College and Employment

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If I go to school and live on my own, I know that I would have to get a job. But what do I do if I can't fit a full-time job around my school schedule, and can't find any part-time jobs?

Tim

Look into the work-study program. If is a program where the college offers jobs to students (part-time and minimum wage usually unless you are doing something that requires skill). The program is subsidized by the federal government.

Yeah, I worked in the library, for only a couple hours a day.
I pushed carts of books around and reshelved them while listening to headphones.
What an awesome job, even if it did pay next to nothing.

There was another job, repairing books, I went and talked to the guy about it, and it seemed like a lot of fun. I think it would have been great to learn all the tricks that they use in bookbinding.
Someone else got the job, I think he was higher on the list or something.

I also went to school part time and held a full time job for a while, the job was advertised in the school paper, they were looking for a student, so they were very flexible with my schedule.

As far as living arrangements, what would be the best scenario if I went to school full-time, worked part-time, and lived off-campus. How many roommates are acceptable for a 1 or 2-bedroom apartment?

Tim

none but one is reasonable

When I asked the number of acceptable roommates, I meant how many is ok to have in one apartment unit without violating fire codes?

I am thinking maybe 3 for a one-bedroom, or 5 for a 2-bedroom.

Tim

Also, are there any types of jobs where you can work 40 hours a week, where you can set your own hours?

Tim

First off, If you plan on going to college full time, I would not suggest working 40 hours/week too. You will burn out extremely fast. In college, there is very little class time but quite a bit of out of class work. Generally, you can expect to spend 3 hours/week for every credit hour you take on out of class work.

Working full-time and going to school full-time is like having two full-time jobs--one that pays you, and one that you pay for the privilege of attending. I tried one semester of a full-time job while attending school full-time, and I now have to spend an extra YEAR at school to make up for the grade drops. If you can get away with working a part-time job, then do it.

Maybe you can do both and keep your grades up without going insane, but if you HAVE to work full-time to pay for school and room and board, then it might be best to take the minimum amount of credits required to maintain full-time status. I know that at my school it is about 12. If I had the chance to go back a few years, I would work full-time and take 12 credits instead of 18. It was a very silly thing for me to attempt, especially because (among other things) I have atrocious time-management skills.

As distasteful as the idea of a roommate or two sounds (and I have yet to have a roommate for that very reason), it does cut down on the cost of an apartment. I have a coworker who rents a nice, two-bedroom apartment with three roommates, each one pays $115/month plus a portion of the utility, cable, and electric bills. (When I was at school on my own, I paid $500/month for my own space in a dorm...an extravagence I was unable to reasonably afford.)

Most universities always have openings for jobs. Mine has a whole board for off-campus and on-campus job openings, and the board is updated quite frequently.

I really wouldn't recommend going to school full-time while holding down a full-time job. Going to school really requires a lot of work--a lot more work than high school ever prepares you for--and when you add up all the study time, class time, and time spent on various projects, it comes out even with or, sometimes(like during Finals), greater than the 32-40 hours a week a full-time job entails.