Working in OT School

[wave06]

For you current or past OT students, do you or did you work in school? I start my masters program this month and I am freaking out about leaving home and uprooting my whole life to move to an entirely different area, where I know no one and will have no income until I can can get a job. However, the program director doesn't recommend working more than 10 hours a week. Well, I have bills and I have to work. I don't want to take out too many loans, and the school isn't offering much aid to begin with, so I just don't know what to do. I've worked so hard to get to this point, and I don't want to turn back because of money. Any advice?

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[OT2Be2013]

I started OT school about a month and a half ago. I am currently taking gross anatomy (in the home-stretch... two weeks left!). My situation is a little different from yours in that I didn't relocate for school, as my hometown is about 45 minutes away and I am thus living with my folks for now to save on rent. But to answer your question about working... so far, for me anyway, it can be done. My program frowns upon working, but so far I have been working 15 hours/week every weekend at a local hospital and have been doing just fine. Any more than that, in my opinion, would be pushing it. I have held my current job for a few years already though, so just keep in mind it may be stressful to learn a new position while you are adjusting to school.

Don't give up because of money, even if you have to take out loans- you know when the amount you are taking out is overboard/more than you will be able to pay back.

 

[wave06]

OT2BE2013,

Thanks for the advice. One of the main reasons I wanted to stay home was to save money. It's hard to go from working full time and having bills, to working very little if at all and still trying to pay them. I just so happened to get into a school six hours from home. The only reason I'm concerned about the debt is because it's a 3 year private school and I'm already in debt from undergrad. Just looking for options to help pay down some of the debt once I'm done, like public service or the military (yikes!) I even thought that if the debt is too much after the year, I would try to transfer to a state school, but I'm not sure OT units transfer amongst different programs. Well, hopefully I can find some flexible part time work that pays well. Thanks again!

 

[OT2Be2013]

Good luck to you!

 

[babygirl476]

Completely know where you are coming from. I worked full-time and had a part-time job during undergrad. I am in my first semester and left my full-time job the Friday before I started school. I did take out a student loan but it only covered a portion of my tuition. I still work part-time a max of 14 hours a week but last Saturday I cut it down to 7. I commute to school about an hour away (so about two hours to and from). By the time I get home I'm tired and then have to put in about 4-5 hours each week night studying. Also the schedule varies at times (may have class, may not if the professor is ill) so it's hard to maintain employment, not to mention group projects, etc. I cut out working on Sundays because I feel that's time I could be using to do homework/study and now I just work on saturdays. I still have bills to pay so I'm looking into scholarships from facilities that will pay for your schooling in exchange for work or just scholarships that I have to write an essay, get recommendations, etc for. Most people in my program do not work or they work part-time for a max of maybe 15 hours per week.