subject: Psychology Majors: Balancing Work With School [print this page] Psychology Majors: Balancing Work With School
Studying while working is hard, but possible. Many adults return to school at some time during their working lives to boost promotion prospects or fill in gaps in their education. Adult students are often more motivated than younger students; they work harder at their assignments, they do their homework and the life lessons and professional experience they have acquired at work add depth to their studies.
The advantages work in the other direction, too. Students in a psychology graduate program are often able to apply their newly-acquired knowledge to gaining a better understanding of how their co-workers and bosses think, and find that negotiation and other crucial work skills improve.
Recruiting supporters is key to successfully balancing work and school. Psychology students should be open with their employers, family and professors about their combined responsibilities. Employers and professors can be surprisingly flexible if solutions are negotiated in advance. For example, an employer may accept an employee leaving an hour early to get to class if the employee negotiates either a small pay cut or makes up lost hours beforehand.
Working students should be careful not to take on too many classes at once. It is often possible, and advisable, to spread out required classes over a longer period of time. Students are generally impatient to get their degree, but trying to do too much will result in burnout and failure to complete the degree program. Many schools offer flexible options such as online classes or intensive summer classes.
Another important tip is to plan for crunch times. The student should try, as much as possible, to find out in advance when exams or major projects will be due, so that time off work can be scheduled if necessary. All students should plan to give themselves the occasional day off both work and study, in order to stay fresh and motivated. This will only be possible, however, if the student makes every effort to keep up with work and study during their work week. This means eliminating time-wasters such as social networking, computer games, TV and non-essential shopping during work and study times.
Above all, students should be realistic. Being able to study and work at the same time is a wonderful achievement, but no one is perfect and there will be times when every student struggles with the workload. Being prepared to make changes in schedules, seeking the advice of professors, employers and family members, and knowing that the goal is worth waiting for will help students achieve their back-to-school goals.
