Complications of being a Full-Time Student and Full-Time Legal Assistant

Non-traditional college students are faced with many challenges that other "traditional" college students do not even comprehend. Not necessarily in order of importance, here are a few off the top of my head:

1. Very few scholarships are available for part-time students; most non-traditional students who must work to put food on the table do not have enough time in their already busy and complicated schedules to attend a full-time academic program.

2. Even if you can get a scholarship as a part-time student or if you do attend college full-time, if you work full-time, and even worse, if you hold a good paying job, your chances of getting a scholarship go out the window if you make more than $15,000 a year, which most non-traditional, adult, working students do. Unfortunately, the fact we often have mortgages or high rent payments, car payments, insurance premiums to pay, hungry tummies to feed, which all leave us pennyless and poor, most college financial aid offices look at us as though we must be nuts for asking for any money!

3. When the heck do we have time to get the homework/studying done!? As if working 40+ hours a week and attending classes was hard enough, I spend an average of 8 to 10 hours every week studying. Time management is key. I also try to find ways to study whenever I find myself with a few minutes to spare. In fact, this semester I am taking a class on real estate law which requires a lot of reading from a very thick textbook. My intention is to take the book to Staples or Office Max, have them unbind the book, scan it into an electronic format which can be read in Adobe/Acrobat so that I can sneak some reading in on my smartphone while on the go.

4. It is getting harder and harder to refrain from strangling these snot-nosed clueless 18 and 19 year old kids every time they claim they are just too busy to complete assignments (especially when working on group projects). Just the other day I heard a young lady say she had to drop a class because she has way-overextended herself. Hopeful I had found someone I could relate to, I chimed in and said, "yeah, I know what ya mean!" She then added that she feels so much better now only taking 2 classes. I asked what else she does when she's not at school (assuming she would say she has a job or volunteers). She said mostly sleeping and hanging out with friends!!!