How to Balance Work and Grad School

How to Balance Work and Grad School Congratulations on your decision to attend grad school! According to the Census Bureau, just 9.3% of American adults over 25 have earned a masters degree. Pursuing a masters degree is no easy task, but it is an endeavor that can yield a number of benefits. Grad school allows you to explore your academic passions on a deeper level, participate in cutting-edge research projects, make valuable contacts in your field, and strengthen your employment prospects. Some graduate students choose to work and study at the same time, while others do so out of necessity. In any case, a proper balance between both responsibilities is indispensable and can be achieved through the following advice. Heres how to balance work and grad school: Balance work and grad school by communicating with your supervisor To balance the demands of academia and work simultaneously, you must first and foremost learn how to manage your time. Grad school is quite different from your undergraduate years, so although you may have held a job while you worked toward your bachelors degree, your experience juggling both this time may present unexpected challenges. As you work toward your masters degree, your work schedule should remain fairly predictable. You should have a clear idea each week of which days and times you will have off; this way, you know exactly when and for how long you will be able to work on class assignments. Your boss should absolutely be aware of your plans to attend grad school, so talk to them as soon as possible to avoid scheduling disasters. If it is impossible for you to have a consistent schedule given the nature of your job, you should at least aim to keep your number of work hours steady. Open communication with supervisors is key to maintaining a healthy balance between work and school. [RELATED: What I Wish I Knew Before Starting Business School] Balance work and grad school by taking your study materials to work Work and grad school are two enormous responsibilities on their own. When you also consider all the other chores and errands you must tend to in a week, you may find yourself feeling overwhelmed. It is for this reason that you must make the most of your downtime at work. During breaks, for instance, may be a great time to get ahead on class readings, studying, and other assignments. Take portable study materials to work, such as lightweight textbooks and flash cards, that you can easily look at in your free time. Since using your cell phone may be frowned on at work, it may be best to bring printouts, rather than electronic copies, of texts. [RELATED: How Students Can Improve Their Research Skills] Balance work and grad school by making some social sacrifices To maintain your job and your grad school average, you may need to make some social sacrifices. This implies that you might have to decline invitations to friendly gatherings at times. If it is Friday evening and you have a big project due on Monday, it may be wise to stay at home and work on your project rather than go out with your friends. You should not, however, give up your social life completely because of a demanding schedule. Seeing friends and interacting with others is not only enjoyable, it is essential to our emotional well-being. So, stay in contact with those you care about. Just make sure social outings do not interfere with work or study time. [RELATED: How Do Undergraduate and Graduate Theses Differ?] With effective time management skills, balancing work and grad school is a quite feasible task. Any topics you want to know more about? Let us know! The Varsity Tutors Blog editors love hearing your feedback and opinions. Feel free to email us at blog@varsitytutors.com.

Building Childrens Confidence in School

Building Children’s Confidence in School School doesnt come easy for every child. It can be a challenging experience, and one that requires persistence and patience. Unfortunately, however, when school work becomes overly difficult, many children lose faith in themselves as students. Left uncorrected, this can have a lasting detrimental effect on a childs performance in school and overall attitude and demeanor. To pave the way for school success, parents should work to build their childrens self-confidence. Confident children do not shy away from hard work and will generally see failure as an opportunity to make changes and try again. How can you develop your childs confidence? Here are several tips: Be supportive. Children typically trust what their parents say as the truth, so its essential that parents regularly let them know that they believe in their abilities. To grow into capable, confident students, children need to feel supported by parents, not controlled. Let your child take the reins on homework and school and be on hand for help. Work together on goal setting. The process of goal setting helps children take control of their success, resulting in a greater willingness to attempt hard things and increased confidence that their efforts will yield good results. Encourage your child to lay out what he or she wants to achieve and the barriers standing in the way, as well as a plan to work around those obstacles. Foster independence. Whenever possible, parents should offer their children the chance to make decisions for themselves. Set high but achievable expectations, then put trust in your child to tackle tasks on his or her ownfrom homework to household chores. This will cultivate your childs sense of responsibility. Every accomplishment, however small or routine, gives your child the assurance that he or she is capable. Encourage doing new things. Parents who nudge their children to put themselves out there to try thingsfrom joining a new club to taking challenging classesare helping them grow and adapt to new situations. Always support your childs attempts to acquire new skills and learn from challenging endeavors. While parents cannot simply make their children confident, they can take note of their childrens strengths and encourage them to work hard, take initiative, persevere, and learn from their mistakes. These types of actions inspire children to go for what they want and strive to improve themselves as students and people, taking calculated risks along the way. Confidence, after all, is one of the building blocks for academic achievement. By making your child feel empowered and skilled, you are equipping him or her with the tools for lifelong school and career success. About Huntington Huntington is the tutoring and test prep leader.Its certified tutors provide individualized instruction in reading, phonics, writing, study skills, elementary and middle school math, Algebra through Calculus, Chemistry, and other sciences. It preps for the SAT and ACT, as well as state and standardized exams. Huntington programs develop the skills, confidence, and motivation to help students succeed and meet the needs of Common Core State Standards. Founded in 1977, Huntingtons mission is to give every student the best education possible. Learn how Huntington can help at www.huntingtonhelps.com. For franchise opportunities please visit www.huntingtonfranchise.com. 2018 Huntington Mark, LLC. Huntington Learning Center, the three-leaf logo, and 1 800 CAN LEARN are registered trademarks of Huntington Mark, LLC. Each franchised Huntington Learning Center is operated under a franchise agreement with Huntington Learning Centers, Inc.