Now as regular readers know I was once enrolled in a part time PhD and there are posts from the long ago that you might wish to read about that (or more accurately about my frequent guilt at not working on it and the emotional turmoil of withdrawing from it). What I don't think I've mentioned before is the path to the PhD. Back in 2005, I was a wee little history/English literature combined honours student. Now to clarify, honours (for Americans and others who are outside of the traditional system now abandoned by everyone except Australia and some parts of the UK and New Zealand) is not an indication of a high average across the undergraduate degree, it is separate one year research addition to the undergraduate degree which involves additional more in-depth coursework and a thesis, and if one gains a high enough grade in it, they can go straight into a PhD without the hassle of doing a masters (this is what I did). Now foolhardy young twenty something that I was for the latter half of my full time honours year, I found myself working two jobs to a level that would be considered full time work and not sleeping much at all. It is not a great way of doing things (to say the least) and if you somehow pull it off it gives you false expectations of your ability to juggle work and study.
When I was doing the PhD (started only six months later), I quickly discovered that when insomnia waned that the combo of even part time study (the honours year was full time) and full time work was not easy if you were getting closer to the recommended hours of sleep. I wrote most of my honours thesis between 1 and 4am, but by the time I started my PhD, I was rarely awake at 1am and next to never after 2am. This said, there were windows where the supportive nature of my workplace at the time in facilitating my study needs meant that I got a solid amount of momentum up and work done (a solid slab of it was written when I withdrew). As those who read the earlier withdrawal from the PhD post will know, the nail in the coffin of the PhD was moving to a less supportive workplace. That said, I was quite vocal on the fact that the combo of part time research degree and full time work probably wasn't wise.
When I picked up "part time" (actually full time but split across modes and colleges) coursework study a few years ago, I thought it would be easier than the PhD to juggle and I found not so much. Where the PhD was nice and focused jumping between three subjects a semester whilst working part time (last year) and full time (this) has been hard to keep track of or find time to do. So I figured I'd give some tips for those who are considering this path of action- part time coursework study and any form of work- to help them learn from my mistakes and make wiser choices:
- Don't do it! That is the wisest advice I can give. If you have the option to study full time, do that.
- Balance your work and study well. If your study is in an area that is relevant to your work or will help you advance at work make sure and speak to them about flexible arrangements to accommodate it. If it isn't, keep one or the other at a low level- cut down work hours or cut down subjects. Trust me, scrambling to get your brain into the right gear to write an essay on your lunch break having dealt with completely different things all morning is crazy difficult.
- Prepare. I am awful at this as I did my whole undergraduate degree at the last minute, but it is key. You don't know when you might get sick and suddenly lose a clunk of study time. This is true for all students but when I was floored by a really bad head cold last semester in window where I had two essays due on the same day and a busy period at work, it was a mess to sort out requiring many an extension request and not only were the essays less than great, I also ended up taking significantly longer to recover from illness.
- Once again Prepare. If you are studying a postgraduate coursework degree, the chances are your educational institute will have worked hard to make sure that the full time students don't land a ton of essays due at the same time, but that isn't you. If you, like me, are taking mixed mode study with some cross institutional study mixed it, it gets super messy, but even if you are just having to juggle different subjects at different year levels or areas mixed together because those are the ones that fit right now, you will get this problem. You are much more likely to have things due close to each other so you need to be on the ball as one domino in the work/study balance falls or as mentioned above sickness or something appears, you will struggle a lot to get this done. I just had a lecturer question my essay writing ability and I wanted to find him and show him my honours thesis to show that I could more than write an essay but the simple fact of the matter is that the essay was a rubbish essay because I had three essays due in a two week window, during which I was also busy with other things (read work mainly), and suffering the ill effects of particularly bad hayfever/ sinus issues (I hate spring!).
- Don't expect to be a brilliant superstar. I used to scoff at the "Ps get degrees" mentality (P means pass or a grade between 50 and 64 to those not Australian) as an arts undergraduate- it was however a life motto in my science degree. Since starting my current course, I had to adjust that and it was hard. In my first essay, I got the lowest essay mark I had ever received (just beaten by two of the three essays of the last few weeks- all three weren't great and those two were also submitted late) and I had a bit of a meltdown. I was a good student as an undergraduate. I never got low marks in essays, essays were my thing. Before I spiraled too out of control, I did something I'd never done as an undergraduate and met with the lecturer. It wasn't long into that conversation that I realised the issue. I wasn't a twenty year old undergraduate with minimal work or life responsibilities anymore, I was a thirty something with a full time job and many other things beside going on for me. I couldn't just smash something out at the last minute and expect a high mark because even that had required a clear head space and a solid few hours of library time. Also I had gone from being graded against peers who were just as slack I was to being graded against full time students who had significantly more than the zero time I had to do research. You might get a few good marks but you need to know that if you aren't able to make time for research if you won't go as well- that is a simple fact of all study but it needs pointing out to the part timer.
- Think about the study head space. When workers try out study on the side, it usually for one of three reasons- career development, career change, or general interest. If you are studying for career development, it is likely in the same field as your work so the head space is more transferable. If you are studying for general interest, then study is more of a hobby and therefore approached from space of "fun" so it is a welcome distraction and easier to do. The second of the three is my big caution. If you are studying for career change or career development for a career you don't yet hold, it can be very hard to get into the right head space and therefore the work/study balance is really important. Also it is really important to be mindful of your mental health, if you don't love your job/ it just isn't for you, you might be oddly motivated in your study and might start disliking your job more or losing motivation for it and struggling at work (this isn't an issue of me but I've seen it in others). Also you may see your study as an escape route so if your marks aren't great, you may be really down on yourself and start double guessing both work and study, and get into a super negative feedback loop. Obviously these can lend to some super unhealthiness.
I'd love to hear any thoughts others have. I do think part time study works for some and as I said for many parts of my PhD, it worked OK for me. I just think you need to be really clear on your motivations and the possible results of the study before you embark on it- especially as all of the above could be applied to undergraduate coursework study and lots of it to postgraduate research study.
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