[stephengillie]

How is your life different now than it was during your 2 years at university? How long ago were those 2 years - a couple years ago, or more than a decade?

Most universities like to talk about the rule-of-thumb of 2 hours study per hour of instruction. Full course loads are 12-18 hours of instruction per week in this part of the world, so the university would like you to spend 24-36 hours per week studying. In reality, study time may be 30-90 minutes usually, and 2-3 hours once or twice per quarter; this means 6-18 hours of study most weeks, and 24-54 hours during finals.

To break it down:

Sleeping - 56 hours

Working - 40 hours

Instruction - 15 hours

Study - 15 hours

Transportation - 20 hours (1 hour to work and 1 hour to return home, 1 hour to and 1 hour from university, including buffer for leaving late or being stuck in traffic * 5 days a week)

-----------------------

Total - 146 hours

1 week - 168 hours

Surplus - 22 hours

During finals, you would have no time. Even people who really enjoy college find a schedule like this almost impossible to keep.

[jamesbrewer]

I went to university in Canada as an international student. I've moved back to the states because I couldn't afford to live in Canada anymore. I just got out of school a month or so ago.

I could work and study if I wanted to. My biggest issue with doing both is that neither moves me any closer to my goal of becoming a software engineer. My courses would all be basic studies (english, math, physics, chem, history, etc). I wouldn't take a computer science course for another two years.

[zerohp]

I've been living with this schedule for 2 semesters. Luckily I work from home and live 10 minutes from school so my transportation is about to 2 hours a week.

Recreational programming has stopped for me. The little free time I have is consumed by housework and when that is finished I usually just watch TV or a Movie to rest my mind.

I'm really motivated and genuinely enjoy my classes. I don't think I could do it otherwise.