[oregonchickfan]

I am doing the distance ed classes and have never taken classes online before. I work a ft job (M-F~8hrs/day) and a pt job (Sat-Sun~2-5hrs/day) and am concerned about being overwhelmed with too hard of classes too soon. Here are the classes that I have registered for. Please give me your opinions if you think it might be too much for a noob! I am just trying to see what I am in for! Thanks!

If you have any knowledge of the classes and the instructors and if they're hard or not, please let me know.

Music 125 (I think this one will be fairly easy) BONORA~Instructor

Woman’s Studies 113 (thinking mediocre) KEY~Instructor

English 101 (the hardest one, requiring the most time to study and write papers) FUHREL~Instructor

[lisdol]

To start with, I would consider allocating 9-15 hours per week to the classwork/studying (that is 3-5 hrs per class per week). You may need to adjust up or down by an hour or two per class - eg if you are not a fast writer, English 101 might take you a while, and you might find that for Music 125 (is that appreciation?) you have to listen to more music than you counted on. OTOH, it might go faster for you than 3-5 hrs per class. To be safe, make sure you have 20 spare hours set aside where you won't be working or sleeping. That way, if the workload turns out heavier than you expect, you won't be scrambling to find room in your schedule.

Wait, is this for a summer session? The hours I mentioned are for a 16 wk term. Double it if its an 8 wk summer term (or use a multiplier of 1.5 for a 12 wk term).

Good luck!

[jfkIII]

Depends on the jobs...if it is something you can work at and get college work done at the same time...that is great. Something like a weekend security job at some business location works ok. I worked a 3-day F/T shift (Fri-Sat-Sun) - 12 hours each day - as a nighttime computer operator in college...it was great...I'd put on some long running jobs or something that would print boxes of computer paper and monitor the on-line, for which no one was on at those times. It allowed me to do all my out-of-class work...and get paid for it! Heck, they even paid tuition reimbursement.

[lvkewlkid]

i've taken CSN online courses and most of the time they're not so bad!

you can check the instructors on RateMyProfessors.com

I have heard that Eng 101 is extremely easy online...

[RedRockAAAA]

In NJ I worked about the same schedule as you. I took 3 classes until they got a little tougher. I also had to attend in person 3 nights per week and drive 50 miles to class. If you're youngish with a lot of energy, that schedule is doable. Good Luck.

[oregonchickfan]

Thanks for the rate my professors link...seems pretty helpful. It seems, from reading about my instructors, that Eng 101 will, by far be my hardest class! Oh, and I am taking these classes in the fall.

My jobs do not allow me the time to study there. I am hoping to get a pretty good system down by using the syllabus and checking out which tests or papers are due the earliest, and that will be the class that I start with for studying.

CSN does not require me to go to campus, which is one of the reasons why I chose the school. I live in N.Nevada, driving to Vegas to attend a class is just not feasible. What's your definition of "youngish"?...lol...I am 30.

Thanks for all the replies! They were very helpful!

[redwhale]

I'm 30, work full time and I am wrapping up finals week with one online class (ENG 231) and 2 campus courses which wraps up my AS this semester. Last summer I took 3 online classes, including History of Rock and Roll, using their older online course system. I can honestly say that the new system is much better. If you're smart, all of it is a breeze. In fact, if you put forth any effort every class is passable in the mid to high B region. Don't slack and communicate any problems and issues that may arise with your understanding of the material. I've found that all the profs are more than sympathetic to the full time employees out there.

If ENG231 is any indication, your ENG class will not be a struggle. Most of the time it will be writing journal format essays to communicate your understanding of the assigned reading with 2-3 formal essays as tests.

About the prof thing, I've just tried to find the instructor with the most classes to handle and picked that class. There's no way they're reading 68 papers every week with the intent of perfection.

Just one last piece of advice. Their online academic counseling service is amazing. Those people are superb at their jobs and will give you great academic info.

[oregonchickfan]

Thanks redwhale! I will try finding the professors w/the most classes the following semester....sounds like a good plan! As for the f/t employee thing, how does that work? Do I just casually bring it up in a conversation when I am having trouble? I don't want to use that as an excuse, but there may be times when I have to work extra hours, and may inadvertently fall behind. I hope not though!

[redwhale]

Don't take advantage of it but I used to bring up in the forums in the class as to when exactly assignments were due to having odd hours working full time swing shift. Like down to the minute. Usually it's a hard 11:30 but I got lucky with the transition to the new online Angel system they use. Also, if you're a professional procrastinator like me do not wait until 11:30 to submit assignments online because everyone else does and it slams the system to a crawl.

Also, read everything the first day and try to find conflicts on dates between the assignment sheet and the posted calender due date. These profs are inherently lazy and recycle so much that you'll find due dates from last summer that don't jive with the calender. This will ********* in the end if you're not careful. Be out front and ask what trumps what, calender due date or assignment sheet due date.

One last piece of advice, from one full time worker/student to another. Either don't overload or kill yourself trying, there's no middle ground. Unless you're able to block time for each class, this is gonna hurt. Surprisingly, that music class was my hardest class so far and it was an unexpected curveball when I was expecting it to be my easy class. If you're serious about it all, it only hurts for 8 weeks. If you still want a little social life, drop a class and take it easy. The added stress just isn't worth it, generally.

P.S. I am writing all this to avoid writing the final 5 page paper for ENG 231. I'll answer any and all questions you got as I don't give a poop about The Tempest and its characters. Dr. Schaffer, if you're reading this I am just kidding, I love the class.

[gregoryinvegas]

I am curious to know why you are taking CSN classes if you are in N. Nevada?
Where are you located?
They have many colleges in N.Nevada and they all offer online classes: UNR, Western, TMCC, GBC.
At some point you may need live classes, I would check the above institutions if I were you.

Good luck!