-time school with a part-time internship?

[PeteZahut]

I spent 4 semesters attending law school full-time and doing internships/working part-time. I would intern about 2-3 days a week, totaling about 15-20 hours per week. I'd study on my non-intern days and the weekends. It was definitely worth it in terms of gaining practical experience and my GPA even increased while I was working (it helps that internships reinforced my substantive coursework and vice versa)....

It really depends on how well you plan your schedule (whether late afternoon or evening classes are available and which days certain classes are offered). My employers were quite flexible about their scheduling as well. I would recommend planning the courses you want/need before registration and then determine whether you can fit the internship into the schedule. You might have to make some sacrficies to in favor of one or the other...