Grad school, full time job, and a baby...
Controller_7
4,052 Posts
I start school in January. I work full time and we've got a one year old daughter. Anybody else go back to school while working and raising kids? I graduated from college almost ten years ago and the idea of doing homework has me shook.
Any similar experiences, advice?
Any similar experiences, advice?
Comments
I have 1-2 assignments per class due every week and spend a good deal of time crunching data in Stata and EViews. My program is pretty small (10-20 students in my year). Only 2 students have kids and only 2 or 3 work full-time.
I strongly suggest working part-time or not at all. It helps to have an understanding employer as well. I'm young, single, childless and have a supportive family and it's still hard.
I have studied for professional exams at home after putting in a full day, it's brutal because we've got two youngins and you need to spend time with everyone to keep all the plates spinning, so to speak. I don't know if you plan to do your studying before or after the kids are in bed, or are you delegating all that to the wifey :~ ?
I had a slot between 8 and 10 PM to do the studying. The enemy for me was the creeping hand of sleep (6:20 AM starts to day).
Sit at a desk, not the comfy sofa. Sofas have mad hypnotism skills.
Sit in bright light.
Don't eat a massive meal beforehand.
Take a drink break every 15-30 mins.
Be writing sh1t down. You remember more of what you write than what you read. If you can read it out loud back to yourself, this is also better than just poring over pages of text.
I found that trying to cram more than a few hours in was not productive. But then, I am old. Your local experience may vary.
Good luck.
This.
I was working fulltime and 1/2 way throgh a business degree when we had our first son. its hard, but you just have to plan well, stick to your schedule and knuckle down.
good luck.
It's library science at sjsu, which is all online. I know its doable, but it is totally less than desirable right now. Now is better than later though.
Thanks for the ideas. I need to set up absorb space.
dude- there's the answer to your worries. don't even sweat it. they may try to take up your time, but none of the shit is rocket science. It's actually not a science at all, despite what they call it. Library school is a joke. Don't get me wrong- it's a great profession + i am happy with my career. But the schooling just amounts to busy work. You just have to go through the motions. The fact that you wrote in complete sentences in your post without spelling or grammatical mistakes tells me that you will get through fine.
now if you actually want an education with your diploma, do an internship or field placement for your program. This is the kind of job where you don't learn it in a classroom. But sorry i'm giving you advice you didn't ask for now. good luck!
Ha! You're in the same program as my wife, who also started this semester. She just asked me, "he's in my program? What's his name?"
Me: "Ummmm...Controller 7?"
My wife: *hard stare*
(She had 220 w/ Critchfield and 202 w/ Weedman. Last name Mizota)
In any case, in her case, she's working two part time gigs (arts criticism for the LA Times +(cataloging movie posters for the Academy of Motion Picture Sciences), has a "baby" too (though our daughter's 5) but she feels your pain. This semester has kicked her ass and as the spouse, I went from hanging out with my wife a few hours every night to basically only seeing her for dinner and then right before bed time (unless it's the weekend and even then, she's working 1-2 hours those nights).
There's just no easy way around most of this. I think it'd help if she had less group projects to work on; those have been a massive time suck and maybe you've had the same experience too. On her own, she's pretty efficient with getting through the work but it's still one of those things where, especially in the first semester, it's going to be bad given the readjustment. I've told her that it'll probably be easier next semester once she gets a feel for being back in school. Regardless though, the work never really "ends". You always have to use some spare time in the evenings and weekends to play catch-up and that's just the reality of it so long as your weekdays are taken up by work.
With a one year old though, there are some upsides and some downsides. Hopefully he/she still naps once or twice a day which would give the primary caretakers a break to do other stuff. And depending on their chill level, maybe you can get away with studying while they're in the room, staring up from a pack n' play or something like that.
O, I start in January, but that is crazy that your wife is in the same program. And it's Tommy or To**y in soulstrut.
i like garcia's advice about reading the material before the lecture.
Actually, i seem to know a slew of folks getting their MS in library/info science; it's become a popular "going back to school degree" since it's flexible in terms of its application but not overly "fuzzy". And since there's only two programs in CA - SJSU and UCLA - and SJ's is the only online one, a ton of folks gravitate to it.
Based on her experience, it's the workload that's at issue and it seems that, even as an online program, it's surprisingly inefficient. Avoid group work if you can. And if you can't pick your partners well! Aim for the asynchronous classes which are more flexible, scheduling-wise.
20 hours in the lab yesterday, probably another 10 today.
first semester (almost) done, so far so good. Lots of theory/gazing at your navel-type stuff early, but the workload was nothing like what I saw my lady undertake to get her JD (nor should it be, I guess).
I'm not a parent, but I am working quite a bit in an academic library (mostly reference but some circulation stuff, too) and I haven't had too many major problems. procrastination has been my biggest enemy...that and blackboard discussion groups.
if you stay disciplined, you'll be good. easier said than done, but I think you're 100% right about the importance of having a routine.
Update: Just turned in my last assignment ever. I'm done. The thought of never having to stay up late to do homework feels good.
HELL YES.
Well done man, It's bloody hard but you did it, congratulations.
Good on you, mate. I have no advice for you because I have none of the above, but I know my step father pulled it off when I was growing up, and he still had time to give me attention, so it's doable.
Best
That rules. Thanks for some inspiration information.