Working while in college

[saymyname]

Who here is in college full time and works part time?

Is it too much to handle?

I'm in 5 classes. Big city, big university. Money is really thin. I work during the summers but usually not during the school year... 5 is a big course load, and I'm doing an Honours program so I have to keep my GPA at a certain level, which means I can never fuck up or blow anything off. 2/5 of my classes are creative and artistically based, so a lot of my time is spent not only studying texts but also working on, towards, and through creative projects. Those require a lot of "thinking" time for processing.

I also have a great boyfriend who I hang out with as much as possible (weekends, some nights during the week) and go out with friends occasionally. But I'm thinking of picking up 10-15 hours a week working. Has anyone here done it under similar circrumstances? Is it too much to handle? I feel like I have a really tight schedule as is... but I'm tired of being broke. And I've thought about it, but sex work is out of the question, and finding creative work (events, gigs, modeling, etc.) is too up to chance.

So, working while in school (and then some). Thoughts?

 

[hotatlboi]

I did it but my schoolwork definitely suffered as a result. If you HAVE to keep a high GPA its going to add a lot of pressure there, so I agree I would do it only as a last resort in that situation.

 

[bounder]

Try to get a job on campus where your presence is pretty much the only thing required. You're basically getting paid to do homework.

 

[JB3]

Depends what type of job we're talking. If possible, try to get a job with your university. They will be more accommodating, and will understand that you're there for school and not for work. I had a 10-15 hour a week desk job while in college, and it actually was a pretty good thing. Not only did I get paid, but I also did homework 90% of the time. I should also note that I worked all the way through high school and college, so I learned to balance work and my studies. If you haven't had to do that yet, be really careful ramping up your schedule so you know you can handle it.

Be careful with off-campus jobs though; if you find one, make sure they know that school comes first and that if it comes down to work or school work, work will always come second. I have a 22 hour a week job right now, in addition to my overloaded grad-school schedule (full time is 9 hours and I'm at 13), but it never is too much because they know that school comes first and they schedule accordingly. I also give them my availability a month at a time, so that I can plan for days off, as well as planning my schedule so I don't get burned out or overwhelmed. That way, I'm able to manage both work and school and rarely get overwhelmed.

 

[gangineer]

Right now, i´m taking a full course load and working 20 hours a week, granted the only other thing i do besides school work and that is training. there arent a whole lot of people i like. and most of them are at work. and i dont have a boyfriend. if you can get a part time thing through the school and want to make some money, go for it. if its too much, you can always drop it.

 

[justsimon]

If you can find a work study job and think you can handle it, then yes. I'm in school full time and barely have time to finish all my homework. I can't imagine having a job, too.

 

[Fire]

If you can get a loan at a reasonable rate, do that instead, and enjoy these jobless years while you can.

 

[treanir]

^ What they said.

Basically, if you try to combine an Honours programme, a boyfriend and a full-time job (off-campus), something will suffer. The most important thing right now, in my opinion, is your coursework. Work comes dead last. So any work you find will have to fit around your uni activities.

I worked for a temp agency while in college. I don't know how it works where you are, but I could accept or decline offers at will, jobs were very temporary yet plentiful and the work was often so mind-numbing that I could let coursework roll around in my mind. It worked out really well for me.

 

[soccerboy029]

I've never worked less than twenty hours a week in college and I've never had less than 17 credit hours. My GPA is a 3.7.

 

[Harke the Boeotarch]

Have you considered taking out a loan, instead?

Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Have you guys learnt nothing? Don't take out a loan unless you die otherwise.

 

[braex27]

I am no longer in uni, but when I was, I was studying full time and working part time.

My first job was during the evenings, 5 to 9 every weekday evening. It was hell for a year but good money. Then the following year I got a job at the uni and that was excellent - easy access and I got an office on campus to do all my studying!!

 

[Ekim23]

I m done with school, But when I was a student I was working.

Night shifts and weekends, that was a lot of work but it was worth it

I guess u should work if you sure you can handle it

 

[olympus]

I'm a workaholic, i love working and the pay. At the moment, i'm studying full time with 20 hours of uni a week, and working 30 hours at a supermarket checkout. It's extremely tiring, but i still find time to balance study, going out, uni and work. It's definitely doable!

 

[davy]

If your coursework is already difficult to you, take out a loan.

If it's not difficult to you or you are disciplined enough to take on a job then go for it. (Try your best to get a job on campus).

If you're not studying an engineering field or a hard science, you WILL need at least a masters and your grades at the bachelors level will affect it tremendously.

Don't make the same mistake I did. I went to school full time and worked full time because I had to. My bad grades have left me in a difficult position in getting a masters, but I've already proved to myself that I'll do whatever it takes, so I know I'll get there eventually.

 

[saymyname]

Thanks for the great advice, guys!

I forgot to mention that I do take out a 3-4 thousand dollar a year stafford loan to help pay for my tuition. So, I already got the loan, don't want to add up another one... my parents help me a bit, I got a bursary from school last year and hopefully this year, and then I use the couple thousand I make over the summer for living expenses over the school year (hence being kinda broke - spreading 3,000 over 8-9 months to pay for rent, transportation, living expenses etc).

I'm studying Creative Writing and English Lit so... definitely want to maintain a high GPA because grad school is of interest to me. It's also a lot of reading. Too much.

So, I'll heed the warnings about looking for an on-campus job, if anything. That sounds like a good idea. I could go back to my old telemarketing job that I had over the summer because my boss totally understood that school comes first. Then again, I like the idea of enjoying not having to work by necessity at this point, but having 100-200 extra dollars per week would make a huge difference. I could go out every weekend, eat better food... but maybe my studies would suffer for it.

 

[AngelFromAbove]

I was yet another guy working full-time while in college. My grades eventually began to suffer as I reduced the amount of time that went into studying as well as skipping on a few classes for work. My overall GPA was still decent, 3.0, but there are some individual classes where I wish I could have done better.

 

[nautiboyjeff]

Check with your university employment office - some jobs are work study, but others are for regular students. They tend to be really flexible with you on schedules because they know that if you have to study, they can let you off early or you can make arrangements to work at other times.

I had this kind of job and it was great. Also, I could go to work, then class, back to work, then home to study.