There are many big changes that happen in your life after you graduate high school and move on to college. Moving out, figuring out your own schedule, and living on your own are all part of becoming independent. However, one of the biggest parts of becoming independent is also supporting yourself. Often times, it is a very difficult choice when a student is deciding if they want to work part time or full time while attending 13 credit hours or more to keep a full time student status.

In order to find out just how hard working full time while being a full times student, or how to work full time successfully while keeping up with school work might be, I asked one current student and one graduate about their experience with working full time while in school. Hannah Rose, a graduate of University of Cincinnati told me that the hardest part of working full time was “time management. You can get to the point where you feel that you don’t have enough time to study and do assignments while still working that 40 hours and it can get pretty stressful sometimes”. Harper Napier, a current student at the University of Cincinnati responded that “things can get pretty hectic if you don’t plan things out. Procrastination is your biggest enemy. If you don’t do what you’re supposed to do and let things pile up, then you find that you just have no time to finish any work”. It seems that a common struggle for students who decide to work full time is being able to successfully plan out when to do each of their assignments, study, and work. When asked how students should decide if they should work full time or not, both Hannah and Harper gave similar responses. “If you aren’t able to plan out your day and put time aside for homework, meals, studying, and any other responsibilities you might have to do, I really don’t recommend working full time while being a full time student” Harper advised. “You just need to decide if you can stay focused and really put in the time and effort into everything you’re going to do because when you are going to school full time and working full time, every minute that you have counts” was Hannah’s response.

Making the decision to work full time while being a full time student is not one that should be taken lightly. When your schedule is so full, it is very easy to fall behind in your studies to the point where you cannot come back from. Students should carefully reflect on themselves and see if they can have the perseverance and focus that is necessary in order to be successful when working and being a student.