Student Mama Tribe - Page 2

[DebraBaker]

M-W-F I have an English class called "Views on Literacy", Bio (for majors) Chem (again for majors), Algebra-Trig, and I'm trying to schedule Spanish.

Thursday is lab day. I have Bio lab in the AM and Chem lab in the afternoon.

Debra Baker

[Potty Diva]

Taking summer off. Transferring to UNCP in the Fall. Majoring in English Education with the ESL add-on licensure.

Will enter as a junior. Can't wait. The professors there rock! Dh is a junior there now, majoring in Social Studies Education. He wants to teach middle school, I will teach secondary

Chat more later, off to zoo now...

[ian'smommaya]

i took the summer off to and wasnt going to sign up for classes but the letter from the womens college i applied to hasnt come yet. i figure if i get accepted, and i will universe, that i will start spring semester of next year.

maya

[blissful_maia]

Future midwife

I will be a student mama in the fall as well. I am starting my first year in the Midwifery Education Program at university. I'm so excited. I made my schedule so that I had classes all in the mornings Tues.-Fri., with two late lectures after dd will be in bed.

I arranged it this way because dp and I will both be in full-time University and we wanted to have all of our classes in the mornings or at night at opposite times so that dd only needed to go to child care mornings four days per week instead of all day every day.

What are your children's child care arrangements? Do any of you also have student dp's/dh's? How do you work it out/finance it?

I'm glad we started this thread, encouragement and support will abound I'm sure!

[jmhammond]

Although officially I'm DONE with law school (graduated in May when DS was 5 months), I still FEEL like a student b/c I'm studying for the bar...ARG!

BTW Leah, YOU CAN DO IT!!!!!!!!!!

[ian'smommaya]

well, no ians dad does not help me go to school. he does however help his soon to be wife go to school. in fact, he tried to be very very discouraging when i started. so never mind him.
ian is older so i dont have day care issues, when he was younger and i was in school i did though. i asked friends to babysit, i brought him to class, i begged my mom to do it, i asked uncles, aunts, and former mil.

i dont know how i pay for it. i jsut do. i get financial aid and loans.

good luck.
maya

[DebraBaker]

Right now my youngest is going into first grade (!!!) and I scheduled classes so I would be here for her but a time will come when I need to schedule a class that conflicts with her schedule.

So far avoidance.

I am taking out my first stafford loan.

Gulp.

Debra Baker

[mama_Agnieszka]

student mama here!

I got into grad school (MA in Religious Studies) early spring last year and found out I was pregnant (unplanned) a month or two later! I still have no clue how to make it work - I did one semester last fall and loved it, baby was born early January and I haven't done a thing towards school since! I'm just recovering from sever PPD and can't wait to get started on my projects... but it seems to impossible, with dd being 6 months and I don't have childcare (unless hubby stays at home, which we can't really afford)... Humph. It's been a challenge trying to figure it out. How do other mamas do it????

[ian'smommaya]

db, if you need justification for loans i got it many times over here ya go.
i think of it like this
well a loan is an investment in your future self.
this especially applies to single mama's but to all mama's really
if you get a college degree it means alot alot more money that a highschool diploma,
partnered mama's the what if's come to mind, all of them, what if some one died? what if your partner lost their job etc. etc.

i take out loans becasue i know a waitreess, my current job i make say 10,000 dollars a year. actually thats about 3x what i make but for arguments sake...
a nurse, two year RN national average is 56,000 dollars a year. i can do the math. i can buy a home, pay off my loans, and feed us on 56k. i cant on 10k.

that's why i am in school, that's why i take out loans.

[DebraBaker]

I want to be a PA (I think they start at about $65,000 here or a DO (six figures.)

But the debt seems overwhelming.

db

[Potty Diva]

I agree with loans. Mark has them and I will when I transfer.
The thing that gets me about some people in college, they think once they have a degree the money will start rolling in. The truth is it takes an average of 6 months after graduating for students to find a job. Many times that job is not in their field, AND is at a low starting wage. Even if it IS in their field, entry level positions do not pay what most college students expect, they STILL have to prove themselves to their new employer, but sadly most people think they should get what they consider themselves to be worth from the get go, including my husband. I tell him NO, you will need to prove yourself to your new employer. Don't expect someone who doesn't know you to just give you a high salary.

