An Open Letter to Part-Time Graduate Students

Last month Brian Croxall wrote an open letter to new graduate students, full of excellent advice—advice that Brian and his contributors often had to learn the hard way during their own time in grad school. Reflecting the experience of many faculty in academia, Brian’s letter was geared toward full-time PhD students. But as many people pointed out in the comments, whether they’re working on an MS, an MA, an MFA, or even a PhD, part-time grad students have their own set of concerns, their own challenges to navigate. So ProfHacker has consulted a few knowledgeable parties, and we are pleased to present their suggestions below, in an open letter to part-time graduate students.

Before moving on to the advice, I want to say a word about one of the most difficult challenges part-time graduate students face: invisibility. Because part-time grad students are so diverse and so diffuse, performing delicate balancing acts between work, home, and school, they often fall off of our academic radar. In the popular imagination part-time grad students are marginalized—or worse , absent—in the same way adjunct or contingent faculty are.

Let’s face it, our stereotyped version of a graduate student is more likely to be someone working late into the night at the library or lab, surrounded by piles of papers and books, living the life of the mind, rather than someone squeezing in a grad seminar between picking up the kids from soccer practice and heading back home to prepare a presentation due the following day for her full-time 9-5 job.

The numbers, however, tell a different story. They tell us that our romanticized image of the grad student is as damaging as the notion that most faculty are full-time faculty. In 2007, the latest date for which the U.S. Department of Education provides statistics, the number of full-time graduate students at degree-granting institutions in the United States was 1,112,365. And the number of part-time graduate students was 1,181,228. In other words, part-time graduate students outnumber full-time students. When the numbers are broken down by sex, the results are even more striking. In 2007, full-time male grad students outnumbered male part-time grad students (473,248 to 437,078), yet part-time female grad students outnumbered full-time female grad students (744,150 to 639,117). Put differently, women are more likely to be part-time graduate students than men are.

When higher education ignores issues that part-time graduate students face, we are collectively doing a double disservice: first to the majority of graduate students; and secondly, to women graduate students, precisely that segment of the population that is now earning more advanced degrees than men.

So, in the midst of these figures, what advice do we have? We’ve asked several people familiar with the concerns of part-time graduate students to offer their suggestions—and we hope to hear your own in the comments below.

From Tamara Harvey

(Professor Harvey is the Director of Graduate Programs, Department of English, George Mason University)

• One of the biggest challenges part-time students face is that they are often only on campus when the administrative staff is gone and the only professor they see is their own. This makes it extra difficult to keep abreast of important policies or get advice and mentoring that enriches their MA experience and effectively prepares them for what comes after the graduate degree. Most grad programs work hard to convey necessary information and facilitate meaningful advising, in addition to providing a host of fantastic lectures, readings, and other events. But part-time students also need to actively seek out these opportunities, ask questions, and get involved.
• One of the strengths of a program with many part-time students is that students themselves bring both work experience and contacts that can be very helpful. Finding ways to interact with other students outside class can be very beneficial. Part-time students often have to make an extra effort to create the kind of substantive intellectual community that is one of the great benefits of graduate study. That said, that intellectual community is enhanced by the range of non-academic experiences they bring to the conversation.

From Stephen Cohen

(Professor Cohen is the former Director of Graduate Studies at Central Connecticut State University)

• Get to know your advisor, and stay in frequent contact with her/him. If you can choose your advisor—rather than simply being assigned one—take the time to find someone with whom you’re comfortable working. Your advisor is likely to be your best on-campus resource, which is especially important for a grad student who isn’t on campus a lot.
• If your campus—or better still your department—has any kind of graduate student organization, join it and try to be active in it. Part-time grad students often lack the benefit of being part of a cohort, and a graduate student organization can provide a substitute means of connecting with fellow students—and can also be a great source of information about deadlines, events, and even funding opportunities.
• Try not to let “part-time” mean “occasional” or “irregular”: make a plan to complete your degree and do your best to stick to it. If your program is highly structured—with many prerequisites and a strict order in which courses should be taken—know the structure, find out when the courses you need will be offered, and plan accordingly. If your program allows a range of electives, it’s still important to have a plan, and not to let any requirements delay your progress.
• Remember that a part-time student is still a student in the eyes of the faculty and the university. Faculty (most of them, anyway) will be understanding of the competing demands on a part-time student’s time and energy, but only to a point: you’ll still be expected to make your coursework a priority, and will be held to appropriate standards regardless of the demands of family and work.

