Off Campus Jobs and Grad School

[Emelye]

I wasn’t sure where to put this, but I was wondering if anyone has had experience with working a good job and going to grad school at the same time? I just interviewed for (and really think I might get) a very good, well-paying job that I could potentially work with for years to come. At the same time, however, I want to go to grad school in either 2012 or 2013 (preferably 2012). So, is it possible to work near fulltime and take night classes for the first year or two of grad school? I know once you get into the Ph.D., it becomes much more of a fulltime job in itself and opens up more TA opportunities. But before then, is there any rule against having a job on the side? I’m not holding my breath for a ton a financial aid, and this potential job would pay nearly twice the amount of a typical graduate stipend. It'll also give me "real world experience" that a lot of people claim academia (especially in the humanities) is not, so it would make a lot of sense careerwise. I do tend to overbook myself though, so would something like this be inane, suicidal, or just plain stupid? If anyone has done this, what was your experience? Was it worth it?

[ZeChocMoose]

I wasn’t sure where to put this, but I was wondering if anyone has had experience with working a good job and going to grad school at the same time? I just interviewed for (and really think I might get) a very good, well-paying job that I could potentially work with for years to come. At the same time, however, I want to go to grad school in either 2012 or 2013 (preferably 2012). So, is it possible to work near fulltime and take night classes for the first year or two of grad school? I know once you get into the Ph.D., it becomes much more of a fulltime job in itself and opens up more TA opportunities. But before then, is there any rule against having a job on the side? I’m not holding my breath for a ton a financial aid, and this potential job would pay nearly twice the amount of a typical graduate stipend. It'll also give me "real world experience" that a lot of people claim academia (especially in the humanities) is not, so it would make a lot of sense careerwise. I do tend to overbook myself though, so would something like this be inane, suicidal, or just plain stupid? If anyone has done this, what was your experience? Was it worth it?

I have known several people who have done their master's and PhD part-time. I would say it depends how flexible your job is, how heavy your work load, and whether your boss will support this or not. That is not generally something you know until you start working in that particular job. On the other hand, some of this is also going to depend on what program you attend. Some programs are more part-time student friendly than others. If this is something you want to do then I would ask current part-time students how supported they feel and whether classes are offered at night. There are so many factors in play here that it is hard to determine whether this will be an option for you.

The people that I know that attended part-time would not have been able to pursue graduate work as a full-time student due to finances. It did take them longer to get a degree and it was tricky juggling school and work, but in general they valued their experience and would do it again.

[Golden Monkey]

I got my Master's while working full-time for the university, so that worked out well. During the first semester, I worked a different full-time job off-campus, and that didn't work out so well. I will hopefully be doing some freelance work at home during the PhD, but I'm not sure yet how that will work out.

If you get the job, I'd accept it and just see how it works out later. If you have to quit to pursue grad school, they probably won't mind, and jobs are really scarce right now.

[runonsentence]

It will definitely depend on the program. In terms of my own experience, I only know of one master's student on the lit/creative writing/rhet&comp side at my program who has entered into our degree program part-time. (The professional writing and editing certificate people are a different story, just about all of them are working and going to school part time....)

Most seminars in my program are offered during the day; my classmate who works full-time is very restricted in terms of her course offerings she can take because she can only take 4pm seminars, and she has to arrange half-day vacation days to meet a few of our programs requirements. She's had a much harder time developing camaraderie with the rest of us (who take more classes together and talk shop about teaching in our shared office and the halls) and she misses out on the very valuable experience, IMHO, of teaching.

In short, it seems that my program is an example of a program that isn't so part-time friendly. While it'd be possible to do your degree part-time at a program like mine, it'd make life a bit harder. If you do decide to take the job and pursue your degree part-time, I'd recommend carefully researching programs so that you don't run into these sorts of issues when heading back into the classroom.

Also: is a PhD, and teaching, your ultimate goal? If so, I'd more strongly recommend finding an M.A. program that will give you some teaching experience (if possible, I know these are competitive), even if it is harder financially at first. Especially because it is sometimes harder to get a TAship at the PhD level if you haven't had one at the M.A. level; I know that competition for teaching assistantships was fierce when I did my applications this past year. And the experience of teaching itself has been invaluable in terms of shaping my research interests and letting me practice teaching, which I hope to make my future career.

Edited July 11, 2011 by runonsentence

[long_time_lurker]

My BS was in Math and I taught high school while I did my Masters. It was no sweat. The pay wasn't great, only 45-50K, but I had full benefits. I would highly recommend taking the job and making real money. The experience in the real-world is invaluable. When I applied for my PhD it gave me a major leg up. Plus, you said this is a job with a future. Especially these days, you have to take that opportunity first and fit in school later. There are schools out there that will fit with your schedule.

Also, many schools discourage you from working while doing your PhD, but they can't tell you no. It's your business what you do before/after hours. Also these "rules" are bendable even when it comes to stipends. I flat out told the school I ended up choosing that I was going to choose another school because it was easier to fit in my work schedule, and I can't live on 25 grand, and the Dean got back to me within an hour and approved me to work. Working part-time at a high school, you can teach 2 courses (called .4 in many places) and you make about 20 grand. That and your stipend and you're doing ok, and your keeping your foot in the door in a possible career.

[Eigen]

There aren't rules against having a job on the side, perse, but there are quite commonly rules against having a job on the side while receiving any funding from the school- including tuition waivers. Our student handbook is very clear-cut on the issue.

If you can earn more with the side job than you would from tuition waivers + other funding combined, then it might be worth it to you to do so.

We've had several people in the department that got caught working off campus jobs, and they were told to either quit on the spot or pay back the tuition for the current semester.

Other schools allow you to work on the side, but reduce your funding by the amount you're making at the other job- this makes them primarily useful for experience/networking, not increasing your funding sources.