Ok, done.

[merrick]

Originally Posted by Potty Diva

I agree with loans. Mark has them and I will when I transfer.
The thing that gets me about some people in college, they think once they have a degree the money will start rolling in. The truth is it takes an average of 6 months after graduating for students to find a job. Many times that job is not in their field, AND is at a low starting wage. Even if it IS in their field, entry level positions do not pay what most college students expect, they STILL have to prove themselves to their new employer, but sadly most people think they should get what they consider themselves to be worth from the get go, including my husband. I tell him NO, you will need to prove yourself to your new employer. Don't expect someone who doesn't know you to just give you a high salary.

Ok, done.

This is sooo true. And I have been guilty of this too. : Learned my lesson on that! One of my good friends is close to graduating with his political science degree. He just thinks he's going to be rolling in it when he gets a job. I tried to tell him, but he won't listen. It's going to be really rough for him when he finally gets out of school. (He's been going for 6 years!)

[Potty Diva]

Yeah, that was my little rant of the day. And hey, it'll be easy for me. I have the mindset (like I posted above) so if I get a job quickly for a great pay it'll be icing on the cake.


Oh, staying in Rockingham for the next 1.5 years instead of transfering to UNCP. Many advantages to this, all concerning money and being debt free

I will get more through a wage incentive program, more financial aid, pay off small debt at end of year, better for finding a house, and mark will habve his bachelors, and I'll finish up my AS here Then we can go anywhere. he can stay at UNCP for his masters, and I can transfer as a junior, or we can flee NC and head to another college for both of us.

[ian'smommaya]

i know too many people who thought that when they graduated, and most are not even working in their field.
i know a woman in nursing school who is convinced she will be making 100,000 when she is done. s.
sure honey fresh outta school making double the average with a 2 year degree.

[merrick]

yeah, my dh has a friend who graduated with a degree in drama. What's he doing now? Working for the government in anything but theatre. He's doing pretty well for himself now, but that's after having spent several years waiting tables.

[marilynmama]

I am new to this group and glad to meet you all! I am always excited to meet other Bio/Chem major moms

I am a Biology and Chemistry dbl major. I am a full time student and my husband is also a full time student (boring Buisness Admin...lol). We also homeschool our two girls.

I have about 3 more semesters to go until I graduate and will be applying to graduate school in Epidemiology next year--I am so excited!

Epidemiology combines my interests in medicine, human biology, microbiology and disease into one exciting field.

[ian'smommaya]

marilyn
and db lookie look when i take chem and bio y'all can help me...

pretty please, just if i dont understand something...
glad to have you aboard marilyn.
maya

[DebraBaker]

I'm taking chem and bio together in the fall.

We can jump out the window together :LOL

db

[ian'smommaya]

sounds ideal, except i will be taking it next semester... due to my awful math scores, i need to up my math experience,,,

maya

[emmaegbert]

I'm also a student mom and procrastinating here by writing this. I am in a full-time summer class for a fellowship program, supposed to be finishing up an essay for tomorrow. This has been hard, its 9weeks of real 9-5 full-time, I see the baby to nurse at lunch and then go back. I really feel for the moms who have to do this permanently, its just exhausting. I can't WAIT to go back to my more flex-time normal schedule (which seemed like the most I could manage until this).

I have an 8-month-old, and just finished my first year of a PhD program, so there is only, oh, 5 or so years left. My husband's also a student... we live on my fellowship, student loans, he TAs.

We share childcare and also have some babysitting. Come fall I will also be swapping some babysitting with another student mama friend so we can each count on some homework time, which should help. I feel like cooperative childcare would be great but its hard to get going. I am far from family and friends, so every family I meet is new to me.

I was in class until 2 days before I had my baby, and then I missed about 1 week of school, but there was only 2 left in the quarter anyway. That last week was a bit of a blur. I felt I couldn't take leave because we are mostly surviving on my stipend, which I only get if I am enrolled full-time! People were very nice about it all but of course it was hard to do.

It all seems worth it to me, I wouldn't give any of it up, I know it will get easier from here.

Good luck to all of you and I'd better finish up that homework so I'm not a wreck tomorrow!