[mrs. pakman]

starting this fall, i'm planning on being a full time student and working full time. would you think that a course load of 15-18 units is too much while working full time? (i'm semester system). any advice as to how to manage work and school? or just any kind of insight would be very much appreciated.

[=Jo3y=]

Hi,

I've done F/T work and P/T student, and it was a bit of struggle.

I think when your working F/T, its hard to get motivated to do your assignments and study because you're normally tired and exhausted from a full days work. But I guess if you really want to and you like what your studying so your motivated then I'm sure you can do it.

It is a bit of a juggling act, I'm in Australia, so I don't know how much subjects are 15-18 units are.

Hope this helps a bit.

[ladyatakari]

Mmm...I'd recommend using outlook on your pc to set up a weekly time schedule. I've found that it really helps a lot to plan everything out so that you don't stress out. I've gone to the point where I've put in showers/lunch/etc. and it really does help. It might sound silly but it helps eons with the time management.

A calendar would really help too, but I find that planning things hour by hour helps to keep yourself from being overwhelmed. You'll know what time you're going to do what instead of worrying about what you have to do day by day and hour by hour every time something new pops up.

Hope that helps a little and good luck!

[i'm lagging yo]

i personally don't think working full-time and school full-time is a wise decision. unless you are a master of time management and top notch efficiency, one or the other is going to be lackluster in performance. when are you going to do homework/project/essays/studying? if your goal is to just "pass" your classes then maybe give it a shot. but if you're planning on learning... i mean actually learning what's taught in class and getting A's, then i dunno.

maybe if your job is very laid back and easy going and your classes are easy.. then perhaps it's doable?

i am a student full-time and work part-time (~15 hours) and sometimes i feel like i don't have much free time already. It feels good at times to know that I'm constantly doing something (whether homework, studying, essays, working, at the gym) and not idling. But there comes a point when you wish you could just take a break and the world could pause for you.
... but take it for what it's worth.. i know my time management isn't that great and you're probably someone who can juggle priorities well. i also get distracted pretty easily (like when i work in front of my computer) and so my productivity also decreases at times, sadly. just take those into consideration.

if you've already done something like 30 hours work + full-time student then maybe full-time working wont be that big of a diff.

what exactly is your major and field of work?

[getxinfatuated]

I'm currently doing that. I've been working for two weeks, full time (65 hours in two weeks O_O) and i'm taking 16 units. It is tough, because you're tired and most of the time you fall behind on your school work. I suggest unless you REALLY need the money, don't put yourself in that situation.

[tasty]

yeah i'm from australia so i don't know the workload of 15u, but i'm a ft uni student and my hours at work just got bumped up to 27 this week. last week i worked over 21 hours. it really bit into my study time. at the start of each week i write up a schedule but i always fall behind because i'm simply too exhausted from work. i felt like spewing in one of my lectures because i was so freakin' tired with lack of sleep and food, and i hated the lecturer's voice. i ended up skipping the next lecture to go home because i was DYING. and i'm skipping a full day of uni tomorrow to do catch-up (yes, ironic) because i have a night shift.

or maybe i'm just weak. lol.

but personally i reckon 15 hours/week of work is ideal. my manager said she'd cut down on my hours after easter. UDWGHYUSGFUY.

[LDi]

I think if anyone had their way of course they wouldn't want to work full-time with a full time course load. But again...sometimes it just happened. In my last semester of university, I was offered a great opportunity to work for this company (it was in my field that I was studying) and of course (taking on more responsibility. I was already working for them part - time pulling in about 25 hrs a week already, I thought over and over again about whether I could juggle all of this. School I didn't think would be a problem I was always on top of my studies, but I was worried about the time, and the overload with homework, plus work, also at the time I was also sitting as a committee for a local NGO I helped run about 10 hrs a week (which I didn't intend to drop either in any way). I'm one of those ppl that are always on the GO.....it's my lifestyle, so I figured I could pull it off. I don't regret it, it worked out for me, but I don't think it's for everyone. You know what you can handle and can't . I worked out alright for me because I made my schedule so I took evening classes.

-I finished work at 5, darted off to school for 6pm class. I'd never get home till after 10pm at night from school.
- I had to grab dinner on the run all the time ( make sure you make time for proper meals....I noticed i ate so poorly....always on the run)
- must be organized, I sheduled and wrote down everything in my planner.
- all my project group meetings for school at to be on the weekends because I couldn't meet any other times.
- weekends were major homework catch up days.
- I spent a lot of my free lunch hour times at work, doing my homework.

For me overall it worked, because I had an extremely understanding boss. She understood that I was still taking school full-time and was extremely flexible, when I asked for things, time off school, etc.

['Noche.]

I wouldn't suggest working full-time and going to school full-time. Not unless you're either a genius at schoolwork, or a genius at time-management, or both. Have you already done a couple of semesters at college? If you have, you'll probably know how much spare time you have in a week... but then again, things get tougher...

I work part time 6-12 hours a week, and I commute to school full-time. Even though I don't work that much, and I only have about 15 hours of classes a week, I still find that some weeks are really tough. But I have horrible time management and a bad case of procrastination. You're paying for school, so there's really no point in getting bad grades or not being able to learn as much as you can because you're too tired.

[aznboy78]

I remember when i worked 40hrs/week. It was pretty crazy and I did pretty bad that quarter. Try it out if youre taking easy classes.

[mrs. pakman]

just a little background. i'm studying hotel management in las vegas and it's pretty competitive out here in the industry.
i hear that there are quite a few students who work full time and go to school full time.
i wanna work here and get ahead, but i'm just worried about managing my time. >< but judging for the response...seems like a really tough thing to do.

i'll have to think it over a little more.

[sphynkter]

i am currently doing that right now. i'm always tired as crap. i think it reallyt depends on what kind of college you are going to. some of my friends go to easy colleges and the workload is less than what they did in high school. in that case, it's pretty easy to be a full time student and work full time as well. in my case, there's a lot of school work for me to do and i find myself always not having enough time. working full time definitely takes up a huge chunk of your day. it's hard to feel motivated to do your school work when you can barely keep your eyelids up. i'd be doing a lot better in school if i wasn't working but i need the money because i buy a lot of random shizz.

you should probably put all your effort into school because you want to get the highest marks so that it'll really look good to employers when you graduate. maybe i should take my own advice but eh whatever.