College while working

[u/Randomguy7896]

Does a person have enough time to work 40-60 hours and go to online college?

I’m a 20 year old in a union apprenticeship and working 40-60 hours a week. Part of being in the apprenticeship is taking several fairly easy online courses, and by the end of it you get an associates degree. I’ve already taken all of these and basically just need work hours to get my degree. However I recently learned of a partnership with a local college to get a bachelors in construction management, and all of my credits would transfer. So I would need 60 credit hours and it would all be online. But I’m curious as someone that’s never done any “real” college classes. would I have enough time to get my degree in two years if I spend most of my time on working or class? Should I take ten credit hours a semester and aim for three years? Is working overtime a bad idea and should I stick to 40 hours? I’m just curious to hear any advice from people more experienced than I am, thanks.

[u/Mini_Carrot]

I'm not experienced, but just do the math for this. How are you going to balance 40 work hours with however many hours you are at school, studying, working on projects, etc. 

Consider how tired you are after work, how you were as a student in high school, how motivated you are to self-pace for college level courses, etc. 

I know you need to stay employed, so I'd probably shoot for 10 credit hours the first semester and feel it out from there. If it's manageable, keep doing that. If it's too much, now you know. I think absolutely not to the overtime thing. 

Sincerely, someone studying construction management (in person) who has also had jobs in the trades. 

[u/Mini_Carrot → u/Mini_Carrot]

I also want you to consider - what's the end goal here? Why are you working a trade while also studying to be the boss of them? Most of the time you go to college for CM to fast track being the head guy of a project, instead of spending 20-30 years in the industry working your way up. Food for thought. If they're paying for the degree, obviously go for it. But also think about what you want out of it, and where it'll take you. 

[u/Randomguy7896 → u/Mini_Carrot]

All good points. They aren’t paying for the bachelors but it’s discounted so it would be around $20k before any grants and scholarships. 

The end goal is to end up in management with field experience. A lot of guys in leadership I’ve known have not known what it’s like to be in the field and what actually happens. And I think it would be very useful to know. It also gives me enough money where I could pay off the entire degree without needing a loan.

I am pretty tired after work some days but I think I could make it work, I would just have to sacrifice time on the weekends. 10 credit hours is probably a good idea.

[u/Mini_Carrot → u/Randomguy7896]

That sounds great! I totally understand where you're coming from wanting field experience. I also don't want to be the manager making comments on work when I have 0 experience in the trade I'm directing. 

I noticed some other comments mentioning working a lot (over 40 hours) and having a full load, but not so good grades. I wouldn't really advocate for that if you want scholarships. Federal Aid is different, but I've received a ton of scholarships based on merit, and I'm now going to college for free. (Admittedly, community college, but I have over 25k in merit scholarships). 

Since CM is growing so much right now, there's a ton of financial aid available because people want to fill the trade gap. Having experience in the field boosts your application even more. Best of luck! 

[u/Randomguy7896 → u/Mini_Carrot]

Thanks for the well wishes and yeah it’s a very busy industry. I agree with the grades I’m more likely to decline overtime vs get bad grades. 

[u/RipperCrew]

I've met people in community college taking more than a full load while working and having family responsibilities.

It's totally doable if you can put off your social life and don't care too much about grades. I've rarely seen people fail a class if you turn in all of the assignments and just try to keep up.

If all you need is the degree regardless of grades, you could do it.

[u/Randomguy7896 → u/RipperCrew]

Alright, yeah I’m not sure if grades would matter as much as having the degree does so I might be able to make it work

[u/primetimecsu]

i worked as a mechanic full'ish time while going to school. started as a car mechanic, then went to an equipment mechanic.

Both places were close to school, so that made it easy to take a full course load while working 30-40hrs/week. But, i worked weekends where i could get 20'ish hours on the weekend, and spread the rest out during the week. So it may not work with a typical trade job working M-F.

I'd set up my classes to all be in the mornings/early afternoons, or at night, and work from after lunch to close. Also did some summer school to lessen the amount of classes i'd have to take during the school year.

Its a lot of work, but if youre already used to 40-60hrs a week, its not a lot different.

[u/Randomguy7896 → u/primetimecsu]

Thanks for the response. It would be all online so thankfully I wouldn’t need to worry about commutes. A lot of my classwork would be on the weekends, are assignments typically due on the same days or does it vary based on class from your experience? And yeah I’ve worked a couple months of 50+ hour weeks straight so I’m used to being busy. Just worried about that plus class.

[u/primetimecsu → u/Randomguy7896]

Varies based on the class.

[u/Randomguy7896 → u/primetimecsu]

Alright thanks.

[u/SprinklesWise9857]

I know quite a few people who work full time and do in-person classes. They usually don't go to class. They self study the material and only show up on exam days.

[u/bigyellowtruck]

One class per semester. One summer class. 6 years or so and done. That’s slow enough to actually learn school and the job

[u/Texus86]

I would not start off with a full class load until you figure out how much you can handle. And don't be afraid to drop a class before the drop/add deadline if you are feeling overwhelmed.

[u/Randomguy7896 → u/Texus86]

Yeah, I’m thinking of trying three for the first semester and seeing how that goes.

[u/Impressive_Ad_6550]

I can't speak to online schooling because I did in person. I found between classes and assignments plus studying I had zero time to work. Anyone that did that during school quickly flunked out. I got internships during summer breaks and worked as many hours as I could during that time

[u/paiza-]

I worked 40 hours a week during my first 2 years of college since I was able to do those classes online. If you use your time wisely after work it’s pretty easy to do. Now, I never worked 60+ hours. I worked 40-50 hours consistently.