I got accepted into an MA program for English literature. It’s an out-of-state uni and I’m arriving just before the semester starts, so I don’t have much time for job hunting but I’ll definitely need to work to support my own, and hopefully some of my wife’s expenses.
My question is, what sort of work/school balance have you all made in entering graduate school? I know it’s “normal” to graduate in about 2 years, which means 8 credits a semester. Is it possible to work full time while doing this? (And if possible, advisable??) Or am I better to work part time and maybe take out a loan?
A little more background: as an undergrad I worked about 30-35 hours a week while taking 12-15 credits. But this was insanely hard on me as I had an active job, and it was 8 or 9 miles from the uni. I would not fancy doing that again, especially as I’m married now.
Sorry if this question is in the wrong place. It’s my first post.
While it’s theoretically possible to work full-time while in a full-time MA program - as in, there are enough hours in the day to do it - it’s often not actually possible for a variety of reasons.
First of all, traditional full-time academic MA programs tend to hold most of their coursework between the hours of 9 to 6, which is precisely when most full-time jobs expect their employees to be present. That alone makes it difficult to coordinate this.
Let’s even say that you were able to find a full-time night job that had you working from 11 pm to 7 am and you had (let’s say) two classes MWF - one from 10 am - 12 pm and the other from 2 pm - 5 pm. Even imagining you did have an ideal schedule like that, when would you sleep? There are only 6 hours between 5 and 11 pm and that doesn’t count travel time; there are only 3 hours between 7 am and 10 am. When would you study, do homework/write papers, eat, exercise, and spend time with your wife? And most people do not get ideal schedules like that.
IMO it’s better to choose one of two scenarios: Work full-time and attend school part-time or work part-time and attend school full-time.
First off, do you have a teaching assistantship? Or any other kind of aid from the school? Sometimes if the school is giving you funding they have restrictions for how much you can work outside of the institution, so that’s something to consider if this applies to you.
I’m starting an MA program in comp/rhet (another side of English!), and I was offered teaching assistantships that are blocked for 20 hours/wk. I would also be able to work 5 hrs/week at one school’s writing center, so my proposed plan is to be working 25 hours a week while taking the required 9 credits/3 classes (every school is different, but most of my prospective programs require full-time students to take 3 3-credit courses. This is also to keep the assistantship, though, so it might be different for you if you don’t have to worry about that).
And also, I know that in some of the English programs I’ve looked into, graduate English classes are mostly at night because they reserve the traditional times for undergraduate courses/professors in the department who teach earlier in the day. They also might reserve literature classes in particular to be at night since sometimes high school English teachers pursue their MA in literature at night, but of course ymmv. You might be able to work during the day, then (or at least the morning/early afternoon).
So, to conclude, I think working 25 hours a week would be feasible since it’s what most graduate assistants do. I might even do some kind of side work to make extra money if I can. You might be able to work full-time if your classes are your only responsibilities, but it just depends on you and all of the other things going on in your life.
Good luck!