You’ve chosen to juggle to college and working full time.
Not only can this be done, but it can be done successfully.
I worked full time and was a mom to two young daughters when I enrolled in college.
I know that my daughters helped motivate me to continue and earn my degree. It was tough at times.
Did I ever want to give up? No, I didn’t. I did need to cut back the hours I was enrolled a couple of times.
There are a few things I learned along the way that I want to share and pass on to others.
So this article is coming from my own experiences.
Tell Your Employer
I’m not sure why you would want to hide this, unless you’re concerned your employer may question if you can juggle college and working full time.
Let your employer know that you’re planning to start out slow and not take on more than you can handle.
There may be incentives for team members that are attending college while working full time…Perhaps a more flexible work schedule or tuition reimbursement.
I finished my degree in almost five years. I told my employer in the beginning that I was planning on going back to college in my thirties (after completing a lousy four classes right after high school).
There were nothing but positive vibes coming from my peers and bosses.
Actually, they’ve used me as a case study for other people and have said “She did it – you can too”.
Start Out Slow
Don’t take sixteen hours of classes your first semester juggling college and working full time.
I get that you want to finish as quickly as possible. There’s always summer and winter classes.
If you start out with too many classes, the likelihood of getting burned out and quitting altogether is going to increase. It’s less likely to get burnt out taking 2 than it is taking 5 classes.
I know this from experience.
If you’re receiving some sort of financial aid, note that you may have not only GPA requirements, but credit hour requirements as well.
You’ll most likely want to make sure that you maintain at least the minimum number of required credits to keep your financial aid going.
With that in mind, if you do need to drop a class, drop it.
Check the college calendar for when you need to drop by to receive full or partial credit.
It’s OK to Drop a Class
Don’t think it’s the end of the world if you do need to drop a class.
I took three summer classes one year and that was the craziest thing I ever did. I realized after two days that I could not juggle college and working full time with that type of workload.
After I dropped the class that was the most demanding, I felt such a relief. I ended up taking it during the fall when I knew the assignments would be more spread out.
I wouldn’t suggest taking a huge amount of hours with the mentality that you can always drop some if you feel like you’re overwhelmed.
However, know that the option is there if you need to drop something in order to maintain a certain GPA or not get so overwhelmed that you fail at everything.
If you’re struggling and missing assignments after the first or second week, it may be time to let a class go so you don’t sacrifice them all.
Be The Most Organized Person You Know
Print out the syllabus as soon as it’s available.
Take the syllabus and put every due date, exam date, and any other important dates into your own personal calendar.
For me, I love a good dry erase calendar with a notes section off to the side I can write random things.
This is your absolute key to success.
When you have multiple classes and a full time job demanding your time every day, you are going to forget things.
After you’re done adding the syllabus to your calendar, add all of the other random things you need to remember to do as well. Keep your personal life and your college life on the same calendar.
Doctor’s appointment? Add it to the calendar.
Pickleball match that you know you better not miss or your friends will never let you forget it? Add it to the calendar.
If you’re going out of town for work, add that to this calendar as well so you can better manage your time before and after you return.
Dedicate a College Work Space
Having everything in one organized place will help you not waste time looking for things.
Designate an area in your home where you keep everything college related that has all of the tools you need to be successful.
Some items to keep in your dedicated college work space:
- Laptop
- Calculator
- Note pad
- Calendar
- Pens and paper
- Any specific tools needed for your major (like a ruler or camera)
- Books
- Headphones
- Planner
- Sticky notes
- Index cards
You should organize not only your physical space, but your electronic space as well.
Give every class it’s own folder on your desktop. I love color coordinating files so they are easy to find.
Set Time Blocks
While we’re on organization, let’s talk time blocks.
Create a schedule for you from when you wake up to when you go to bed.
Yes, it sounds horrible. But hear me out.
This time block schedule is not meant to limit you on fun time. You’re going to put fun time in the schedule as well.
Here’s a day-in-the-life of a person juggling college and working full time (online class only edition)
- 6:30 – Wake up, shower, eat breakfast, do all the morning routine type stuff
- 7:30 – Leave for work
- 8:00 – Get to work and focus on work until 11:30
- 11:30 – 12:30 – Lunch break. Pull out the college coursework and get ahead on assignments.
- 12:30 – 5:00 – Focus back on work
- 5:00 – Drive home
- 5:30 – 6:00 – Take a look at your college calendar and plan what you’ll work on tonight, knock out anything easy
- 6:00 – 8:00 – Dinner, spend some quality family time
- 8:00 – 9:30 – Dedicated time for school work
The great thing is, the further you get ahead, the less and less you need dedicated time for school work.
The plan won’t always go exactly how you’ve mapped it out and that’s completely acceptable.
When I make a to-do list with time slots like this, it helps me get up out of my seat and get focused on what is on my schedule.
Make Use of Summer Classes
Knock out an easy class or two over summer.
I never regretted doing this. All I had my eye on was finishing as quickly as possible without overloading myself.
For your first summer going to college and working full time, I would suggest taking only one class. If it’s online, even better.
I got to the point where I took all my classes online and it was the best thing ever.
Consider taking an online class or two over summer to help shorten the length of time you’re juggling college and working full time.
Get Ahead, Even When You Are Already Ahead
Change your mentality to believe that you are never ahead enough.
Any free time should be spent working on getting ahead in your classes.
There will be things that come up.
What if you have to go out of town for your job? What if your significant other has a family emergency?
Or perhaps you get in a slump and need to take a breather to keep your mental health up.
I felt so much better about college when I was ahead on my classwork.
The First Week is Crucial
Treat the first week as hell week.
You’re starting from scratch. You haven’t created a buffer yet and gotten ahead of when things are due.
In order to get ahead and be prepared for what life will throw at you this semester, really focus on spending more time than you know you need to during the first week.
I can’t tell you the times I missed an assignment during weeks one or two because I simply said “oh, that’s not due for two days” and then two days snuck up on me and I completely forgot.
It was always something simple I forgot too – like posting an introduction on a discussion board. Knock those easy things out early on.
I would set a goal of getting one to two weeks ahead on all assignments before the first week is up.
If there’s some crazy portal you have to log into that you’ve never seen before, do it now so you can address any technical issues that may come up.
Need to order a book? Order it now and knock it out. Time is going to creep up on you as the semester progresses.
The mentality of “that’s easy, I’ll do it later” cannot exist when you’re trying to juggle college and working full time.
Reward Yourself
This is no small task that you are taking on.
To successfully juggle college and a full time job, you have to be very motivated with the end goal in mind.
As you reach certain milestones, reward yourself!
It could be treating yourself to a new purse, a facial, a romantic night out with your significant other, or simply a lunch date with yourself at your favorite local restaurant.
Some examples of milestones you could set:
- Maintaining a B in all classes
- Successfully completing a semester
- Turning in all work on time for a month straight
- Scoring an A on an exam
The great thing about this is the fact that you’re making the rules and motivating yourself to keep going.
Final Thoughts
To juggle college and working full time, here are the main takeaways:
- Start out slow
- Be organized
- Dedicate a work space
- Completely plan your day in advance, with time allotted for fun things and family time
- Always be ahead
- Set achievable goals and reward yourself when you meet them
Get ahead and stay ahead!
I did it in my thirties – You can do this too!
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