<p>I'm asking this on the parents forum, since you might have a bit of previous experience with this, or at least, know how your kids work. Anyway, I attend the community college in my state, which is 45 minutes to an hour away, depending on traffic. This makes it so that I can't leave school for home all day. Recently, I started a new job (note that it's a JOB, not a work study). This week, I only had to work 16 hours due to training, but I think it's going to end up being about 24 hours a week. I'm currently taking 18 credits, and I spend the majority of my day at school.</p>
<p>Right now, I'm pretty stressed out. Due to work/school, I've been having trouble making time to go to my local library and credit union. I need to go to the library for one of my classes to gather images (long story) and I need to access money for a new phone/car insurance. Also, I haven't been able to have much else. I'm not the partying type or anything, but I would like to see my friends sometimes, and have room for volunteering/extracurriculars. In addition to wanting to do them, I want to look impressive to transfer colleges (since I have no intention of transferring to my state uni if I don't have to). Part of the friends issue is because many of my friends live at our state university, and part of it is my mother's inability to trust me to go anywhere. It's kind of a long story, but this is mostly due to her hatred of my boyfriend, so it's hard for me to see friends/go places. My life is basically spent working,wasting time on my laptop, and attending college.</p>
<p>Am I putting too much on me? Should I try to work less or take less classes for next semester? (On a side note, I don't think I can do a work study, since my mom hadn't filled out her taxes for the financial aid tax verification worksheet? Or is it my mother, whom I don't get along with well, and the stress that she puts on me to work more/never leave the house? Or am I not trying hard enough? What would you recommend for the amount of time a student should be working and the amount of classes that should be taken? Thanks, and sorry that this was long.</p>
<p>It’s really hard to come up with advice for you without an actual schedule. Generally speaking, I’d expect you to spend time at your cc taking classes and studying/homework, then working after classes are over. Use your weekend to hit the local library and credit union. It might be easier on you to take one less course (so 15 credits) and see if you can arrange your classes next semester to give you at least one free afternoon.</p>
<p>I worked around 40 hours/wk while taking a full load of engineering courses. It wasn’t fun or ideal but I had to support myself so I had no option. </p>
<p>There are too many variables to answer your question. A lot of it comes down to ‘need to work’ vs desire to work vs parents pressuring to work. I think a lot of colleges limit on-campus jobs to 20 hrs/wk so as not to interfere too greatly with classes. I think most students s/b able to handle it including engineering students. If one is a humanities major they could probably easily handle even more hours.</p>
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If you quit wasting time on your laptop you’ll have more time for productive use. What do you mean by this? There are some people who spend incredible amounts of time just doing FB, browsing the internet, watching shows online, IMing, playing video games, or even messing with CC. If you’re spending an inordinate amount of time on these extras then cut it back.</p>
<p>As another student who works and also (usually) takes 18 credits a semester, I would say if you really need the money (I know I did), do not push it over 20-25 hours a week. The most I have worked while going 18 credit hours is 45 hours of work a week and it totally killed my GPA (the first semester I did so, I’m doing so now and am doing fine but it was a learning process). It’s easy for someone to say scale back on work hours, but it’s hard when you need the money (although, you are still living at home, so perhaps its time you scale back on spending money/learn how to manage your finances). The biggest thing with this would be time management… you probably will have to cut back on sleep, and make sure you plan every day by the hour to get the most out of your time (example, during a lunch break, eat while doing homework, not while going on facebook). You can do it. Also, the trust issue thing I can’t really help you on as I moved away, but as far as friends/social life go - I make sure to allow myself a block of time every week to just relax or go out with friends. An afternoon of “me”/“social time” - it helps me keep the stress levels lower.</p>
<p>Edit: You even admit you waste time on your laptop - so why not use that wasteful time for something productive? If you are stuck at school in-between classes, find a club to join or get all of your homework done.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t recommend working more than 20 hours while taking classes, especially if you’re taking 18 credit hours. 24 isn’t too bad, you just have to learn how to manage your time right. Some people have no problem with working full-time and going to school, but everyone is not the same.</p>
<p>You’ll be able to tell when you’re working too many hours- if your grades start to drop, if you are too stressed out to get everything done, if you’re always exhausted, then you may need to rethink how many hours you work. That’s not a bad thing, after all the most important thing is doing the best you can in your classes.</p>
<p>Of course, if you depend on a job to pay for school or other things your situation is going to be different.</p>
