Any Grad School Students?

bmaxwell08

Hi. I work full time and I am pursuing my MBA full time. It is challenging to balance work, school, homework, cooking my own food, exercising and the rest of life. Thanks for your post. Hope we can all encourage each other.

tachyon_master

Ex grad student. I finished my PhD a few years ago. It's insane. I was working 18+ hours a day 7 days a week in the last year of grad school to get my dissertation in on time. At my university, they strictly enforced the time limits in grad school for PhD's, and if you're not submitted in 4 years, you lose eligiblity for funding and all that entails. Left very little time for exercise and eating right. Exercise was getting up from my desk, walking to the printer and then back to my desk. I think my diet largely consisted of Red Bull, chocolate and potato chips for about a year because they didn't require me to cook - I could eat them at my desk and keep working. It's a very easy habit to fall into.

Good luck with it all!

jennybaby89

I just want to say congrats on all the hard work to all my fellow Graduate Students (past and present). With that, I am heading to bed so I can finish this paper and organize my research tomorrow!

jbuenojr

I work full-time as a software engineer and getting my M.S. in Computer Science Systems Engineering. Good to see other hardworking, motivated people on here!!

skintimate32

On that note, its 10:45pm and I'm working on one of my papers and planning on being in bed by midnight. All my non grad school friends are heading out to the bars haha

Hahahaha! I had a bunch of people ask me to come out this weekend and I had the urge to create a meme. "Silly non-grad students. Weekends are for homework!" Its all I could think about yesterday... all the homework I have to finish this weekend. I am about to call it a night though...

This is actually one of my first weekends doing homework on a weekend night, I'm normally much better time managed but this semester has been really project and paper intensive right at the end, which is worse. Once I finish this test assessment and critique paper I have to crank out a group therapy treatment manual and then a case write-up (essentially a full blown psychological testing evaluation write up) and then I can officially call my semester DONE on Dec. 4th! But I'll be on to my masters paper then haha.

However, most of my friends don't understand when I say, I can't stay out late because i need to wake up early to do homework, or when I roll out of bed at 8am on a weekend so I can knock work out. I'm just SO ready to be done its not even funny.

It is so frustrating when people don't understand! I totally know the feeling you get when people just don't understand that out of class doesn't mean you're done with the school day. For example, I have classes from 9-2 all week and usually for 4-10 shifts, and when I say I can't come in early, stay late, pick up more shifts or even GO OUT AFTER WORK with my coworkers, nobody gets it!! Even if I DON'T have a ton of work to stay up and do that night, I NEED SLEEP lol.

I'd have to say my biggest pet peeve is when after I turn down an invitation, someone says "It's okay, I have school too". ....... I have to stare at them for a minute after they say things like that. If you want to be hungover for an exam and not have your paper done to turn in on time, have fun. I'll be the one wearing gold on graduation day while you're retaking those classes for the third time..

I think that once we figure out how to manage time in order to take care of everything and exercise, we'll be the ones who keep up the healthy lifestyles in the long run. The fact that we ARE students who are obviously concerned about how to do it all proves that we have the right outlook. We're able to think about the future instead of 'right now', which means if need be we're able to say no to that brownie even though we want it in the moment.

Anyway, that was a total ADD rant. Feels good to get it out though haha

jennybaby89

It is so frustrating when people don't understand! I totally know the feeling you get when people just don't understand that out of class doesn't mean you're done with the school day. For example, I have classes from 9-2 all week and usually for 4-10 shifts, and when I say I can't come in early, stay late, pick up more shifts or even GO OUT AFTER WORK with my coworkers, nobody gets it!! Even if I DON'T have a ton of work to stay up and do that night, I NEED SLEEP lol.

I'd have to say my biggest pet peeve is when after I turn down an invitation, someone says "It's okay, I have school too". ....... I have to stare at them for a minute after they say things like that. If you want to be hungover for an exam and not have your paper done to turn in on time, have fun. I'll be the one wearing gold on graduation day while you're retaking those classes for the third time..

I think that once we figure out how to manage time in order to take care of everything and exercise, we'll be the ones who keep up the healthy lifestyles in the long run. The fact that we ARE students who are obviously concerned about how to do it all proves that we have the right outlook. We're able to think about the future instead of 'right now', which means if need be we're able to say no to that brownie even though we want it in the moment.

Anyway, that was a total ADD rant. Feels good to get it out though haha

Get it all out! I couldn't agree more. I messed up my Freshman year in undergrad, then turned it all around and made it out with a 3.5 GPA. Wanted a 3.8, but so far so good in Grad School! I am glad the lightbulb clicked for me.

jworb

social work grad student - not working but have an internship/field practicum that is fairly intense on top of classes.

for time management - I'm STRUGGLING!! my apartment is a mess lol. For those of you that are interested and haven't seen it, there's an amazing lecture on time management by Randy Pausch (author of The Last Lecture and Carnegie Mellon professor)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTugjssqOT0

It's pretty long, but worth it. The Last Lecture video is amazing too. Very inspiring

esl269

I start my MBA in a few months, after work. Throw in sleep and exercise, and I should have free time again in 2016...

Colonel_Brandon

I'm on the far side of grad school, and don't envy any of you.
Granted, I was in one of the top Executive MBA programs in the nation and was basically put through 21 months of HELL...looking back I'm glad I did it, but I'm not 100% sure I would do it again.
Oh, who am I kidding? I'm making a lot more than I was before I got my MBA. I'd do it again.
Anyways...
If any of you want encouragement from someone on the far side of things that can also give coping advice, feel free to add me.

And yes, you can do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!