Grad students juggle school, kids

On a good day, Ryan Weeks gets to see his two children for a few hours in the evening after he gets home from classes and before they go to bed.

As a full-time graduate student working toward a Master of Public Affairs and a master’s in Russian and East European Studies, his time is in high demand, making it difficult to balance school, working with professors and time with his family.

Weeks is one of a number of graduate and professional students on the Bloomington campus with a family.

Many students find it challenging enough to find time to finish homework, work on theses and look for a job. Those with children have additional demands on their time that take the difficulties of graduate school to a new level.

For some, this may mean putting school on hold.

Genevieve Oliver, a Ph.D. candidate in comparative literature and English, said that when she had her daughter almost a year ago, the demands of school made it difficult for her to feel like she could give her daughter the time she needed. In order to spend time with her, she delayed beginning the dissertation process.

“After she was born, I was like ‘Wow, this is a lot of work,’ and so I’m taking a year off,” Oliver said.

Many of the challenges of managing school and family take a toll not just on students, but on spouses and partners as well. Significant others often have to take on extra responsibilities and may deal with as much stress as the student.

Jenner Brown, wife of Kelley School of Business MBA student Tye Brown, said that having to deal with the challenges of her husband’s schooling has put additional stress on the family.

“It’s been exhausting,” Jenner Brown said. “Last year I felt like I was a single parent with Tye being gone before we got up and not coming home until the kids were in bed.
That was hard to get used to.”

Despite the struggle to find time together as a family, graduate students occasionally find that having a family is an advantage.

Charles Frederick, director of the Student Academic Center on campus, said students with families often face greater constraints on their time, but that also helps them to learn to manage that time better.

“Students with families tend to have a better handle on time management because they prioritize their family experience,” Frederick said. “If you are picking up a young child at day care or getting a meal ready for a family, those are things that can’t really be shifted. You have to do them.”

Students with families take a variety of approaches to help juggle their responsibilities as students and parents.

Sean Giambattista, a law and MPA joint degree candidate, is looking forward to the birth of his first child later this fall. He has found that treating his studies like they are a job has helped him to have time to spend with his wife as they prepare for the birth of their baby.

“I try to get most of my work done during the day, when my wife is at work,”
Giambattista said. “And when I come home, I try not to do work.”

Weeks has found that he’s able to spend more time with his family and help his wife Katie with the kids by sticking faithfully to a schedule.

He is home by 5:30 every evening to play with his kids before dinner and help get them ready for bed. He also looks for every opportunity to see his family.

“Instead of taking the bus, my wife will sometimes drive me to campus, which gives us an extra fifteen minutes together,” Weeks said. “And when they can, they try to visit me at work.”

Tye Brown said that despite the challenges it might bring, having children is its own reward.

“All in all, I’ve loved it,” Brown said. “It’s a lot more fun than I ever would have imagined it would be. All of the work and pain of dealing with it really isn’t a big deal.”