How many hours do you work??

[rphfan2009]

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I am starting my pre-reqs this summer and will also be working. I am going to school full-time (taking 3 science classes--all with labs). I was wondering how many hours I should work? I was thinking of doing around 25-30 hours...I have been out of school for over 5 years and will also be going full-time in the fall: taking another load of science classes with labs.

P.S. I really want to get all A's and do well and not screw this up. Thank you all 🙂

 

[roziak]

I personally don't work while I'm in school, only volunteer. But I have many friends progressing through the pre-pharmacy curriculum and they work about 20-25hours a week, usually weekends. They all do pretty well - they have around 3.2-3.5gpa with social lives, lol.

 

[Kirbypuff]

It completely depends on the school and what kind of work you do. I went to a relatively easy school and worked 16-24 hrs/ week at a local coffee shop in the mornings and got A's only. The free coffee in the morning helped me stay alert in the classes 🙂

 

[rphfan2009]

So basically don't work more than 25 hours a week?

 

[Rxlele]

I think initially you should allow yourself a little more time to devote towards school since it's been a few years since you've attended and you're starting out full time. I'm currently working an average of between 20-25 hours and it's plenty enough for me. Is it a local community college?

It depends on the person I think as well, and how much you can tolerate. My brother got his Bachelors in science working full time, school full time, and with a family and had a 3.8 GPA. For me on the other hand, that would be a suicide mission.

 

[krystal2812]

Yea. I agree w/ Rxlele. It depends on each person. I work ~ 15 hrs/ week, taking 6 science upper division classes, still have high GPA. I do this because I feel I'm getting old now. However, I don't recommend to do this.

 

[Transformer]

I aced 2 science classes and worked 24 to 32 hours per week. I had to work this much to survive.

If you are lucky enough to not have to work, avoid it, minimize it, and focus the majority of your time and efforts on your studies.

 

[Soon2BPharmD]

Are you distributing the 3 summer courses over 2 sessions? What science courses are you taking?

 

[fxok425]

I have been out of school for 10 years. I work 40 hours a week and take two science courses with lab in CC, got all A. I have a professional job that doesn't allow me work part-time. I have problems now for summer courses. Microbiology is Mon, Tue, Wed, Thur 5:30 to 9:30pm. I also want to take a chemistry class, which is Mon, Tue, Wed, Thur, 11:20 am to 6pm for two days and 12:30 to 2:00pm for two days. I just can't find any excuse to ask my boss let me take two days off from work for 8 weeks. Any idea? Help me!

 

[rphfan2009]

Are you distributing the 3 summer courses over 2 sessions? What science courses are you taking?

chem and bio

 

[rphfan2009]

I think initially you should allow yourself a little more time to devote towards school since it's been a few years since you've attended and you're starting out full time. I'm currently working an average of between 20-25 hours and it's plenty enough for me. Is it a local community college?

It depends on the person I think as well, and how much you can tolerate. My brother got his Bachelors in science working full time, school full time, and with a family and had a 3.8 GPA. For me on the other hand, that would be a suicide mission.

I am taking them at a 4 year university...so they will actually be hard--lol

 

[rphfan2009]

I have been out of school for 10 years. I work 40 hours a week and take two science courses with lab in CC, got all A. I have a professional job that doesn't allow me work part-time. I have problems now for summer courses. Microbiology is Mon, Tue, Wed, Thur 5:30 to 9:30pm. I also want to take a chemistry class, which is Mon, Tue, Wed, Thur, 11:20 am to 6pm for two days and 12:30 to 2:00pm for two days. I just can't find any excuse to ask my boss let me take two days off from work for 8 weeks. Any idea? Help me!

Tell them you have some sort of health problem and get your doctor to write you an excuse. Believe me, there are a lot of doctors that will do this for you.

 

[rphfan2009]

Yea. I agree w/ Rxlele. It depends on each person. I work ~ 15 hrs/ week, taking 6 science upper division classes, still have high GPA. I do this because I feel I'm getting old now. However, I don't recommend to do this.

I think I'm going to keep it to 25/wk and concentrate on school.

 

[charfdorn]

I'll tell you what I did... I worked 40 hours a week (but I had a nights/weekends job) and did between 9 and 14 credit hours (2 or 3 science classes) per semester. In the summer I eased up a little. I got one B, and that was in an online Chem class (BAAAAD idea). If you're going to be a full-time student you should probably be a part-time employee. I also went to a community college, so it may have been easier, but I don't think it's ever easy to get an A, and certainly not by the margins that I usually managed.

