Staying focused when life collides with school.

BY KATIE KRETSCHMER, GRADUATE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

Going to school while working full time and/or raising a family poses a very challenging set of obstacles in terms of time, energy, and stress. If you haven’t been in a classroom in a long time, the challenges can be greater. The demands of college can strain personal relationships and finances and create conflicts with work. To make it all work, you need some serious self-discipline and a combination of three key principles: organization, prioritization, and communication.

Balancing Work and School
When someone is paying you to turn up and do a job, whether it’s tending bar or a corporate position, they expect your full attention on the task at hand. Likewise, your professors expect you to attend class and turn in your assignments on time—and lateness or absences can even affect your grade. You may not be able to easily prioritize between work and school, but communication and organization will help.

Good organization skills are essential to help you avoid conflicts between work and school commitments. At the start of each term, check the syllabus for each of your classes and note important dates. Knowing from the start of the class that a paper is due the same week when a major presentation is scheduled at work gives you the opportunity to plan ahead.

Derek Webley, who is in an MBA program at Suffolk University in Boston and also works full time for a large pharmaceutical company, says most of his classes have strict attendance policies. “You are allowed one absence before it affects your grade, but I occasionally have to travel for my work,” says Webley. “So I have to pay careful attention to when trips are scheduled.”

On one last-minute trip, he explained to his manager that he needed to make some time to study for an exam scheduled the day after he was to get back. “Fortunately, he was cool with it, but sometimes you just have to power through and stay up late.”

Keeping professors apprised of conflicts between work commitments and school policies or assignments can go a long way toward demonstrating your dedication to your education.

Tips for juggling work and school
• Do use breaks and lunch hours to squeeze in study sessions.
• Don’t do homework when you are on the clock.
• Do plan ahead to avoid conflicts between work and school.
• Don’t take work calls or check your Blackberry while you are in class.

Dealing With Demands on the Home Front
When it comes to balancing school with your personal and family relationships, again communication is vital. Make sure you have your spouse’s or partner’s support before you enroll, and that they understand the demands on your time and are willing to help in whatever ways they can—cooking, cleaning, shopping, or getting the kids out of the house for a few hours while you study. If you have kids in school, you may find they are particularly sympathetic to your extra responsibilities.

You also need to give yourself a chance to decompress. A single mother of three boys, Valerie Lint works full time at a law firm while studying for her associate’s degree as a paralegal at South Puget Sound Community College in Olympia, Washington. She says she rarely has a chance to take time for herself, although she knows it’s important. “Last spring, a group of us had two classes on the same night with about an hour between classes. We would go to the bar across the street and just visit with each other.”

The juggling act will never be easy, but once you get through, anything else will seem like a day at the circus.

Budget Your Time
Time is probably the biggest challenge facing the “nontraditional” student, and there’s no easy answer to how to make the most of the 24 hours you have. It takes a lot of self-discipline and good time-management skills no matter what your situation. Most students juggling school, work and family are masters of taking advantage of any unused chunk of time.

Sabra Bederka, 43, works full-time as a nurse on night shifts while attending nursing school at the University of Portland in Oregon. “I take books to work and study on my breaks, and I try to stay up until noon and get chores done in the mornings after work,” she says. “My schedule is four days on, four days off, so I try to get as much homework as I can done on those days off.” Planning your time and sticking to it is crucial, because if you put things off, Sabra says, “there’s no guarantee you won’t be too tired to do it later.”

Max Susskind, 49, returned to school to complete his degree after more than 25 years when his family relocated so his wife could accept an excellent job offer. She agreed to be the sole breadwinner for 18 months. “Free time is not the problem,” says Susskind. “But my biggest hurdle has been figuring out the time–management thing.”

The procrastination monster lured him into pulling more than a few all-nighters “which are a lot harder to recover from than when I was in my 20s.” But he found that doing his studying alongside his 10-year-old daughter helped him get back into the groove of doing homework on a regular basis.

Even the most disciplined student can get overwhelmed. When that happens, Mark Easter, a personal and academic counselor at Mineral Area College in Park Hills, Missouri, advises students to take a deep breath, and hone in on one or two manageable things. “Just taking one small thing at a time and getting it done gives you a feeling of getting something accomplished and helps make the bigger picture seem easier to manage,” he says.

For all the hurdles of being a “nontraditional” student, there are some distinct benefits and advantages. “Older students are able to apply what they are learning immediately,” says Steve Piscitelli, a professor at Florida State College in Jacksonville who teaches American History as well as student-success classes. “They also have a much keener sense of the value of what they are doing” both because they are paying for it and because they know how it will pay off.

Money Matters: Advice on Financing Your Education
When it comes to financing your studies, talk to a counselor in your school’s financial aid office. He or she should be able to provide you with information on scholarships and grants—many programs are earmarked specifically for older, working students, single mothers, and other categories. “A lot of it goes untapped,” Patricia G. Moody, retired professor and dean emeritus at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, says. “Take out a loan if you must, but make it the smallest loan you can.”

Your employer may also offer tuition assistance—even if the classes you are taking are not related to your current job. Ask your boss or your human resources representative about any programs that may be available to you. “The company I work for will reimburse me for 75 percent of my tuition as long as I earn a C or better,” says Erin Dunn, 37, who is taking classes to get into nursing school at both Portland Community College and Mt. Hood Community College in Oregon while working full time.

Getting the paperwork in order to secure a student loan or qualify for a scholarship should put you on your way to getting financially organized—and it should make you keenly aware of your cash flow. It seems obvious, but keep yourself on a budget.

Moody says many students aren’t aware of how much money they spend. “A $4 latte and a muffin every day can really add up. When money is tight, and you are racking up interest on a student loan, that $7 or $8 a day makes a big difference.” Keep track of all your spending for a week, and see where you might cut back. Textbooks can often cost more than tuition; you can save a lot by purchasing used books—get to the bookstore early as they sell out fast.

Overcoming Personal Limitations
If it’s been a while since you’ve been in school, it can be intimidating to sit in a class full of 18 or 20 year olds. Many schools offer courses and workshops (often free or part of orientation) specifically to get older students up to speed on note taking, time management and other key skill sets for navigating student life. You might want to sign up for one of these before taking any other classes. Consider a computer skills class if you aren’t used to working on computers: Much of campus communications is done via email and Intranet applications like Blackboard, and you need to know how to use the Internet for research.

“If you don’t type,” advises Patricia G. Moody, retired professor and dean emeritus at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, “a typing class might be your wisest investment before starting any other class.” She points out that time spent “hunting and pecking” can really add up when you have multiple papers due and you are burning a candle at both ends.

Sometimes, there’s just one concept or topic that won’t click for you. Don’t wait and hope you’ll figure it out. Ask for help. Talk to professors or join a study group. When Erin Dunn was having trouble in an anatomy and physiology class, she made time to go to a study group two nights a week. “It was really hard to fit it all in, but without the study group, I’m pretty sure I would not have done as well—it’s never fun to have to take a course over,” she says. It also isn’t cost-effective.

If your studies are related to your career, you may be able to find help at work. Valerie Lint says the paralegals at her job were happy to help her learn citations. The attorneys are also very supportive. “I’ve been able to discuss things with attorneys and paralegals when I am struggling with an assignment,” she says. “Also, two of the classes I took last year covered an area of law that the firm I’m working for specializes in, and I think that gave me an upper hand and an advantage in the classes.”

Katie Kretschmer is a graduate of Columbia University and a freelance writer living in New York City.