Juggling Family, Work, and School
Advancing your education is a great way to move up the ladder at a job, or even make the exciting switch to a new career. However, going to school while working and raising a family on top of that can seem like a daunting process, to say the least. At Eastern International College in New Jersey, a large portion of our student body fits this description, and we’ve learned from their hard work and dedication. Here, we’ll outline some of the key strategies our students use to keep their family, work, and school lives in perfect harmony.
Deciding on a Program
As an aspiring student in the nursing or dental hygiene field, interested in advanced education opportunities, the educational options available to you at EIC include an RN to BSN and a BS in Dental Hygiene completion programs. If you have an associate degree in any allied health or healthcare related field, EIC’s BS in Health Leadership Completion Degree is available for you. During your initial program research, you can and should search for degree and career-training programs that work best for your already busy schedule. In many cases, our working students have opted to enroll in one of our 100% online programs.
Communication Is Key
Before you enroll in an online program, it can help to foster an honest conversation with your family and workplace. If you have a partner at home, you should coordinate your new schedule with theirs. If you don’t, you should use this time to make childcare arrangements and speak openly with your age-appropriate children about how this new chapter will affect your family.
It can also be helpful to talk with your manager at work about your new endeavor. If you’ll need more flexible scheduling or want to request time off, you can get these changes sorted out ahead of time. This way, you’ll be able to focus on your schoolwork when the semester gets busiest and earn the grades that you need to attain your degree.
Planning for Success
With so much on the plate of a future student, employee, and parent like you, you’ll find that time management will be crucial to your success. To start honing these skills, we recommend that you purchase a planner. Depending on how you operate, a weekly or monthly planner might benefit you most. Either way, these organizational tools will help you stay on top of all of your assignments, work tasks, and family obligations without missing a beat.
Aside from using your planner, there are several other things you should do to maximize your efficiency once school starts. First, you can group similar, low-focus tasks so you can dedicate even more time to your studies. For example, if you have a phone call scheduled but the dishes are piling up, you can try doing both at once to effectively kill two birds with one stone.
Another helpful strategy you can use is to eliminate downtime. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t relax after a long, eventful day. What it does mean, though, is that you can make the most of any forced downtime you have, like time spent sitting idly in a waiting room, riding the bus, or other cases. While you wait to hear your name called or to arrive at your destination, try reviewing flashcards, taking notes, or being productive in other ways that are helpful for you.
Get a Jumpstart on Your Future
If you’re planning on going back to school while working and raising a family, Eastern International College applauds your hard work and dedication. As someone who will don several hats, you need an academic partner who understands you and offers the flexibility to fuel your success. On EIC’s campuses, our faculty members do just that. To learn more about our programs or to schedule a tour, call us at 201-216-9901 in Jersey City or 973-751-9051 in Belleville.