But think about what it's going to be like in pharmacy school - harder classes more of the time, and many pharm.D. students work then, too. If you can't handle 25 hours of work per week while doing the prereqs, how much harder is it going to be once you're in the program?

It is different for everyone, though - some people have no problem working a ton and others need to focus almost exclusively on their studies or they aren't able to concentrate. It also depends on your social life. I don't do much outside of work and school so for me I had plenty of study time. Might be different if you go out all the time and like to travel. My advice would be to work something in the 20-25 hour range and then try to add to that if it seems like you can handle it. How flexible is your employer with stuff like that?

 

[charfdorn]

I have been out of school for 10 years. I work 40 hours a week and take two science courses with lab in CC, got all A. I have a professional job that doesn't allow me work part-time. I have problems now for summer courses. Microbiology is Mon, Tue, Wed, Thur 5:30 to 9:30pm. I also want to take a chemistry class, which is Mon, Tue, Wed, Thur, 11:20 am to 6pm for two days and 12:30 to 2:00pm for two days. I just can't find any excuse to ask my boss let me take two days off from work for 8 weeks. Any idea? Help me!

Where do you live? I know in Denver, where I am, there are several community colleges. You may be able to find a better schedule if you can travel a few miles for it. It's only eight weeks, right? You could also talk to the instructor ahead of time and see how many of those days you would absolutely need to be there. If you could split the difference (say, only go to half of the all-day sessions) maybe you could use PTO or vacation at work for the rest.

DO NOT take an online course. Science classes online are not worth it. My only B in my pre-pharm run was online. In the worst case scneario, you might have to push the Chem class into the fall. If cost is not an issue, you could take the chem class, skip when you need to, and drop it on the final drop date. Census date in summer sessions tends to be almost halfway through. You'll have to pay for the class twice, but when you take it in the fall about half of it will be review.

 

[Soon2BPharmD]

Well you got the right idea by challenging yourself to knock down as many critical pre-reqs as you can, especially in the summer. I think you'd be able to handle chem and bio at the 4-yr school without taking time off of work, given there's no scheduling conflict. Pretty much all of the contributors to this post are representative of the typical hard-working pre-pharm population. We all have the physical and mental capacities to work and study super hard. Now since these will be intro-level chem and bio courses, you should fare well with the basics with a full working schedule. I say you start the classes and make any necessary adjustments with your work hours as you go along.

 

[rphfan2009]

I'll tell you what I did... I worked 40 hours a week (but I had a nights/weekends job) and did between 9 and 14 credit hours (2 or 3 science classes) per semester. In the summer I eased up a little. I got one B, and that was in an online Chem class (BAAAAD idea). If you're going to be a full-time student you should probably be a part-time employee. I also went to a community college, so it may have been easier, but I don't think it's ever easy to get an A, and certainly not by the margins that I usually managed.

But think about what it's going to be like in pharmacy school - harder classes more of the time, and many pharm.D. students work then, too. If you can't handle 25 hours of work per week while doing the prereqs, how much harder is it going to be once you're in the program?

It is different for everyone, though - some people have no problem working a ton and others need to focus almost exclusively on their studies or they aren't able to concentrate. It also depends on your social life. I don't do much outside of work and school so for me I had plenty of study time. Might be different if you go out all the time and like to travel. My advice would be to work something in the 20-25 hour range and then try to add to that if it seems like you can handle it. How flexible is your employer with stuff like that?

I know pharm school is going to be very intense and I don't plan on working at all. If I do work, it will be during my summers off.

As for my pre-reqs...I'm going to only work 25 hrs/wk

Thank you again 🙂

 

[rphfan2009]

Where do you live? I know in Denver, where I am, there are several community colleges. You may be able to find a better schedule if you can travel a few miles for it. It's only eight weeks, right? You could also talk to the instructor ahead of time and see how many of those days you would absolutely need to be there. If you could split the difference (say, only go to half of the all-day sessions) maybe you could use PTO or vacation at work for the rest.

DO NOT take an online course. Science classes online are not worth it. My only B in my pre-pharm run was online. In the worst case scneario, you might have to push the Chem class into the fall. If cost is not an issue, you could take the chem class, skip when you need to, and drop it on the final drop date. Census date in summer sessions tends to be almost halfway through. You'll have to pay for the class twice, but when you take it in the fall about half of it will be review.

