Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Education > Colleges and Universities
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 03-12-2015, 11:10 AM
 
1,072 posts, read 2,902,566 times
Reputation: 609

Advertisements

this is mainly for working adults with kids and families. Did you give up a job to get a degree because you wanted more? How did you pay bills and was it worth it?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 03-12-2015, 12:46 PM
 
4,059 posts, read 5,584,472 times
Reputation: 2892
It's possible but can be difficult. Generally speaking financial aid (or potentially stipends if you're a grad student) are really geared towards "student" expenses, and not all the costs that come with financing a family - e.g. new shoes alone for kids aren't cheap.

Depending on your situation you may find the short-term sacrifices required to be too steep to be worth the payoff. But you should look at the program you're considering, talk to the financial aid staff, and also ask admissions if there's an avenue for talking to other students in a similar boat.

They may or may not have a way to accommodate that, but you should definitely ask.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-12-2015, 01:12 PM
 
12,060 posts, read 23,089,443 times
Reputation: 27159
No, but I worked and went to school at the same time, as do a lot of people. Don't you think it is irresponsible to quit a job when you have a family to support?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-12-2015, 02:01 PM
 
Location: Idaho
2,085 posts, read 1,910,390 times
Reputation: 8337
My husband and I quit our jobs and went back to school full time to pursue graduate degrees. Our parents thought we were out of our minds especially considering the fact that we were expecting a baby about the time the school started.

We did it with our eyes wide open and with several years of preparation. It took a while to sell our home (not until after we graduated - it was during a recession), but we had no mortgage. We also had a bit of saving to supplement the grad school teaching assistant salary (for my husband) and research stipend (for me) - btw, we did not need to touch the saving while in grad school. We used it as down payment on the second home after graduation.

We moved from a 3 BRs, 2-car garage, 2 fireplaces, 1A land, big garden suburban home to tiny apartments. The baby was born the day that I was supposedly to take my first exam (had to call the professor and asked to take the exam few days later). We arranged our class schedules such that we could pass the baby to each other in the halls! I did my research/lab work late in the night while my husband took care of the baby etc.

We had always lived quite frugally so it was not much of a transition to be 'poor' grad students with a baby to raise. There were other grad students with children in the married student housing with most of them having only the husband's stipend or teaching assistant salary so we were twice as wealthy in comparison to them ;-)

Looking back, that period was a lot of fun and quite 'idyllic'. We enjoyed learning, back being students. My husband enjoyed teaching, and I was like Alice in Wonderland in my research lab. After school, we took the baby to the play yard, to the beach. During weekends, we took longer trips, going to bigger cities for shopping (lots of visit to goodwill/salvation army. We refurbished an used crib and bought lots of used baby clothing/toys etc) or hiking in the wood with the baby strapped on our chest or back! We picked wild berries and mushrooms. I even found the time to make jams from wild berries and 'pick-your-own' strawberries. The fondest memory we had was when my 6-months daughter said the first word 'burr' while pointing at the birds fluttering over our head in a strawberry patch. One of my husband's fellow grad student doubted the story. Few days later, she heard my baby said 'burr' again and pointed at the seagulls while she was sharing an after school picnic on the beach with us.

We were rewarded for our efforts with good careers, had the chances to do much more interesting jobs with better pays than the jobs that we quit. Bottom line is that quitting our jobs to go back to schools was one of the best decisions in our life.

Last edited by BellaDL; 03-12-2015 at 02:49 PM..
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-12-2015, 02:12 PM
 
12,060 posts, read 23,089,443 times
Reputation: 27159
But you planned for it and did it right. I think the OP has something different in mind.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-12-2015, 02:14 PM
 
Location: Living on the Coast in Oxnard CA
16,289 posts, read 32,186,268 times
Reputation: 21885
I kept working but know others that scaled back so that they could go to school. Many here at the hospital decide to go back to get degrees in healthcare. Nurse Tech's leave to become RN's, RN's leave to become Nurse Practitioners and or PA's. Many of these people can still hold onto their jobs in a part or limited time basis. Chances are if you are already in healthcare you can probably find something to help out during the educational process to keep money coming in.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-12-2015, 06:38 PM
 
Location: NY/LA
4,644 posts, read 4,501,651 times
Reputation: 4114
Quote:
Originally Posted by daboywonder2002 View Post
this is mainly for working adults with kids and families. Did you give up a job to get a degree because you wanted more? How did you pay bills and was it worth it?
I did it twice.

The first time I did it, I was single. Before starting the program, I saved up and moved back in with my family to save on rent. (This was in NYC, so it helped a LOT). I also had scholarships, grants, fellowships and a graduate assistantship that covered tuition, books and other education-related expenses. I had a job lined up before graduation that was a significant shift (business management) from what I was doing before (software engineering), so I felt that it was worth it.

The second time I went back to school, I was married (but no kids) and temporarily relocating so my wife could complete her training. My options were to find another job in this new city or work on another Masters degree. I've always enjoyed school and it was an opportunity to add an advanced degree from an "elite" school to my resume, so with my wife's support, I went for it. She covered all of our expenses while I was back in grad school, and I also made a little spending money as a teaching assistant. When she landed her first "real" job in Los Angeles a year into her program, I believe the degree from the "elite" school helped me land a position consulting at an LA-based F500 company, again before graduation.

Given the outcome and our experience during that time, we were both pretty happy with the decision. In both cases, I had several classmates that were married and had kids... I think all of them were pretty satisfied with their decisions as well.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-13-2015, 05:04 PM
 
Location: Maryland's 6th District.
8,358 posts, read 25,146,515 times
Reputation: 6535
I left a full-time job for school, but only for one semester.

After that it was back to being a full-time student and employee.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-13-2015, 05:14 PM
 
Location: Miami,FL
653 posts, read 810,553 times
Reputation: 735
working full time and going to school full time is doable. Many of people have done it. Although if you have family obligations it can be quite complicated.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-13-2015, 08:03 PM
 
10,307 posts, read 5,494,000 times
Reputation: 10371
I gave up a career with a Big 6 public accounting firm to go back to school and get my PhD.

My educations was fully paid for, I received a stipend, and my wife worked. Financially, it was pretty easy.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Education > Colleges and Universities

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top