Education Addict--I Think
Hi Lyrical,
First off, love the name. There are a few of us who are doing the school thing. I made it through college and a graduate degree. My undergraduate degree was done from age 19 to 23. Basically crashed and burned for a while in my sophomore (2nd) year but rallied. Was in school full time and worked 30 hours a week in a convienience store. After the first "breakdownl," I cut back on on class hours and took a max of 4 classes at a time and looked for less taxing employment (10 to 15 hours a week). Better that way. This was all traditional, on campus classes (coursework).
Went for my masters in rehabilitation counseling right after--did one traditional semester but dropped out for personal reasons. Wanted to be with my mother whose health was failing--not PTSD related. Good choice--she died that year and I spent that time really bonding with her. Started a fulltime 40 hrs + a week job and a few years later, started back part time (one or two classes a semester) school to finish the masters. I had to commute to be in class one to 3 hours depending on where the class was held.Did that for a couple of years. Crashed and burned again and slowed the pace down and finished in '87.
I am back in school again now on-line and working toward a second masters only because I am hoping to teach some college classes part time when I retire and right now my work is paying for tuition so it's hard not to take advantage of some free tuition when the degree is required to do what I want to do.
I feel the on line is much easier because I am still working fulltime 40 hrs a week plus commuting time. About 11 hrs a day getting there and back plus work day. I think there is more flexibility on line. I take one class a quarter (which is ten weeks long) and I find the pace manageable. I take three to four classes a year. I requested "reasonable accomodations" through the school's disability services department and they work with me.
I went through a very hard time last two years, very depressed and PTSD symptoms being hard to manage. The difficulty was more related to a bad experince in therapy so I can't say work or school was the prime contributor to this last bout of depression, etc..
My thoughts would be on-line if you can get what you want and you can work independently and don't need the face-to-face feed back.
Hope that helps. Good luck in your decision. The tassle is always worth the hassle as they say.:thumbs-up If you want to ask me any questions you are welcome to send me a private message. I think if you click my name above it will link you to the right page for that.
Gina
