Working full time and going to school full time is killing me...

[Zysoclaplem]

I've been sick twice since I started school. I think I might have the flu now. I have chills and my throat is swollen and painful and I am so achy.
Most of you might think I am a pussy but it's alot harder than I expected. Tons of homework.
It's alot harder than I thought it would be.

 

[radioouman]

It's hard, no doubt.

 

[Zysoclaplem]

I have a subsudized stafford loan, does anyone know if I could possibly drop a class and keep the loan? Reducing my hours to 9? It would so free up homework time and time to breathe.

 

[l Xes l]

that sux.

 

[UglyCasanova]

50+ hours a week plus school myself, and yeah something has got to change. Quick. I feel like I'm about to have a nervous breakdown.

This quarter ends in I think 4 weeks, then I'll have 2 weeks off to recuperate a little bit. I'm thinking about taking out a larger loan next quarter and reducing my hours a bit, but I really don't want to go insanely in debt, but I figure that is better than just going insane. :/

 

[cerebusPu]

my hours are reduced to 6 hours a week and i still have the stafford subsidized/unsub loan.

i think yo uare okay till 5 hours.

 

[Zysoclaplem]

Originally posted by: cerebusPu
my hours are reduced to 6 hours a week and i still have the stafford subsidized/unsub loan.

i think yo uare okay till 5 hours.

Does that hurt anything academically? My boss was telling me its always a bad idea to drop classes. Of course he didnt finish college, but even so.

 

[ngvepforever2]

Originally posted by: Zysoclaplem
I've been sick twice since I started school. I think I might have the flu now. I have chills and my throat is swollen and painful and I am so achy.
Most of you might think I am a pussy but it's alot harder than I expected. Tons of homework.
It's alot harder than I thought it would be.

I hear ya...being a CS major and working full time. This is shaping to be a nightmare of a semester (taking 16 credits in upper level classes). They just switched professors on three of my classes without even telling us and for what I checked the ones that I got now suck arse... Most of my classes are at night (7:00-10:00 pm) and what is killing me is that I will miss 24.... Hopefully, my next semester will be better. I have been doing it for 3 years now and it does get easier as time goes on but not easy enough. My advice is to just keep doing it, prioritize, don't look back, be positive and take care of your health...when you graduate you'll be looking back when you busted your ass while in school and hopefully realize that it was worth it in the end.

Good luck!

Regards

ng

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

 

[Heisenberg]

Originally posted by: Zysoclaplem

Originally posted by: cerebusPu
my hours are reduced to 6 hours a week and i still have the stafford subsidized/unsub loan.

i think yo uare okay till 5 hours.

Does that hurt anything academically? My boss was telling me its always a bad idea to drop classes. Of course he didnt finish college, but even so.

As long as you drop before the drop date, it doesn't matter.

 

[bigrash]

i've done that before and it's not easy. your body needs to rest, that's why you might be getting sick.

my friend has 2 jobs (1 full time and 1 part time) and goes to college full time. i have no clue how he does it.

 

[DaiShan]

I feel ya man, for 3 semesters I worked 40+ hours a week and carried 15-17 credits. I averaged around 5 hours of sleep a night. Often I would get home from work at 10PM or so then have to eat while studying untill 3 or so then get up at 7:30 or 8. Once I added the stress of running my own business on top of that I realized that something had to go. I chose to quit my crappy job and haven't been happier

 

[DaiShan]

Originally posted by: Zysoclaplem

Originally posted by: cerebusPu
my hours are reduced to 6 hours a week and i still have the stafford subsidized/unsub loan.

i think yo uare okay till 5 hours.

Does that hurt anything academically? My boss was telling me its always a bad idea to drop classes. Of course he didnt finish college, but even so.

Grad schools don't mind if you drop 1 or 2 classes (this information is taken from a presentation by the dean of admissions for Duke Law) but they don't want to see you dropping classes every semester.

 

[DrPizza]

I think you need to maintain full-time status for the loans.

