College degree while working

This question is mostly aimed at those who have done it, but anyone who has some ideas about can feel free to chime in as well.

How many of you have gone for a four-year degree while having to hold down a full-time to pay the bills? How many years does it actually take to get a B.S. when you can only do a couple classes per semester?

This is probably the situation I'm going to find myself in a year, so I'm looking at getting a little heads-up on what I'm getting myself into.

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Darthn3ss

I'm not paying many bills, but, i am a full time college student working towards an associates while working 40+ hours. it sucks, but it'll pay off in the long run. after i finish my associates and get a real job (not walmart), i plan to go back for a bachelors and on to a masters. i do plan to do 2-4 classes a semester like that.

shednik

c0d3_w0lf wrote:

This question is mostly aimed at those who have done it, but anyone who has some ideas about can feel free to chime in as well.

How many of you have gone for a four-year degree while having to hold down a full-time to pay the bills? How many years does it actually take to get a B.S. when you can only do a couple classes per semester?

This is probably the situation I'm going to find myself in a year, so I'm looking at getting a little heads-up on what I'm getting myself into.

For me it took 3.5 years for my BS...my first 4 semesters were typical living on campus in their housing then when my girlfriend ended up pregnant during my 4th semester I moved into a house with her and got a full time job shortly afterwards. I ended up being able to finish in 3 more semesters by taking summer classes as well. My advice depending on the school I would take 4-5 classes usually 2 night and 3 online, CLEP as many core classes as possible, and plan ahead. These past 1.5 years sucked, but it payed off in the end I just graduated in December and at my current job was making $28k, and shortly after graduation I was offered a ppositionthat I start in a week for $46k. So in my eyes all the hard work payed off and thats why I'll tell anyone it's worth doing it. Unless you have an urgent reason top get done I would recommend taking you time a little more then I did. just my 2 cents

Arvean

full time work, full time BA of economics in progress. It ain't easy when you start your day at 6AM to commute, and come back at midnight after work/school. There is no such thing as personal time except for sleeping in the subway :P

dynamik

Just figure the amount of classes you will realistically be able to take compared to what a full-time student will be taking. It should be pretty easy to figure out. If you can only take two while a full-time student will be taking four, it will take you twice as long. Maybe you can be 3/4 or full-time the first year or two while you do a bunch of easy generals and then drop your time down when you get to more difficult coursework. You can also make up a class or two over the summer. Maybe your school has some distance learning courses available that you can add into the mix, so you can work on them over the weekend or something. Like Shednik said, there's no reason to rush through it and make yourself miserable. I took a full load last semester while working full-time and it was absolutely miserable. You don't want to burn out and end up dropping out.

ajs1976

When i want back for my associates, I did 2 classes during the fall and spring terms and 1 during the summer session. I could have done 3 and 2 with out much of an impact on my job. This was before wife, kids, house.

Now i'm going back to school and planning on doing 2 and 1 again. After I see how it goes, I may take more.

To save money look into the CLEP exams and taking classes at you local community college. Make sure the school you are going to attend will accept them for transfer first.

hypnotoad

The faster you get through school the better. Tuition has gone up 35% in the last 10 years. Books have quadrupled in price.

My buddy spent 7 years getting his BS and the reason it took so long is that he was working 40 hours a week for minimum wage. Now he's $100,000 in debt.

oldbarney

I worked 45 hours per week while taking classes full time over a 4 1/2 year period. Going into the BA program, I already had an associates, but required more core general ed courses. In a 4.5-year period, I earned a 2nd associates, 2 undergrad certificates (networking, web development), and a BA all while working full time. Only two classes were taken online; I sat in class 3-4 nights per week and Saturdays for the rest. My average semester hours per year -- from Summer 2001 until Spring 2005 -- was something like 33. All my friends and co-workers freaked over how I was able to maintain such a pace. After looking back, me too!

Now, I average about 18 graduate hours per year.

Netstudent

I've been doing it my whole college and work career. For the last 3.5 years I have been working full time and going to school 12, even sometimes 16 hours a week. BUt I'm about to cut my classes back to 8 hours a week due to new circumstances, which will delay my graduation date by 3 months. It wasn't so bad untill a kid came into the picture. I'm used to it now, a 13 hour day is just like normal routine. I'm not going to know what to do with myself when I graduate. Probably just be a fulltime cisco geek.