Working while in college/university? (skills, cost, high school, credits)
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Hello everyone, first time making a thread in this part of City Data. I would like to ask this question with those with experience in doing this sort of thing:
Is it possible to have a job(s) and attend classes, presumably 9-12 credits (like science courses) in a semester? Do you have time for other things (like relationships, hobbies, etc), or is it a really stressful thing?
I've been trying to get a job to help pay for my tuition, but all of my attempts have been futile. So I wonder if people with full-time jobs are still able to take enough credits and still have study time.
I'd like to hear from people who have done this and would either recommend it or not and find some other sort of alternative (grants, scholarships, or loans(!)).
Thank you in advance.
My Son is going to college, and is balancing working a part time job with school, added with grants and scholarships and some loans. Working full time, can be done, but it's a balancing act, did you know that is one of the main reasons many people drop out of college - because it's such a hard thing to do. (Part time is another thing, most people can do this) My Son makes straight A's, but if he tried to balance out a full time job (as opposed to his part time job) then he would have less time to sleep and study, and more than likely his grades might slip some.
9-12 credits is considered part-time college student. There should be no reason you can't also work part time at least. Many people do that and do quite well at both. There is a lot of free time in college that you don't usually have in high school.
College regardless of having to work or not is more stressful for some then others. A lot of people have to work while in college. I feel waiting tables is a good job for college students. There is more flexibility in terms of hours where it can work around your school schedule. If you work at a busy restaurant you can often make more money then at office work.
My husband did it but we gave up our life while he did it (as well as the TV). It was really only possible since he was married and I could take up some slack.
He did 15 hours and was a manager with 40 employees.
You need to clearly want it and make all the sacrifices while doing it.
I worked a 40 hour job and took an average of 9 credits a semester. It was doable but required time management skills. You can still have a social life depending on your definition of a social life.
Working part time while taking 9-12 credits would be no problem at all.
Is it possible to have a job(s) and attend classes, presumably 9-12 credits (like science courses) in a semester? Do you have time for other things (like relationships, hobbies, etc), or is it a really stressful thing?
No reason a part-time student can't hold a job.
My daughter carried 15 to 22 credits (engineering major) while having a job, and while maintaining friendships and hobbies.
It CAN be done!
I had a full-time job and went to college at night - both community college and then university. I wasn't going to college to get a new job, I was going to college so I could advance in the job I already had. Luckily for me, I could drive from work to both schools fairly easily and I had flexible work hours. If I wanted to start earlier at work so I could make a 5:00P class, it was do-able to change my work schedule starting time so I was out of work by 4:00P.
The hardest thing was at the university, I couldn't take a once a week 3 hour class, like I could at the Community College, which would have given me the weekend to get my homework and reading done. You know, if you are working full time and going to school at night if you have Mon/Wed classes and Tue/Th classes, you can get the Wednesday and Thursday homework done because you have a weekend between classes but homework assigned on Monday (to be done for Wed class) or Tuesday (to be done for Thursday class) was a killer because the one day in between you were at work and at school.
The community colleges are more accommodating with their course schedule to adult students. I was told (and this is the truth) that the reason the university didn't offer once a week 3 hour classes was because 18 year olds didn't have the attention span for a 3 hour class.
My advice would be to try to get a job on campus or some place nearby that hires lots of students. They are used to dealing with students and their schedules.
Both my kids worked part time while attending college full time. The younger one worked on campus in a computer lab. All he really had to do was make sure students using the lab had no problems logging on, etc. It was a great job because he made several dollars above minimum wage and there was very little ever going on in the lab. Often no students even came in during his entire shift. He was allowed to use the free time for studying or even watching a movie on his laptop. It was great too because the lab he worked in was in the same building as most of classes. He was allowed to work for a couple of hours, then go to a class and then return back to the lab and work some more. He was able to make a decent amount of money. It was almost like getting paid to study.
The older son worked in a sorority house. Difficult job for a young man, LOL. He served as a houseboy, helping the cook in the kitchen, setting tables for dinner, serving and cleanup afterwards. I liked it because his dinner was included each night. That way I knew he got at least one decent meal a day and it cost nothing. He liked it because he was surrounded by 50+ beautiful girls every day. He didn't make a lot of money, but it helped, and it definitely never hurt his social life, if anything it helped, got lots of dates working there.
The beauty of working on campus is that they are usually very flexible and will schedule around your classes. If either of them had a project due, or a big test coming up, they were always very willing to work with them and allowed them to trade shifts or whatever so that it didn't interfere with school work. Both of them were involved in fraternities as well as other organizations and maintained active social lives and decent grades.
When I was in college I also worked part time. It was much harder for me because I lived about 20 miles from campus and I worked even further away. Once I left campus to go to work, there was no going back. I spent way too much time commuting everyday. I didn't have the luxury of working around my class schedule and my employer was not understanding about needing time off for projects, finals etc. It would have been much better for me if I'd been able to work near or on campus where employers would be more understanding. I ended up quitting my full time classes and going to work full time and taking classes only part time. Not a good plan. Ended up quitting school all together after awhile and didn't go back and finish for many more years.
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