You have 80% of my sympathies... It was 100% until I remembered that full-time means anything 12 or over.
I've always considered full-time to mean 18 credit hours.

You pay the same amount of money, regardless of it being 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, or 18 credit hours...
Suggestion for the future: add in more "easy" courses simply so you get more exposure. Take those courses pass/fail, if that's an option. Then, if what's happening to you now happens again, you can easily drop one of the courses and still maintain full-time status. Or, as I did the first time around (when engineering students were allowed 20 credit hours), I signed up for 20, expecting to drop the course that looked like the biggest mistake.
But, for what it's worth, I did 18-19 credit hours, worked full time, and coached soccer for 3 years... hence only 80% of my sympathies.
(and majored in math - certainly not a cake walk)

 

[DaiShan]

Originally posted by: bigrash
i've done that before and it's not easy. your body needs to rest, that's why you might be getting sick.

my friend has 2 jobs (1 full time and 1 part time) and goes to college full time. i have no clue how he does it.

When I was still working I remember that on breaks (christmas etc) I would sleep like 12-14 hours a day for the entire 2 weeks, just completely unwinding heh.

 

[platinumike]

Im in school full time and work 30+ hrs a week. My job is pretty stresfull too as a sales person in retail. This has been the first time I have been sick in a few months, which doesnt bother me. What really bothers me is having no life. I have become depressed and so serious all the time,and I envy the other guys my age who have time to just hang out with friends or girlfriend.

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Why do you need to work full-time? My friends supported themselves with part time jobs until they graduated. Even cutting back to 32 hours might make a difference.

If I had a good job and was working towards some financial goals, then I'd cut back to part time in school.

 

[sygyzy]

Then stop.

 

[V00DOO]

I took a programming class last semester while working full time. I almost had a nervous brake down because I spent most of my free time and weekend studying and doing homework. Now I just play poker and watch football on the weekend. :beer:. Never again will I take another class.

 

[Zysoclaplem]

Originally posted by: HeroOfPellinor
Why do you need to work full-time? My friends supported themselves with part time jobs until they graduated. Even cutting back to 32 hours might make a difference.

If I had a good job and was working towards some financial goals, then I'd cut back to part time in school.

Because I am completely independant and have 0 zilch nothing nada to fall back on. If I dont make enough to pay my bills I am screwed. Plus I dont make good money. I only make about 21k a year. But thats just with a GED.

 

[necine]

Yeah I work like 30 hours a week, and go to school fulltime. It's tough.

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: Zysoclaplem
Because I am completely independant and have 0 zilch nothing nada to fall back on. If I dont make enough to pay my bills I am screwed. Plus I dont make good money. I only make about 21k a year. But thats just with a GED.

Can't you qualify for more student loans? They are the best loans you'll ever get. Financially, emotionally, and physically it is usually well worth it to drop the work, get the loans, take more credits, graduate much sooner, and get a much higher paying job sooner.

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Originally posted by: Zysoclaplem

Originally posted by: HeroOfPellinor
Why do you need to work full-time? My friends supported themselves with part time jobs until they graduated. Even cutting back to 32 hours might make a difference.

If I had a good job and was working towards some financial goals, then I'd cut back to part time in school.

Because I am completely independant and have 0 zilch nothing nada to fall back on. If I dont make enough to pay my bills I am screwed. Plus I dont make good money. I only make about 21k a year. But thats just with a GED.

Understood. But, for example, the dorms at my college in CA were $5000 for the year (9 months) and that included utilities and food. Tuiton and books was another $2500 a year or so. Some guys became RAs and got room and board free.

If you go a route like that, you should be able to focus on your studies and even up the load to graduate sooner. Then you'll be where the rest of us were.....saying, WTF I thought a college degree was supposed to help me get a good paying job.

 

[Mo0o]

The trick is to get a piss easy job that let's you study while you're technically working. For example working in the library or campus tech support

 

[MX2]

I remember those days Just keep in mind, it will pay off and the payoff is quicker