I am really curious about something. Many have posted on this thread and previous threads that they worked full time through undergrad. Assuming your definition of full-time is 40 hrs/week, I would just like to know when your classes were? I always worked like 15-25 hrs/week through college...but I would probably have to miss every lecture if I worked 40 hours/week. What hours during the week did you work? If you had any basic 9-5 job, were your classes at night? Did you work overnights at an emergency clinic or something? All the lectures here are between 8am and about 8pm...which is the same hours of operation of most businesses...
so what exactly was your schedule like?
I have posted this a couple of places, so here goes:
4:30-5:00am wake up
5:30am- 7:30am deliver newspapers
8:00am - 4:00pm-ish attend classes, TA, tutor, possibly some RA duties
5/6:00pm ish - start shift as CNA
12:00-12:30am- relieved from shift
1:00am bed
That was Mon-Fri averaging 2 hours paper delivery, 6 hours of CNA, and a varying schedule of tutor/TA depending on the day/term (TA'ing wasn't lecturing, it was running labs, grading papers, helping students, etc...so some flexability...and it helped me nail down my knowledge, plus it paid min wage.)
Saturday and Sunday I worked from 8am-6/8pm as a TIG welder at a manufactured building company. I was the only female in the factory.
In 4 years of college I missed 2 classes. Neither was due to work schedule.
During breaks I worked double shifts as a CNA, picked up hours as a waitress and security guard (at the same plant I welded in), and at christmas worked at a USPS hub mail sorting overnight.
I didn't work conventional jobs...and I didn't work jobs that helped my future career (which I regret) because I needed jobs that paid the most for the work I did. I couldn't afford to make $5.25 in my desired path if I could make $13 or $20 in another area. And I highly doubt any adcom is going to care that I can weld, or any of those other skills.
I worked those hours because for my last 2 years of highschool and my first 2 years of college, my parents didn't speak to me. If your parents won't acknowledge your existance, they also don't surrender FAFSA information. My choice was to work that hard and go through school, or work a little less but for much longer (possibly a lifetime.) I haven't lived in my parents home since the summer I turned 16.
There are a lot of overnight jobs....you just have to look for them (well, maybe not in this economy) and you have to determine what is and isn't worth it. It is very hard to do...and I don't really think you can do it and not affect GPA or health. At least, I couldn't
.)
Then told my husband that he should be driving the 'nice' car and let me have the old beat up one, because hubby is the primary income earner, and needs to have a reliable vehicle. 
Of course, hubby's attitude is that I should have the better, more reliable car because he thinks I would be more 'vulnerable' if it broke down on me.....and dad couldn't stop laughing at the idea that I would be vulnerable (or that I couldn't do more to repair the vehicle than hubby...who is an engineer...one of the ones who shouldn't be allowed to touch anything mechanical 😛.)
I am looking at a job 2 hours away (hoping to work from home 3 days a week.) 
