Need advice from single parents...

[TylerJ]

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Anyways, my wife is in the military and will be deployed all next semester and I have a 5 year old daughter in kindergarten. I'm trying to grasp the new responsibilities while scheduling my semester. <rant>I already work part-time go to school full-time, live 45-minutes away from school (last semester of that CRAP!), volunteer often and am involved with multiple professional development organizations/school clubs, so I am still trying to figure out where to make adjustments. </rant>

Okay, now that I got that off my chest...

My tentative course schedule is as follows:

Microbiology
Organic Chemistry II
Calculus based Physics II

If I dump one of those courses, it would be micro for an internet course, which would only give me 11 credits and the burden to find another course to be considered a full-time student. Physics II is taught by a limited number of professors and it is intense from what current students claim. I have good chance to obtain a research internship at NIH this summer, and would dislike the reason for my denial to be that I took a light course load during the spring semester.

Has anyone else had a spouse leave on deployment and know how it affected their young child? She is a mothers girl, so I am trying to prepare for this ahead of time to prevent a situation from occurring where I am caught off guard. With what little time I do have, I am preparing a schedule to do all the chores and supplement the time my wife spent with my daughter with my own. It's a lot of account for and I respect my wife more from analyzing her role more closely.

Anything you can think of that may help me adjust my schedule to make more time for my daughter and still remained focused, while not going insane, on school is welcomed.

Yet another twist in the path, I should have an amazingly inefficient distance versus displacement route to medical school by the end of the process. Non-traditional route rocks!!!!!!!!!!!! Traditional students do not know how lucky they are.

 

[GenusTide]

As a father of two, I can tell you that there is nothing easy when it comes to undergrad and children. As I am sure you know what time must be put into core science classes in order to do well. As your child must adjust, you must adjust. I must constantly remind myself that they did not ask me to go to med school, so I try to let them know how I appreciate them understanding as much as they can. I compensated by enrolling my 8yo son in sports ( soccer, baseball) and my 5yo daughter in cheer leading at a local YMCA. I go to every practice and game but I also always bring my flash cards or books with me to study while I am sitting there. I found this to let them be active and still get some studying done in the process. Other than that all I can tell you is to drink lots of coffee after her bedtime. You can still do well on five hours of sleep each night. Although it will get tougher the further in school you child is. On top of my studying I also have to help my son with his daily homework assignments. It is not easy but with dedication it can be done. On another note, why are you taking Calc based physics? is it part of your degree? doing well in regular physics will look just as good on your med school app.

oh and I forgot to add: trad's certainly do not know how much harder it is, but since no one forced me to drop out of highschool, I can't blame anyone but myself!

 

[TylerJ]

Yea, I always bring my book or cards to my daughters swimming lessons and sometimes fall asleep on the bleachers-haha. Also, coffee is my lifeline!

As far as taking calculus based physics, I have an interest in biophysics although it is not my major and a professor suggested I take it instead of algebra based physics.

What a coincidence, I also dropped out of high school. In high-school, math was by far my worst subject. I failed algebra over and over again. It was not that I could not do it, but the my life was in shambles at the time, so I shut the world off. I am determined not to allow my perceived weaknesses limit my academic choices, plus math increased my ability to critically analyze data/problems which is helpful in other courses. I started from the lowest math class and worked my way up to differential equations and am considering taking abstract mathematics courses. I guess I took all the math to prove that I could do it and make life more difficult-haha. After having used calculus so often, I figured physics with calculus would not be too bad on top of the professor recommendation.

Thanks for the information/advice GenusTide!

 

[GenusTide]

HAHA, that is great!!! I also had to start at Basic algebra due to only completing pre-algebra (barely) before I dropped out. I was only dedicated to go through Calc 1 though. But if you enjoy it, go for it. I was much more interested in Orgo than physics and could not get out of physics fast enough 😱!!! There seems to be a few of our personalities floating around as I have a friend I met at my University who also dropped out of high school and know is in line to apply to MD/PhD programs. So it can be done, just takes dedication. Good luck.