I think online classes are a bad idea in general

 

[rphfan2009]

Well you got the right idea by challenging yourself to knock down as many critical pre-reqs as you can, especially in the summer. I think you'd be able to handle chem and bio at the 4-yr school without taking time off of work, given there's no scheduling conflict. Pretty much all of the contributors to this post are representative of the typical hard-working pre-pharm population. We all have the physical and mental capacities to work and study super hard. Now since these will be intro-level chem and bio courses, you should fare well with the basics with a full working schedule. I say you start the classes and make any necessary adjustments with your work hours as you go along.

Good advice and I definitely agree 🙂

I am not going to worry...just begin class and adjust work from there (just like you said)

 

[fhx06]

I used to work 3 eight-hour shifts every couple of weeks during school, but for the most part it wasn't too bad. I had to make sure I kept pace with all my assignments and reading and not put off 'till tomorrow what I could do today. Also, "social life" kind of went out the window then... unless you count study sessions as part of "social life."

 

[LostTexan]

For the last 3 years I have worked about 45-60 hrs/wk (full and part time job) and gone to school (8-18 cr/semester). I would ONLY recommend full-time work and school if you have very strong time management skills, otherwise you will perform badly in both areas. If you choose to do this, don't expect to have much of a social life. However, I don't regret choosing to work and go to school fulltime, you just have to be really strict with yourself and make sure priorities are completed. I would recommend working as few hours as needed to cover your bills. If you see that you are still able to maintain your GPA, then add another few hours.. its a balancing act.

 

[rphfan2009]

For the last 3 years I have worked about 45-60 hrs/wk (full and part time job) and gone to school (8-18 cr/semester). I would ONLY recommend full-time work and school if you have very strong time management skills, otherwise you will perform badly in both areas. If you choose to do this, don't expect to have much of a social life. However, I don't regret choosing to work and go to school fulltime, you just have to be really strict with yourself and make sure priorities are completed. I would recommend working as few hours as needed to cover your bills. If you see that you are still able to maintain your GPA, then add another few hours.. its a balancing act.

Thank you

 

[rphfan2009]

I used to work 3 eight-hour shifts every couple of weeks during school, but for the most part it wasn't too bad. I had to make sure I kept pace with all my assignments and reading and not put off 'till tomorrow what I could do today. Also, "social life" kind of went out the window then... unless you count study sessions as part of "social life."

I kinda figured that my social life will fly out the window--LOL 🙂

 

[aboveliquidice]

I worked 35 hrs / week when I was at a community college - when I transferred to UF, I stepped it down to 20 hrs / week.

Its important to always conduct a cost-to-benefit ratio... What is the cost of working more hours? What are the benefits? If the benefits outweigh the costs - than increase your work load. If not, then you have your answer.

Sounds like your already made a good decision - do not be afraid to adjust if things aren't working for you.

 

[steele46]

I agree, the amount of hours a student can work in a week is a strickly based on what you can handle. I believe that you should start school first in order to get a feel for what kind of load you will have and take an initial guess at how many hours you feel you can handle. If things get worse you can always back down the number of hours that you work. I am in my third year of pre-pharmacy. I have a family with 4 young daughters and my husband who carries most of the load of our financial responsibilities. I still wanted to keep my seniority with my certified pharmacy technician job. The company allowed me to stay on the payroll al long a I worked one shift every month. I was doing that for a while, but now I feel comfortable working every other Sunday. Good luck in whatever you decide.

 

[rphfan2009]

I worked 35 hrs / week when I was at a community college - when I transferred to UF, I stepped it down to 20 hrs / week.

Its important to always conduct a cost-to-benefit ratio... What is the cost of working more hours? What are the benefits? If the benefits outweigh the costs - than increase your work load. If not, then you have your answer.

Sounds like your already made a good decision - do not be afraid to adjust if things aren't working for you.

thanks 🙂

 

[rphfan2009]

I agree, the amount of hours a student can work in a week is a strickly based on what you can handle. I believe that you should start school first in order to get a feel for what kind of load you will have and take an initial guess at how many hours you feel you can handle. If things get worse you can always back down the number of hours that you work. I am in my third year of pre-pharmacy. I have a family with 4 young daughters and my husband who carries most of the load of our financial responsibilities. I still wanted to keep my seniority with my certified pharmacy technician job. The company allowed me to stay on the payroll al long a I worked one shift every month. I was doing that for a while, but now I feel comfortable working every other Sunday. Good luck in whatever you decide.

thanks 🙂