Should you study part time?
For many older professionals, a full-time program doesn't make sense
Psychologists agree that the amount of support you get from your family--and from your romantic partner in particular--is a crucial determinant of success in a part-time program. "You need to have a relationship with your partner where you can trade off responsibility," says Ellen Ostrow, a psychologist in Silver Spring, Md. Support from your boss is no less vital. Melissa Slotnick, 31, who got her M.B.A. from New York University in Manhattan in 2000, had several long conversations with the partner she worked for at an investment bank about whether she should go back to school. Involving him in the decision meant that he was flexible later on when she needed to leave work early for an exam or to catch up on sleep, she says.
A final variable to consider is your mental toughness. By most accounts, it's simply more stressful to balance studies and a job than to drop the job and study full time. Are you willing and able to spend much of your free time hunched over books? To cut down on socializing with friends? To survive on six hours of sleep a night? And to do these things for years on end?
Phil Buckingham, 37, a teacher who is getting a master's degree in educational administration from Johns Hopkins University's Montgomery County, Md., campus, handles the challenge by reminding himself that he doesn't need straight A's to succeed in grad school. "I do want the good grades," he says, but "wherever I get my next job is probably not going to be looking at my GPA. They want to know you have the degree." Former part-timer Paula Fleming, a 39-year-old Ph.D. candidate in psychology at the University of Missouri-Columbia, coped differently. She opted for full-time study after she found herself taking fewer and fewer classes so as to keep up her high level of performance at work. Says Ostrow: "You need to be very clear about what's important to you, because you will be making constant choices."
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