You do not mention the program, but I would suggest you speak with the program director or other students further in the program to obtain some guidance.

Consider your other life commitments besides school, sleep, commute, etc. Do you need the financial aid or not? For some, having a break from your studies is a good thing but be aware of your hours. Is it flexible if needed during mid or final semester reviews?

I like your option of waiting until the second semester because you will know firsthand the amount of work and be able to gauge for later. Also, students typically become better at managing their time as you proceed in the program. What takes you 10 hours first semester, you can do in 5 hours second semester and less later.

Best.

i'm not sure there is a right answer for this...but i can tell you my experience. it was several years ago now, but i did decide to work part-time in grad school (20 hours a week in fact).

for me, the first semester was both the most difficult and (paradoxically) the easiest. having returned to school after a 4 year absence, i found myself with a massive amount of motivation/energy and i couldn't help but attempt to do everything that interested me during that first semester. on the one hand, it was my best semester of grad school in terms of grades and production of my studio project. on the other hand, i nearly pushed by myself to the point of exhaustion. my job was typically mon-fri from 8am-12noon (5 days at 4 hours =20 hours/week) and i often found myself staying up nights workng on studio/homework as late as 4-5 am and only getting 2-3 hours of sleep per day.

in retrospect, it's kind of a miracle that i wasn't dismissed from my job as there were a handful of days (ok, lots of days) when i showed up to the office and was basically a worrthless, brain dead zombie even though me eyes were open at the time. but i think that there were two reasons that it worked out for me. 1- the job was an "intern architect" position within the university at their own architecture office. most of my colleagues had graduated from the same school and were clearly sympathetic to the difficultlies that i was facing (even though we never formally talked about it).

2- it was also good for me because as i finished graduate school, i didn't have to spend a great deal of time looking for a job right after graduation because i already had a job. the first benefit of this is that i wasn't distracted with the need to figure out exactly what i needed to do the day after graduation and could instead focus on finishing strong with academics/thesis/etc. admittedly, it wasn't an ideal job, but as it turned out, i stayed there for about a year after graduation which brings me to another benefit of working while in school: it allowed me the luxury of picking & choosing my next career move (in alignment with my goals) instead jumping on something for the wrong reasons (i.e., need $, need to get foot in the door, whatever)

i've been out of grad school for a while now and i'm pleased to say my life as been very good (of course, some of that is just dumb luck) but i do think that forcing myself to endure the difficulties of working while in school has been a part of that success. i wouldn't presume to tell anybody else what to do, but i feel that (unless you are the sort of person on path for a serious academic career as teacher/professor) the benefits of working can be worth the scarifices paid as a student. it's not easy...you will take you lumps as a student. but for most of us there is more to life than just grad school.

ps...i forgot to mention that when i said i pushed myself to a point near exhaustiion during the first semseter, i lost 15 lbs or about 11% of my body weight in the span of about 14 weeks. i was beat...fortunately, the next term proved to be much easier and i was able to handsomely recover during an idyllic summer semester abroud in europe.

Hey man, the work study will probably be the most beneficial and rewarding, but it depends on how hard you want to work.

I think you're at a little bit of an advantage because of the schedule. My first semester, I tried working 2 days a week, 8 hours a day. I had to cut back to one day. BUT now - if I was to work 16 to 20 hours and had the choice of it, I would work in the morning and then go to school in the afternoon. I did the opposite during my undergrad (in a very very demanding program) and never had any trouble with keeping up. Time management is not a particular strength of mine, either.

thanks for all your input guys,

i just looked at my scshedule again and i have no idea how schools expect you to put in 20 hrs??? this is the breakdown of my schedule:

mon: 8:30-11:30 + 1:00-5:30
tues: 8:30-11:30 & 1:00-4
wed: 8:30-12:10
thurs: 8:30-11:30
frid: off

so i only have 4 hrs on weds + thurs, 8 hrs on friday = 16 hours. still 4 hrs. SHORT.

so what happens to the 4 hrs a week i can't work? in a 3 month semester, that would be a total of 36 hrs. you need to make up. can you make this up during winter? that really is just a week's worth of work i guess, no bigge.....

still......this is a huge commitment of time. i always worked 2-3 days during undergrad and though i made it work, i always felt frustrated that i couldn't be working on my projects and sometimes in tears when all my classmates were working away and i couldn't touch my work until at night, etc.

dr. architecture, i have talked to some students there and since peple were at diff. levels with variou financial needs, i ddn't really find it helpful. but i think i should follow my instinct on this and wait till 2nd semester....i do want to work in some related realm such as the redevelopment of the local parks that i personally happen to love, etc. and have some planning experience, would be very cool.

puddles, you were lucky to have worked in a place that was so beneficial to you and i guess this work study program in a way can be good for you after all like i said above.....

oh and as a female, i wouldn't mind losing 15 pounds, anythng to keep fit ;) wait, 15 is way too much but i'm assuming i'll be gaining a substantial amount of weight, probably (15-20 lbs. huh?) with all these allllllllllllllll nighters just around the corner. sigh~

thanks again peeps. btw, did you guys find m.arch subsequently harder after the 1st semester or easier like law school?

ops i meant about 48 hrs. in a semester i would have to make up....

