- #1
Sentience
- 78
- 0
I will try and keep this to-the-point.
I'm 26 years old. I've been going to school on and off since I was about 19 while working. The years from when I was 19 until about 24 I was in exploring mode. I took a lot of generals. Neither of my parents went to college so I did not have a lot of guidance. I was working and goofing off a lot with friends. Typical stuff in your early 20s (at least for some people). Then I thought I would be a computer science major; turns out there is no way I could write code for a living. Finally, almost 2 years ago at 25 I found out I wanted to be a chemical engineer. Because of so many failed or withdrawn classes from my young and stupid days I had to go through an appeals process to get financial aid. We wrote up a contract, and off I went.
I took Calc 1, 2, ODEs, 3 semesters of chem, phyiscs, thermo, matlab, etc. I did well, even as a part time worker I pulled As and Bs. Everything was going great as far as academics are concerned.
Well, from 21 until just this past Feb., I was in a long-term relationship. When it ended, it completely shattered me. I had to withdraw from 2 out of my 4 classes. There were numerous reasons it ended, but being a busy student and being stressed out a lot played a role. Well, it violated my contract and I can no longer receive financial aid. My completion rate is not high enough. This is not something I'm proud of, but I was just a kid who had no clue what I really wanted to do with my life.
Now, a few months later I'm thinking about school again. I'm registered for classes this fall, about 9 or 10 credit hours. I have a good part time job lined up, that has benefits including tuition reimbursement even for a part time worker. Right now, I'm living with family. I live in my grandma's basement. I plan on moving out as soon as I save up a bit of cash.
My question is this : Is it possible to work part time, take upper division classes on a part time basis (and do well), and still have somewhat of a social life? I'm at a point in my life where I'm pretty depressed because I feel like I've given so much of my 20s to school. It will probably be a couple more months yet, but I want to start dating again eventually. Having a cool, long-term girlfriend is awesome. However, I know now what a toll school can have on relationships.
With my plan, I will be broke (but still out of my family's house), and busy but still have enough to support myself, have insurance, etc.. However, I was thinking with 9 or 10 credits I will still have time to go to the gym, and, *gasp* go on a date once in a while. From my perspective, even if it takes longer to graduate, it's worth not being a hermit and basically ignoring other aspects of my life. I did that for the past 1.5 years and I was getting very burned out.
Has anyone pulled this off successfully or been in a similar situation? I'm at a crossroads in my life right now and could use some advice. Thank you.
I'm 26 years old. I've been going to school on and off since I was about 19 while working. The years from when I was 19 until about 24 I was in exploring mode. I took a lot of generals. Neither of my parents went to college so I did not have a lot of guidance. I was working and goofing off a lot with friends. Typical stuff in your early 20s (at least for some people). Then I thought I would be a computer science major; turns out there is no way I could write code for a living. Finally, almost 2 years ago at 25 I found out I wanted to be a chemical engineer. Because of so many failed or withdrawn classes from my young and stupid days I had to go through an appeals process to get financial aid. We wrote up a contract, and off I went.
I took Calc 1, 2, ODEs, 3 semesters of chem, phyiscs, thermo, matlab, etc. I did well, even as a part time worker I pulled As and Bs. Everything was going great as far as academics are concerned.
Well, from 21 until just this past Feb., I was in a long-term relationship. When it ended, it completely shattered me. I had to withdraw from 2 out of my 4 classes. There were numerous reasons it ended, but being a busy student and being stressed out a lot played a role. Well, it violated my contract and I can no longer receive financial aid. My completion rate is not high enough. This is not something I'm proud of, but I was just a kid who had no clue what I really wanted to do with my life.
Now, a few months later I'm thinking about school again. I'm registered for classes this fall, about 9 or 10 credit hours. I have a good part time job lined up, that has benefits including tuition reimbursement even for a part time worker. Right now, I'm living with family. I live in my grandma's basement. I plan on moving out as soon as I save up a bit of cash.
My question is this : Is it possible to work part time, take upper division classes on a part time basis (and do well), and still have somewhat of a social life? I'm at a point in my life where I'm pretty depressed because I feel like I've given so much of my 20s to school. It will probably be a couple more months yet, but I want to start dating again eventually. Having a cool, long-term girlfriend is awesome. However, I know now what a toll school can have on relationships.
With my plan, I will be broke (but still out of my family's house), and busy but still have enough to support myself, have insurance, etc.. However, I was thinking with 9 or 10 credits I will still have time to go to the gym, and, *gasp* go on a date once in a while. From my perspective, even if it takes longer to graduate, it's worth not being a hermit and basically ignoring other aspects of my life. I did that for the past 1.5 years and I was getting very burned out.
Has anyone pulled this off successfully or been in a similar situation? I'm at a crossroads in my life right now and could use some advice. Thank you.