You don't get days off, you are busy seven days a week. You're rushing from either class to work or from work to class. You have early mornings and late nights every single day and you're pulling way more all-nighters than you should be.
Everyone always asks me what it's like to attend a four-year college full-time and to work full-time, so I decided to write about it and I hope with this that maybe I'll motivate somebody to work harder in school or at work.
First and foremost, coffee. Coffee, coffee, and more coffee.
As a college student who wants to graduate as soon as possible, I'm enrolled full-time, which means I take 12 or more credits a semester. Now, to those who aren't in school, or haven't been for a little while, 12 credits doesn't seem like much but depending on how many credits your classes are it can either be taking three classes or four classes.
But to graduate on time you need 15 a semester, so boom, there's another class. Now you're either taking four or five classes.
College classes are not a joke. They are very time consuming and something that a ton of effort needs to be put into. So let me break down my schedule for you. I'm taking three classes this semester because tuition is crazy expensive and I have to pay for it out of pocket. Three 4-credit classes, they each meet twice a week for two hours--that's four hours for one class every week.
So I spend 12 hours on campus in lectures alone, never mind labs. For every hour you're in class you have two hours of homework to do. That's 24 hours of homework each week. That's a minimum of 36 hours a week on school, add some more time to write papers, do projects, and to study. This is every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
School is literally a full-time job.
Speaking of full-time job, I work outside of school and I work sometimes--most times more than--40 hours a week with one day off, two during the semester. But my shifts aren't quick little 6-7 hour shifts, they're 8, 9, 10, 11, 12... up to 16-hour shifts.
Sometimes I work doubles the days I don't have class. When I do have class before I go right from class to work and work almost until close (11 pm), or even until close. Friday and Saturday I work bright and early at either 4 a.m. or 5 a.m.
I have absolutely no time for a social life.
After class and then work, I have to do homework and study and by the time I get home from work it's 11:30 and I need to shower and eat and then boom, I have hours and hours of readings, note taking, online quizzes, papers, portfolios, projects and studying.
By the time I'm done its nearing 5-6 a.m. and it's time to get up and start my day. It's a good night if I finish by 4 a.m. so I can nap a couple of hours before waking up to go to my 8 a.m. lecture and repeat this entire process.
Oh, and my weekends are non-existent if you couldn't tell. Even if I'm not working a double and my shift starts super early I don't get out until the middle of the afternoon and then I need to go home and run errands and do household things before ending my night as usual with... that's right you guessed it, homework.
My breaks are nonexistent because professors just assign a ton of busy work and I don't take my breaks off from work. My summers are non-existent too, as I work 50+ hours a week. And this summer I'll probably be working just as much, but with taking a couple of summer classes as well.
Now I have all of this plus I'm involved with things on campus, such as Odyssey, and now I have to find time to write articles and attend monthly meetings.
Balancing classes, homework and work all year round with no break is one of the hardest and most stressful things I've had to do in my life. But in the end, I'm getting a degree and my bank accounts are ballin'.
But really though, in the end I know I'm just bettering my future by working this hard now instead of trying to do it in my 40s.