Is that for scheduled class time only, or does that include studio too? We are given a scare letter/speech every year about spending "24/7" in studio (literally, I'm not exagerating), but when it comes down to it, the actual studio schedule is typically fairly flexible after the first month or so. I'm sure you'll be fine if you're disciplined.

From my experience the 20 hours relates to the max amount the government is willing to pay you: i.e. they've allocated X dollars in aid to you over the semester, which over the course of the semester works out to be Y hours/week. You can't go over the X amount, but you can go under. The actual schedule flexibility is determined by the employing department/office at the school.

dustin, yes, scheduled class time only including studio class time. i know i'll be living in our studio pretty much but the 20 hrs. i can spend more in the studio on my work (i'm one of those who become psychotcally obsessed almost ocd - not in a healthy way ether) is what keeps me contemplating......or the 20 hrs. i can spend less at a studio, however one would like to look at it.....

pixelwhore, i heard somethng similar through our sfas office but not meeting the 20 hr. would mean less $ from the allotted amount they're offering now so.....but yes, you can't exceed 20 hrs. they said...

well, it really comes down to a personal choice i guess....i'm planning on being a t.a., now THAT is worth giving up all these hours, very generous packge. i just might pass on this 20 hr. a week thing for now and reconsider after my 1st semester.....

thanks everyone!

i'm an undergrad so i don't really know what a m.arch program works

BUT

i know that working and going to school at the same time takes a toll. in my experience, i wasn't able to do 100% of either because i would have to sacrifice time and energy for other. if architecture and school is important for you, i would stick to it if you can, and not spread yourself out too thin.

i found for an M.Arch, you should make that the priority, and if you want/need to work also to help pay for things, see if you can find a work-study that is really just mindless work (aka working in the school library, or somewhere else on-campus)

that way you can focus on being in school and wont get pulled in different directions (say you find a position you like (like your local park one) and you become passionate about it, what do you do when you see they need a little extra help?)


I even found working in a firm part time while in school to be tough as you again get conflicted easily, though it does help with the resume



It all depends on what you can afford of course, but my advice would be to take the first semester off, focus on school to get back in the swing of things and gauge how much free time you actually would have to devote to working
Then second semester find somewhere on campus to have a work study, so there really is no other pressure on you besides school


plus, if you are working somewhere off campus, you have to factor in going there and back to the studio, while if you find some on-campus job, you could be just in the next building
That would help a lot as you wont be running around as much either

hi marmkid, yeah the more i think about it, i'm def. leaning towards holding out till the 2nd semester. i feel that having been out of school for so long, it'll take about a semester just to get myself situated once again in the academic world. and i can't ignore how i used to feel working 3 days during undergrad, felt horrible, always feeling like i was behind though i never was.....but while you're at work, you can't help but feel that way because you know you could be spending all that time on YOUR project, etc. but no, you're stuck at work. so yeah, thanks for the sound suggestion, to all of you actually.

i only took a year off to work before going back to grad school, and it was still quite a big readjustment then, so i can only imagine what its like after a couple years or more

good luck!

answer :

Not if you can in ANY WAY avoid it.

Trust me -- this is coming from a former 20hr work-study kid myself. Totally negatively impacted my studies. I had to give it up in the 2nd year and just take out extra loans -- best decision ever. (Although a better decision would have been going to a school where I wouldn't have needed loans at all...)

thanks manatary, haha this is why i only applied to my state school-$
so i can do this without work study, i feel blessed in this market that i have a choice. and when i'm better situated financially, i plan to do a shorter degree at a name school because i plan to work internationally when i'm much older. so yeah, i should just pour everythng into m.arch, i'm sure i will need that 20 hr. per week. and see how things go going into 2nd semester but i get this feeling that i'll probably end up passing on the workstudy gig.........

I remember that I was looking to get a job while doing my m-arch and then only after the first week of classes, I realized that it would be impossible for me to take on that kind of work load and be employed even part time.

And I only took a semester off (graduated in december).

Your first year will be very challenging and if I were you I would just stick to your course load. That will be more than enough to keep you busy.