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It's a tough one unless you land in job where you can study. I was lucky enough my first time through college in 1990s and call centers were still in the US. Really helped to be able to study at work between phone calls as upped my GPA enough to get some scholarships too. Did two jobs one semester as school would not allow people supporting themselves with work through their internship program. Lucky to be able to work at school newspaper for experience.
Local university has since started to require internship to graduate which you think would be a good thing but turns out to be a barrier to graduation. Is almost causing some to drop out and not finish a degree as none of the internships pay anything now so much keep a 'day job' to support self. So, no one is giving internships to the 'working adults' doing 'night school' and working all day in another line of work FT. Can be good to look ahead a bit to be able to deal with all of these gotchas.
Local colleges have it set up to discriminate against some of the women in area who ended up in mental care and will literally harass them out of school if they try to retrain for easier work....Lots isn't too desirable with colleges right now after seeing blatant discrimination at two colleges. Even people on Pell Grant have to pay back immediately if they drop school due to discrimination. One local college computer science department is almost useless due to harassment policy and management scared into ignoring it....Classes are so out of date, not even compatible together....Some people paid cash for college and now denied student loans later when they want to return to school. My local area lays off regularly even in the good jobs so lots do try to return to college to get out of the hire/fire routine, even some places denying unemployment pay to do cheap layoffs.
Maybe consider taking out a student loan for one year to get internship for a year. Would really be worth it to prove to yourself you can do this work and make any corrections necessary while you can add a class or two to make up for deficiencies. Find mentor too. Try to network in your local professional organizations for your field.
I remember something in college orientation way back in the day about how you *should* study as many hours per week as you have credit hours. I'm pretty sure that was an ideal guideline. From my college experience, I'd say I studied on average between 1 and 2 hours per week per credit hour. That average takes into account exam weeks where I'd put in 8 hours straight, 3 nights in a row, and light weeks where I'd maybe put in 20 minutes before class reviewing notes.
Online classes require more of time commitment IMO. The professor makes up for lack of face-to-face interaction by assigning more assignments, discussions, and group projects (which I HATE with a passion).
My program is almost entirely on-campus classes (which I personally prefer), but a few classes are occasionally offered only online. My experience with those is that they are exponentially more work, have far more assignments, checkpoints, quotas for participation in online discussion, supplemental reading, etc.
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I was told to expect 10-15 hours of work a week per class, which works out to roughly 3-5 per credit. It's possible to fit that in, but some things have to give sometimes.
I find that it is an average...sometimes, I need every bit of that time, other times, not so much. My least favorite thing is when instructors plan the syllabus so that major projects and papers are do the night of a large exam. Space that crap out.
My program is almost entirely on-campus classes (which I personally prefer), but a few classes are occasionally offered only online. My experience with those is that they are exponentially more work, have far more assignments, checkpoints, quotas for participation in online discussion, supplemental reading, etc.
I find that it is an average...sometimes, I need every bit of that time, other times, not so much. My least favorite thing is when instructors plan the syllabus so that major projects and papers are do the night of a large exam. Space that crap out.
Yes, my accounting class has a lot of work, but the weekly assignments are due on Sunday nights, and the discussions are due on Saturday nights. It allows for a little flexibility in my weeks. My calculus class, on the other hand, has assignments due every few days, and quizzes due the day before the tests are due. However, I try to take the tests at least a day in advance because I have to go to a testing center and don't want to risk technical issues. That means I have to do the quizzes early, which means I need to give myself plenty of time to get the homework sections done. It's a lot to do and keep track of, so I'm typically working on it almost every night.
I was hoping to work ahead because my work schedule is going to be bad next month, but with the amount of work required, it's difficult to get too far ahead.
A lot of my classes have been hybrid, which is a nice compromise because some classes you really benefit from that discussion time... and online discussion boards can get really tedious when the topic is very narrow. I remember one class was just so mind numbing, I would make up funny titles for my threads, just to try and motivate myself. This semester I lucked out because I have the same prof for two classes, and he hates monitoring discussion boards, loves independent study. His approach is this: "Here is the assignment list; they're due by 12/21/16. Tests are due at the end of each unit. Any questions, email me. Google is your friend. Have a nice life."
I was hoping to work ahead because my work schedule is going to be bad next month, but with the amount of work required, it's difficult to get too far ahead.
I ran into that when I was pregnant and nearly due. The semester started, and my due date was a month later. I wanted to be at least three weeks ahead, because I knew I'd be missing probably two weeks of classes. It was nearly impossible, though, to get close to a full month ahead, less than a month into the term, though.
I had an induction a week before my due date, and the night they started inducing, I was sitting up in the Stryker bed, with a bunch of monitors on my belly, reading the DSM-5 and watching the skyped lecture I'd missed that night. The night nurses were like, "Woah." My son was born the next a.m.
A lot of my classes have been hybrid, which is a nice compromise because some classes you really benefit from that discussion time... and online discussion boards can get really tedious when the topic is very narrow. I remember one class was just so mind numbing, I would make up funny titles for my threads, just to try and motivate myself. This semester I lucked out because I have the same prof for two classes, and he hates monitoring discussion boards, loves independent study. His approach is this: "Here is the assignment list; they're due by 12/21/16. Tests are due at the end of each unit. Any questions, email me. Google is your friend. Have a nice life."
One thing that I do like about online components with required discussion is that people HAVE to participate, whereas sitting in the classroom, they're (at least in my program) more free to sit there like lumps. But in written discussion, they receive points on their contribution.
IMO, the profs who are like, "Here's the syllabus, make sure you meet your due dates and finish the final on time, good luck!" are getting paid fairly well to, well, not teach. It would really irk me to be billed tuition dollars for that. Fortunately, not an issue in my program.
^^Honestly, it depends on the class. International trade law? Yeah, discussion is huge and really makes or breaks a class. Electronic spreadsheets software? Meh, not much to discuss beyond maybe needing some clarification on an assignment. But yeah, being paid to essentially just transmit grades from a website to the college sounds like a sweet gig.
I ran into that when I was pregnant and nearly due. The semester started, and my due date was a month later. I wanted to be at least three weeks ahead, because I knew I'd be missing probably two weeks of classes. It was nearly impossible, though, to get close to a full month ahead, less than a month into the term, though.
I had an induction a week before my due date, and the night they started inducing, I was sitting up in the Stryker bed, with a bunch of monitors on my belly, reading the DSM-5 and watching the skyped lecture I'd missed that night. The night nurses were like, "Woah." My son was born the next a.m.
Yikes!
I can't imagine the exhaustion trying to do this and be a parent at the same time. I'm tired enough from life as it is...
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