I am 19 and a stay at home mom of a 1 year old. I am starting school this semester and have to register for classes soon, of course I’m going to ask an adviser as well but I’d like to hear some people’s opinions.
I have no idea how many courses to take. I do live with my boyfriend and he works during the day. I am planning on getting my bachelor’s degree in health and society and I want to do it as quickly as possible. I was planning on taking 2-3 a semester and 1-2 during the summer. So if i do 3 a semester and 2 during the summer I would get my bachelors in 4.5-5 years i think which sounds great to me.
Do you think it’ll be too much with a toddler? We also might have another one on the way but we don’t know yet.
Your primary concern is who will look after your children while you attend college and do course work. In all honesty, I think three courses a semester is not feasible. Even two will be a real challenge. Back in the day, I had plans to get a higher degree. It was hard to do one college course, and I had some help with child care. Be careful of biting off more than you can chew.
Are classes live or online? The mom students I know have often found online classes easier to juggle?
What child care assistance do you have? Will someone watch your child when you are in class? During finals week? If the child is ill?
What kind of a sleeper is your child? Will you be able to carve out two good hours of study time at night because your child reliably goes down at 7:00? Or because your partner will take over? (Harder if you also have a newborn.)
Will your partner help at home? Do you do most of the cleaning, errands, etc.? If so, how will that change when you are in school.
In short, I think your plan can be do-able for a determined student. But NOT if you are planning to juggle multiple in-person classes with inadequate child care and division of household chores. You have to be able to sleep, too.
I’d start with two classes and see how it went. It’s easier to move up to three the following semester if you get into a nice working groove, but not so good to do poorly in the first ones if it ends up being too much while you adjust to the changes.
I’d also be sure those first two weren’t lab classes.
Kudos to you for plotting your future and being open to advice!
Start with a low number of classes and then increase if it seems possible. I know that financial aid is not offered unless you take two, but I think two is plenty. Is your child a napper?!
I was never able to take classes when my kids were that age. But others do, so I think it depends on the factors others have discussed.
Not three!! Better to do well over time than set yourself up for failure on both fronts! Good luck!
If you are a stay at home mother of a toddler, realistically, the only time that you could do schoolwork is while the child is asleep, unless you put her in front of the TV (a million years ago, Teletubbies let me pack up to move, when I had a 16 month old). Or if you have someone to stay with the child, you could study then. So maybe if he does bedtime with the child, to let you study, and gives you space to study in the evenings after the child goes to sleep, you could probably manage two classes a semester, assuming that you are highly motivated. Online would be much easier to manage than in-person. There is no way that you could plan on bringing a one year old to class with you.
If all goes well, I think that you could manage no more than two classes a semester, three semesters a year. If you are currently pregnant, I think it will be almost impossible for you, unless you’re one of those people who don’t get sick when you’re pregnant.
Does your state have subsidized head start/early head start/daycare? If they do, and if you want to take advantage of that, then you could attend school full time, if you have all day childcare available to you.
I would seriously consider attending your local community college for a nursing certification. Those programs often have other mothers as students, can be quite flexible, and can be accommodating to those with child care needs. Good outlook for employment and a variety of different employer settings.
I was thinking of that, but I presume that OP is not interested in becoming a nurse, since a BA in health and society is very different from becoming a nurse. What does one do with a BA in health and society? But yes, getting an RN degree at a community college would be a far more useful degree. Quicker, great earning power, fairly easy to advance to a BSN once the kids are in school.
A nursing program at a community college would likely require the OP to take pre-reqs, in order to be accepted. In addition, the schedule for clinical training is likely to be all day, and not flexible in terms of scheduling. Schools struggle to find clinical training placements for their students - it’s going to be show up at this place at this time, rather than “when is it convenient for you to come in and get clinical training?”
Some hospitals around here offer childcare for nurses and nursing students. Might be worth looking into. As you noted, the benefits of a nursing certification are many.
If I were a single mother ( possibly of 2) I would prioritize getting some financial independence and stability in a job , as well as a written commitment of support from the child’s father, asap.