<p>I know that this is not your primay question, though since you mention not havng time to to access the credit union, I’d recommend using online banking to pay bills and having a debit card to make purchases with. Many merchants will allow you to take an extra $20 or $40 out when you make a purchase. You may be able to cut down on the need to go to the credit union for cash.</p>
<p>To everyone, in between classes, I get my homework done. Really, there’s only one class where my schedule is REALLY running into problems. Although I waste time on the internet, it’s really because my mom won’t let me leave. I’m 18, but I’m always receiving threats from her that I’m going to get kicked out if I don’t do what she wants. I guess I’m just jealous, because even though my grades were as good (if not better) than my friends, they’re living at college and not working or just doing a work study. </p>
<p>I only work on the weekends. I’m at college (or driving) from 8-7 most days, so I can’t work during the weekdays well. </p>
<p>The only thing I’ve been spending money on really is food at school and gas. Yes, I can buy food at the store and bring it to school, but whenever there’s anything decent to eat in the house, someone ends up eating it, since my mom is too lazy to do proper grocery shopping and cooking. </p>
<p>Sorry, this whole post has been whiny. Looking at it, I guess this is just teenage angst directed towards my mom, and a poorly planned college schedule (since I registered late, I had trouble getting classes in…I was supposed to go to a 4-year college, but my mom didn’t do her taxes). I guess just disregard this all. Thanks.</p>
<p>My kids worked between 10 and 15 hours a week, sometimes up to 20 but that was not a regular schedule. I think you need to figure out if you can budget your time for more than 20 hours. Like others have said…you can probably get cash when you make purchases. You can have your pay direct deposit to your account. I haven’t been to my credit union office…EVER. Or you can find an ATM that is within network.</p>
<p>Sit down and work out your schedule. It sounds like you can do this IF you budget your time to get the school work done immediatedly during the week.</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone here was trying to rag on you - just with the “wasting time” thing, it makes it sound like you just weren’t managing your time. You’ll be fine working weekends if you finish all of your studying and homework at night, getting home at 7 is early! If you just keep up during the week, you’ll have ample time to put in working hours during the weekend.</p>
<p>Sometimes there are things that have to go at least temporarily. When I was in college I didn’t have much time for things like this either, whether or not I was working. If you prioritize and realistically evaluate what you can and cannot do, it will help you to see what is the most important. As for your mom, perhaps you need to have a little adult to adult chat :)</p>
<p>Hang in there. I sympathize with you. I took 7 years and 3 colleges (and 3 different majors) to get my BA degree. I started at the local CC and worked probably 20 hours a week but took a much lighter load than you’re taking. I transferred to a private univ., did work study, ran out of money after two years, and transferred again to the local state univ. I changed majors again, worked about 30-35 hours a week, and took 3 more years and graduated with a gpa of under 3.0.</p>
<p>Though I never got my masters, I did much better in graduate school because I was married by then and didn’t have to work other than doing 3 semesters of full time student teaching. That made a huge difference.</p>
<p>I have heard that you want to work no more than 15-20 hours a week (my son works about 15 hours a week in high school and it’s a good amount) and I might suggest lightening your load to 15 units. Some people, like GladGradDad, have the capability to work full time and go to school full time-I did not. I don’t know you but I would say, try to put aside your resentment of your mom. Community college isn’t so bad because you will be able to transfer in less than two years. And frankly, you’ll probably have less debt than your friends who are at 4 year schools right now.</p>
<p>Most everyone around our neighborhood either goes to the community college or doesn’t go to college at all, so your story doesn’t sound so unusual. Maybe you can start working on your mom slowly to get her to do taxes and by the time you’re ready to transfer, she’ll warm up to the idea.</p>
<p>You need to figure your commute time into your working time. 24 hours/week working sounds okay to many people (it’s been done–it’s how many paid for school)
BUT an hour commute is 2 hours a day which translates to an extra 10 hours a week. And yes, 34 hours a week (nearly a full time job) with 18 hours credit is too much. </p>
<p>There is no time for extracurriculars. With an hour commute I would consider living nearer campus if possible, I’d do the math and figure out my priorities. If you take a longer time going through school consider the loss in potential income you may make if you graduated earlier and got a job.</p>
<p>Talk to someone at the state univ (if you decide) in the financial office and find out what your options are if your mom won’t fill out the forms, etc.</p>
<p>You might reconsider your state university. Don’t know where you live. You say your friends are there but you don’t want to go. Why not? State universities are the best value for your dollar. Graduating college with little or no debt is a real blessing.</p>