just wondering if any of you have done your masters? i am looking at an MRes part time over 24 months.....what did you do and how long did it take you (ideally i would do it over 12 months but is that realistic/even possible while being a sahm?). what was your subject and how did you find the experience? tell me alllllllll 'cos i don't know if im really up to it

I haven't but my OH finished his last year. His is in engineering for production or something like that, as he works for Jaguar Landrover. He put in A LOT of hours and worked full time too. I think he literally finished work, went to Uni grabbed tea from the union and hit the study, went home, bed and started all over again. Not sure how long it took him though so I'll ask him. I have mate who is also finishing his masters whilst working full time and he has very little spare time. x

it would be great if you could ask them if they did it in 1 or two years lisa i don't think im still in touch with anyone from uni who were doing/about to do masters so i want any input i can get.

mr.mari will still be here obviously so i will have help but it will be limited when he's working full time so i need a good idea of hours per week (im also contacting the uni )

I'll ask him for you and if I forget send me a nag PM xx

The thing I've found when looking into sttudying for a masters is that they tell you that you can take as long as you need to over it, and pay for a module at a time, but they still have a set timeline for each module.
When I did PG cert managing health and social care, it was a 4 modules a eyar (part time obviously) so they had "this is the day the module starts..." and
"this is the deadline for the coursework..." with little flexibility.

I really want to do the next level (pg dip is a year then masters is a dissertation over a year) but I've said I couldn't do it without work giving me some time to study in because of work-life balance these days. Maybe when my kids are quite a bit older and therefore more independent i.e. I can ignore them for half a day a week!

Or I might do it NOW to get away from this irritating shitbag stood at by elbow flinging the mouse around because I won't read her Dr Seuss this immediate instant!

EmVar wrote:

Or I might do it NOW to get away from this irritating shitbag stood at by elbow flinging the mouse around because I won't read her Dr Seuss this immediate instant!

haha, see at least for now im not working, but i AM hoping to have another baby in the next couple of years and i also want to do my masters so not sure which way round to do it!? as far as i can see the major stipulation of this one is you must finish your dissertation within 12 months of starting, and that the only available start date is september (i.e you can't start any time of year) so there must be very set times for each modular option?

I did a Masters in Town Planning as a day release from work (worked full time if uni on holiday). It was over 2 years, and the last part of it i completed whilst pregnant with Immy (first daughter). It was tough at times and felt like i missed out on nights out/weekends away a little, but on the whole not too bad at all, and of course it felt like a massive achievement and was so pleased to have it under my belt before starting our family life.

However, my husband is now in the final few months of a 2 1/2 years MBA whilst working full time and obviously having our two daughters. I have to say it has been pretty miserable at times, and i would say contributed to me having PND after Isla. Sorry to be really negative, just wanted to let you know my/our personal experience. I'm not sure if it would have been the case if he wasn't studying but i handed my notice in at work and finished last March as there weren't enough hours in the day to cope with everything. I cannot wait until he graduates in May!!! It cannot come soon enough as far as i am concerned. His MBA is with an American university sponsored through his work, so he has had a couple of residential weeks in America too. It has been quite a serious, full on course. Far more so than the MA i did, or maybe that is just my husband puts in 100%! As far as his studying week goes, he studies Mon-Wed 2-3 hours, Thursday off to go cycling, occasionally a few hoursFriday evenings, and a 2-3 hours Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

Your options do sound more flexible, so that must make things easier x

Is it me, but reading that back i sound a touch resentful?!

hahaha hmm i do sense a bit of anger or something there

when you did your ma was it entirely outside of work? can you remember what kind of hours you were doing? im really not sure whether i could manage full time but 2 years is such a long commitment when my biological clock is ticking : /


2 1/2 years seems ages for your husband (mine has JUST finished his 3 years nursing degree and i cannot tell you how pleased i am), the part time one is a maximum of 24 months and the full time is 12 months (both are a total of 180 credits so 4x30 and dissertation at 60). 180 credits seems A LOT for one year..even when i was at uni full time the maximum was 120

we don't do nights out and weekends away as it is so i do think there is potentially a reasonable amount of study time available - plus when hubby is working he will be doing shifts with 2 days off a week....just needs a bit of careful planning and for me to hold off on getting pregnant for a bit longer maybe? hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm decisions decisions. of course i havent actually been accepted so that might solve the problem!!!

Mmm yes i think i may need to manage my feelings on that! I do remember Steve saying before he started that there was a high incidence of divorce during MBA's! I'm not that angry about it!

Trying to think what my study regime was... don't think i did much during the evenings. I would do some reading, prep on the train commute to uni on my day release, but other than that the majority of my study took place in my own time. I always used to wake up early at the weekends so would probs start studying at 6.30am ish. I would say 10 hours a week was probably average. Obviously far more during my 20 000 word dissertation!

Sounds like you have lots of decisions to make! x x x

hmmmm yeah, the dissertation is 20,000 plus 4 x 4,500 essays.....erm...that seems like a decent sized book i don't think i have that many words in my head

im not working but i do look after eli full time so hubbys days off/morning if hes on lates and full evenings if hes on earlys is the only time i have, im just wondering if that is really enough time to do it (errr and be pg at the same time hahahaha)

Hun I did my ma in social work, it was 2 yrs course full time with 2placements and I was exhausted its put me off studying ever again but I did a year college, 3yr degree, year off to sort rich in school, 2 yr degree. Also in my ma I met russ in my first year and was planning our wedding in second, so not entirely easy ride.

I worked at it most nights and as you can imagine the subject matter at times was tough going.

I've done 2 dissertations, for degree and ma and being a single parent for one and planning wedding through other didn't help. But I got through.

If you could do it over longer I probably would, unless you a great studier and able to concentrate when you really have too

Good luck though x

im not bad at studying but of course this was before child/marriage/other things to consider! although last time i was studying full time and working 30 hours a week.

i can do it part time over 24 months im just so put off by the fact that would mean putting ttc off until after or ttc now (erm mr.mari disagrees so that will be hard) and going for it in a year.

i do think the vocational postgrads are harder (in fact that's what im aiming for eventually in occupational therapy but can't get in without masters). this one obviously theres no placement as its purely academic - the other advantage is that it is distance learning so everything is online, it doesn't matter where we live or if i can't get to classes as there aren't any.

(im actually also not sure i have enough intelligence to get through it but im sure i can scrape some from somewhere )