How to Balance Work and Homework in College

College life is full of stress and the average college student has about six hours of homework at night at the least. It can be a challenge to hold down a job while keeping up your grades, but most college students cannot support themselves while going to school without one. Here are some tricks to balance school work and a job at the same time without falling behind.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Find a job that is willing to work around your class schedule. Part time jobs at restaurants or convenience stores such as Wal-Mart are good locations. Try to take classes that all fall at the same time. If you want to work mornings, take night classes, and if you want to work evenings, take morning classes. Ask your employer in advance how willing they are to work around your classes and how many hours they require you to work a week.

2. Keep your hours to 20 at the maximum. Around 10 or 15 hours a week is ideal for someone in college, because you will have several hours of homework a night. If your manager will not agree to 20 hours, consider dropping below full time on classes. Taking 12 credit hours in college is full time, so if you took one or two classes that would equal about six credit hours, and you would be considered part time. This would leave more time for work.

3. Take your homework to work with you. When you get a break or lunch break, use that time to study or read your lesson. When you get back from work you can finish the worksheets or essays you have for that class since you'll already have the material read. If you have extra time on the job and have a laptop, take it with you to work on your papers during breaks.

4. Ask your adviser about finding work on campus. Work study jobs will help deduct the cost of your college expenses, while some jobs will offer actual paychecks to use towards college bills. On-campus jobs offer very flexible hours and normally will not let students work more than 20 hours because of the amount of homework the average student must deal with. On-campus jobs will also let you bring your homework with you and do it while you're on the clock.

5. Look for online jobs, such as the freelance writing sites, paid blogging jobs or product review jobs. You won't have to travel off campus to get to your job and usually you get paid online through direct deposit. You can also work on your homework at the same time.

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