From Sheila Brennan

(Dr. Brennan recently completed her PhD while working as the Associate Director of Public Projects for the Center of History and New Media at George Mason University)

• Look for crossovers between your coursework and work-work: This is not always possible, but if there are ways to use resources you have at your day job with your coursework, do it. If you work in/near a library or archive that has a particular set of resources, you might want to use them for a research project.
• Be mindful of how your employers feel about your academic goals: The chances are that your supervisor knows that you are taking classes. Some employers are excited for their employees to be in graduate school, and encourage academic advancement with incentive pay upon completion of a degree, or offer financial assistance to help pay for graduate school. Others are suspicious and worry that employees pursuing advanced degrees will turn around and leave an existing job soon after completion. While on the job, be careful of how you present your graduate work to others in case your employer is not thrilled with your pursuits. In some cases, your work supervisor will be your best advocate, but be mindful since graduate school is your second job.
• Recognize that graduate school is your second job: While working your primary job, be sure to focus on it first. You may have free time that you can use for grad school, but it should come second. Alternatively, you may be able to rearrange your primary job’s work schedule slightly to help balance grad work. For instance, use lunch breaks to catch up on assignments, school-related correspondence, exercise, or run errands. Inquire at your primary job about the possibility of a flexible or compressed work schedule. Working 40 hours/week in 4 days gives you one full day for your second job. Or, getting to work early might help conserve vacation time so that you can leave early for classes.
• Recognize that a little scheduling will go a long way: Working and going to school part-time requires you to make new kinds of choices concerning how you spend your time. It is important to let people around you know that you are going back to school and that you may not be as available as you once were. Sometimes the best way to ensure that every task gets done in a week is to create a schedule for everything, including reading, writing, doing chores, running errands, cheering on your child at soccer, preparing meals, and exercising. And, if possible, make this schedule known to the people close to you, so that they will know when you are working and when you will be ready to socialize.
• Recognize that you cannot do everything: As you work out your schedule, you will find that you can fit fewer things into a day. You will have to make choices about what you want and need to do in your weeks. Decide what can be eliminated. Perhaps cooking a gourmet meal every night or washing everyone’s laundry is no longer practical. Seek assistance from family members (it might be a good time to assign new chores to your children) and friends on balancing work and home life. And some days you will have to decline social, work, and family events to complete your school work. Saying no can be very hard. Remember that it is temporary and you will not be in school forever. To ensure that you do not miss out on big events, factor those occasions into your schedule. And, sometimes, taking a vacation or sick day from work is just what you need to finish larger assignments.
• Remember, you are a part-time student: You will probably feel behind from the moment classes start. We’ve all had that sinking feeling. You will catch up and also learn to be a more efficient student. Time constraints alone force you to focus on what is important and to ask questions, early, when you are having difficulties. Full-time students may have time to be immersed in the culture of a university or to participate in certain professional development that doesn’t fit into your schedule. But that is not entirely to your disadvantage. Depending on your career goals and life stage, you probably do not need the same things that full-time students, fresh out of undergrad, do.

What about You?

We want to hear from you. Our list is surely incomplete and we need your help! Whether you’re faculty who works with part-time grad students or a part-time student yourself, what one piece of advice do you have for part-time graduate students?

[juggling silhouette photograph courtesy of Flickr user Criss Cross Circus / Creative Commons Licensed]