The Double Life of A Working Professional and Grad Student - Part 2

Fatima Shami

Since my first ever Aggie Voice blog post, I have been getting asked by friends and folks online on doing a post about what it is like studying as a distance learning student? It’s a very difficult question to answer as it depends on your responsibilities, work commitments, family and more. It is also dependent on the degree and courses you plan to take. There are certain programs that are 100% geared for distance learning working professionals. Others are recorded classes, and there are also hybrid classes that are both recorded and could be attended online or in person in real time. I will be sharing my experiences. Please know that if you choose this path it might be a completely different experience.

I came back to school after a decade-long break from academics. I had only seen traditional classroom settings till this point. I also didn’t know what to expect. My experience of orientation at A&M after I got into the program was very traditional because it was geared for on campus students. I can tell you exactly where the cafeteria and gym on campus is, but I have not stepped foot in either since my orientation because it is 300 miles away. Going into my first few classes the struggle was the quality of sound and video. The other students in the class are names in a list. Most names you don’t even see because they watch recordings. It’s a very isolated experience.

The struggle is real when it comes to group projects. I went to a big state school for my undergrad but in a very small department. My 4 years were spent seeing the same people, going through everything with them. Team projects are a game of roulette. You might get the most communicative and interactive team in the world or like in one semester; I was in a team where my partner completely stopped responding to all means of communication till the last day when the final paper was due. And at that point I chose not to respond either as I had to pull it all together by myself and I was for sure not willing to give someone else credit for my two
months of work. But it isn’t all bad. I have also made a lot of life long friends. Tech has reduced distances between people and it applies to distance learning heavily.

The homework and exams are the toughest. You can’t just sit in a group a day before it’s due like the good old undergrad days, also it usually needs tons of reading. There is usually only yourself to rely on, most professors do push for working in teams but there have so far been no great icebreakers or maybe everyone else is shy or just so nonchalant that they just want to get through it solo regardless I commend them. I work in a team at work and I like the collaborative aspect of learning from other people’s thoughts and experience. Office hours are hard to make as they usually occur in the middle of the day. I have a whole life outside of school and usually I don’t know what will happen next so I have to coordinate most things in advance. There are days when I complete the homework and lectures the day of and then there are ones where I have to wait till the day before it’s due because I don’t have time to work on it.

I am an adventurer by nature. I travel all the time for work and pleasure. For me, listening to saved recordings on my computer during 4 hour flights and the hours of jet lag is the way to go. There was one time this semester where I burned my hands on a rope during sailing and had a paper due the next day. I had to dictate most of my paper, thank god for technology. Sometimes the time seems to pass fast and slow at the same time and I am always tired. There is no real break because a break from work doesn’t really mean a break from school, it’s quite the balancing act. Completing an online degree program takes a lot of dedication. I do think that the people that go through online programs are extraordinary because they have shown that they can juggle and balance multiple things at a time. They also have a stronger sense of commitment to what they are doing. It is certainly an investment in oneself.