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At a time when most people are complaining about fees, loans and grants, i’m more concerned with the time college is going to cost me…
I drive up and down daily to college. In total, i’m the car for about 2 hours per day, every day. That’s 10 hours per week instantly gone.
Class hours vary. If lecturers are all in (which you can’t take for granted), i have about 26 class hours per week. Sounds good, but in reality it’s not.
Having 2/3/4 hour gaps between those class hours is not good. Because ‘home’ is a 2 hour round trip for me, i have to stay on campus which would be fine if i was guaranteed internet access, a table and a power socket. But again you can’t take that for granted.
So out of a typical week, i’d estimate i lose roughly 30 hours of productivity every week purely by attending college. Including those 26 class hours, discounting weekends and allowing 35 hours for sleep (7 per day), that leaves me with about 29 hours for myself every week.
During summer, i get about 8 hours sleep (40 mon-fri) and have quite literally the rest of the time to do whatever i want… so i have 80 hours in total to work (if i absolutely wanted/needed to).
So when i go back to college, my free time will decrease by about 51 hours from Mon-Fri. Add in projects / study / college related work etc… and that free time decreases even further…
Having said all that, i am looking forward to going back and nobody is forcing me to go.
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Comments
08.31.09
I've commented on productivity before so I'll just give a quick recap: Productivity - not all that it's cracked up to be :-)
Having said that, and being in an academic environment, I know what you mean when you talk about those large gaps between classes, the commute, and so on. My tricks, when I was an undergrad, were to:
1. Take the commuter trains (if possible) - this was 2 hours round trip that I could use for projects
2. Time between classes: schedule different activities. I took this time to go to the gym, and have alternative activities on hand in case I did not have access to computers (back then there was no wireless, just seats in a computer lab).
3. Got an on-campus job for in-between classes (they only allowed for 20hr/week)
What this meant that when I got home I had all my homework done for the day and I could focus on what I wanted to focus on and I had some extra cash on hand.
08.31.09
I understand where you are coming from. Classes seem to take up all of my time and along with work (25 hours a week), I don't have any time to socialize or to be involved with student organizations. FYI-Colleges have wireless internet, so as long as you have your computer charged you shouldn't have a problem getting a connection!
It may seem hard right now, but just remember that you are bettering yourself and will have more free time in the future! Your post just made me really sad that I have to start class on Wednesday :( Ha, THANKS!
08.31.09
I think this is definitely an "opportunity" to think outside the box. When I had schedule gaps like you listed, I broke down my activities based on the time I had allocated to me. One hour gap? Quick study what I just learned in class, marking any topics I didn't have down pat. Two hour gap? Like what was said above - time to hit the gym. 3+ hour gap? Plan activities outside of school, review any notes, read blogs, etc. Whatever you want during this time. You could even use the time as a brainstorming session for your blog. It's only going to be productive time if you use it that way.
08.31.09
I am a little jealous, as I had to do my college degree online while I was in the Army, so had to figure out what degree to take and whatnot before I got out. Online college could not take me from work, so I used lunchtime, dinnertime, evenings and weekends to get it all done along with my regular "day job". So you can see I would have LOVED to get away to a real school......lol
08.31.09
Kevin, I got my degree the exact same way. I worked a full time job, part time military and completed my degree online. I would love the opportunity to go to school full time and not have to think about work.
08.31.09
Boy I wish I had time to even think about free time, I thought it was a myth! But seriously, you do what you have to do and if that means working full time like I do while going to school in addition to worrying about 3 children, extra-curricular activities like band and baseball and boy scouts...well you just do it.
Maybe I don't have a ton of free time, but I making the most of my busy schedule, using my two long breaks to run errands, or complete tasks such as my blog. I arranged to have the bulk of my classes on one day so I could reduce the time spent commuting and only take one day off work. The rest of the time I work 4 ten hour days.
Like you, nobody is forcing me to go to school, it is just an important part of my life and I couldn't imagine doing things any other way. To quote a cheezy song - "what's worth the prize is always worth the fight."
Good luck and hang in there!!
08.31.09
I'm sure all of your time lost in not a loss in productivity. Some of these comments are good--can you study in between classes, drop in on an prof's office hrs, use the down time to prep for classes the next day? Could you schedule a four day class week? The down time probably helps you retain more info--if your time was fully optimized you might need more sleep! Keep on it, and good luck with school.
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