At the start of every quarter, I struggle a lot—mentally, physically, and emotionally. Whether that’s because of the constant switching of classes, the stress of transitioning from holiday break, or just juggling all my extracurriculars, I never feel prepared to take on the quarter. Sometimes this mellows out after a few weeks, while other times I watch my mental health plummet. With this, I constantly find myself questioning whether or not I should petition to take a Planned Educational Leave Program (PELP leave) for the quarter/year, or if I should move to part-time status. Even though I spend hours every quarter talking to my family, friends, and therapist about how much good any of those options could do for me, I always end up riding out the quarter with my loaded schedule of classes and extracurriculars. There’s something about going part-time that, in my eyes, feels like I’ve let myself and the people around me down. Though I’m perfectly capable of being a full-time student while working two on-campus jobs, I also feel like it takes a ton out of me physically and emotionally.
This quarter, I finally made the plunge and dropped more than half my classes, officially reaching part-time status. Though this decision didn’t come easy, there were a lot of aspects I considered regarding going part-time vs. staying full-time. Part of my decision was almost forced, as I had some issues with my required language class: I was ultimately told to take a different level class during winter quarter and to drop my current registered course. This sudden change of course caused my schedule to fall apart. My classes were scattered throughout week (although some were back-to-back, allowing me only 10 minutes to walk across campus), my back-up classes that were on my schedule were now classes that I had to take to reach full-time status, and many of my classes didn’t do anything for my graduation requirements, as I had decided to drop my double major and no longer needed these classes I had signed up for during spring of 2024. Other contributing factors alluded to my mental health as well as my extracurriculars. My mental health care team and I had discussed the potential to go part-time, and I was encouraged to in order to align with our treatment plan. I’m currently working two jobs as well as participating in a few other extracurriculars, which has been especially hard to manage while engaging in 4-5 classes. I wanted to be able to put my best effort into my jobs, however, I just felt like I didn’t have time to engage in my work in a thoughtful way. With this, I decided that it would be best to look into going part-time.
Going part-time has been life changing, to say the least. I feel like I have so much more time to work on things that I love, participate in my extracurriculars, and focus on my work from a few classes. I feel like life has become so much easier, especially because I’m not constantly stressed out and thinking about school 24/7. I’ve also been able to spend more time focusing on myself, whether that includes self-care, movie nights, or going out with family and friends. I’ve learned to really appreciate what I have, and my two classes this quarter have been especially nice to focus on. Only putting my energy into a select amount of classes really helped in diving deeper into the material discussed during lecture, and learning more about myself and what I’m capable of.
So to all the people who are considering making the plunge and going part-time, I’m here to say that it’s definitely worth it. Going part-time has not only helped with my mental health and stress levels, but it’s also allowed me to focus my attention more on my interests outside of college, as well as fostering a fun educational environment for my two classes and extracurriculars. Plus, seniors get a free pass for going part-time during their fourth year!