ok, 1st year at uni..how many hours did you manage to work??

brians_daughter

I know ppl who have managed to work f/t all way through their degree, have a fulltime family and a f/t uni degree to handle all in one! I seriously cannot imagine 40hrs work, study and looking after my 2 little uns .. i know we are all different but how many hours work did you manage to do in your 1st year?

Years 2 and 3 aren't so much an issue as i will be moving back in with family (at the grand old age of 32!) once i have managed to sell the house i am in at the moment - but with houses round here they are typically on the market for around 9 months at the moment prior to selling - so i am kind of (foolishly maybe?) using this as my guideline.

I have secured some homeworking with legit companies, 1 for 15 hours a week,a dn one that requires a minimum of 16 hours a week. Just weighing up if 31 hours is viable in year 1? As I say years 2 and 3 are hopefully going to be a lot less strain on the purse strings as I will be paying towards the upkeep of my parents home rather than running my own home.

I am 'lucky' from a family point of view as my ex partner has the kids 2-3 nights a week and both sets of grand parents are available and willing to babysit whenever i need them to in order to make uni viable

Just trying to come up with a route forward - getting jittery now!

Alcmene

As a full time student you are expected to put in full time hours.

What course is it?

brians_daughter

yes, i am aware of that -hence moving back in with parents as soon as i can, and asking the question as to what others are/have managed- but i was used to working a 65 hour week in my f/t job and with kids too - but unfortunately as a mature student with 2 kids, a mortgage and some debt i need to work as well.

The way i see it is 12 hours study and even with 25 hours study at home i am still 30 hours 'short' on what i am used to putting in.

I will not be putting my studies in jeopardy - I am sacrificing everything i have ie home etc to build a better future for my children I am just looking at what others have found manageable

I am doing religion, society and culture.

Lokolo

I did little work. I was in uni for 19 hours a week. I would work maybe around 4 hours a week on average (ambassador, so around autumn lots of open days it would be around 3 times that, but sometimes, nothing to do would be 0).

I didn't need to work, joys of having rich grandparents and being young.

I worked a lot over summer though, 4 days/nights a week back at good old Dominos.

I spent most of my time on here.... and watching DVDs. Could have done something more productive I guess lol.

brians_daughter

I plan to spend summer 2010 working f/t or as close to f/t as i can in order to build a reasonable amount of money up to put us through the following year - if needed, hopefully tho by this time next year i will have finished the jobs that need doing and this house will be a long and distant memory!!

I have looked at renting it out but the mortgage co wont allow me to, so i have to live in it til sold!

Wiggynut

I've worked full time during breaks and one day per week (£70 per day - pay my own taxes etc though) so add that with my grants/loans and I actually had more money than if I'd worked full time (only on £15,000 pa the year before starting study) so I'm personally seeing this as a 'break' from working (I've worked full time for 22 years since I was 15)

my course is more creative and we were 'in' Uni 2.5 days per week (actually most of the students on my course never showed up - only 3 of us that do come in) and I found the first year to be rather boring - not really shown anything and only had 6 assignments for the whole year (they have restructured the course and they confess that they changed it too much)

I would say if you want to work a lot then the first year is the best year to do it in - also remember that the end of year grade is not 'counted' towards the degree so concentrate on learning techniques etc that will be valuable in your 2nd/3rd years.
maybe do less work around the time your assignments are due especially in the last term so you don't get too stressed!

I don't have kids, family etc so it's a lot different from my situation - good luck with everything!
:-)

flutterbyuk25

I guess it depends on your uni workload, plus home issues.

In my first year at uni I had 16hours lectures, and worked 16hours (8hrs on sat, 2 x 4hr shifts in evenings in a shop), in my second year I had 16hrs uni, and worked 16hrs again (2 x 8hr shifts sat and weds as had no lectures on weds), and in my final year I had only 6hrs of lectures, all on a monday. So I worked 4 x 8hr shifts, and had 2 days free to study/write essays.

But I had no other commitments.

x

surfsister

well in my first year I worked 16hrs a week and managed just! When the essays began piling up it was a stryggle amd at ouruni we did 14hrs in uni which meant most days for 2/3 hrs. But if your hours are together you should be fine. Remember anyway the first yuear's marks don't count and are just a warem upo so to speak! Good luck. What subject are you doing? Sorry if I missed it.

ULTiMATE_2

In my first year I was recovering from surgery on both of my ankles, mixing painful lectures with even more painful physical therapy. Once I was up on my feet I held a job in retail for a number of months on 38 hours a week, which on broken ankles is excruciating.

As already mentioned, don't worry too much about your marks for the first year as they don't count. Most students spend the first year drinking their livers to oblivion so if you don't do that well you won't be alone. As long as you have the drive to succeed and can get hold of a copy of your programme structure to study from you'll find the first year to be easy.

Mike1989

My uni recommends not working more than 16 hours a week if you are a full time student, during the academic year. On holidays feel free to work more, but during term time they recommend keeping it to a max of 16 hours. I did two 8 hour shifts in my first and second year. I managed to keep up with my work and it generally was ahead of schedule. I didn't always read everything we were meant to, but I always handed everything in on time and got good marks. If I had worked any more I don't think I'd have managed to do all the assignments.

So I wouldn't recommend doing anymore than 16 to 20 hours a week tops. As depending on the course and workload, you may find it hard to keep in front of all your work if you are working too many hours. First year is the easiest, and from there on more is expected of you. So working and uni doable, but it totally depends on the person and the course.

princessamy86

I work 30 hours a week and have done since year 1, going into 3rd year now and I will be continuing to work 30 hours (I also have a mortgage!). To be honest, at times it's been a struggle but work have always been good about letting me have time off for exam revision as well as exams. That said, I'm only in uni 1 and a half days a week so it's not like I am physically present for a lot of hours. I have struggled a bit with essays! I think you need to be prepared for some late nights if you want to work, there's been times last year where I've come in from work at 6pm and worked through until 2 or 3am on an essay, but I'm sure it will be worth it in the end!