Full Masters experience- am I missing out?

JDLK

I recently quit my job to do a full time taught Masters in Business which I started a couple of weeks ago. I moved back home after working and living away for 5 years to help with expenses etc, my home is about an hours drive from College.

Alot of the people who are also doing the course live in or around the college and Im thinking I might get more out of the whole experience if I move back into the city. I know money will be tight but at the moment I feel like im only doing a part time course rather than a full time one and maybe the reason for this is Im geographically detached from my project groups. I know this sounds strange but the social aspect of the masters seems very important from a networking point of view aswell -something which Im kind of missing out on because of the car

What do you reckon, is it all in my head?

Should I move closer to college to get the full benefit of the masters/experience or should I take as much pressure off myself as I can and stay at home?

jw297

I'd be more concerned about missing out if you were in undergrad, as thats when a lot of people get their first experience of being away from home and freedom and all that, but I guess it depends very much on the type of masters and on the people on the course how much socialising and networking you're missing out on.

I did a Masters where there was a lot of 'free' time to do assignments etc., and I just stayed around college for a full day to meet up with classmates, otherwise I would've spent a lot of time at home doing stuff by myself.

Hope I didnt pick it up wrong, but I would've thought that driving to and from home only limits you in relation to drinking - otherwise its up to you how much time you spend in town/college.

Might be worth chatting to other people and see how they spend their time - you might find they all disappear to do their own thing after lectures anyway. People will appreciate suggestions to get together, there are bound to be other people feeling the same way as you.

Good luck with the Masters

Shiny

I know how you feel and in my case anyway I used to get alot more work done when I was "near" my classmates in that you can always put you're
heads together to figure something out.

You never forget an assignment as if you are around them, someone is
always talking about it. You get little tadbits of information here and there
that add up when doing assignments and exams that could eventually
be the difference in a grade overall.

A compromise would be to stay in college as much as possible, ie from
morning to night. Then you are pretty much always there without the
hassle of bills or rent. You will have no choice but to do this anyway
when it comes to exam/assignment time.

frecklier

I left my job in London to come home and do a Masters. I was 30, and most of the rest of the class were 21-26. We were only in class 2.5 days a week so I was lucky enough to be able to stay with friends those nights. I must say though, the social side of things was fantastic. It was a great way for me to meet people, and was great that they were a young crowd, when a lot of my own friends were settling down and getting married. If it is the social side you're thinking of though, would you not consider a hostel for an odd night? One of the guys in my class stayed in a hostel in temple bar 2 nights a week for the whole year. Think it was around €18 a night (5 years ago).