to consider full time university?

[IWillCrushYouLikeABug]

I've been accepted on a part time course (4 years instead of three).

I've got three children, 2 children primary age and one not primary yet. I am a single parent. I've already been accepted so it may be that they won't let me change anyway but I think there's a chance.l they will. The university will require a 1.5 hour minumum commute (each way) and I'm just wondering if I can face it for four years. Can I do it? Is that insanity?

Depends on your support. You need childcare, back up for that child care and back up for the back ups. The last thing you want to do is miss lectures that you are paying through the nose for.

It's certainly doable, but it requires lots of focus, lots of organisation and lots of dedication.

Thanks jellypi, I definitely do not have back up for my back up childcare.

(Or even back up childcare)

If it's something you really want to do, go for it. Ive just finished my 3rd year of uni, one more to go. Yes it's hard as a single parent, it's been stressful, I've had to miss lectures due to ill children/no childcare but my uni has always been understanding of these issues. Many are aware that non traditional students have other commitments in life

How many days would you need to be there each week? And how much energy do you have?

(And - acknowledging that this is easy for me to say - is there any way you could move closer to the university?) Because, even if you're generally only commuting for two or three days, there'll be times when you really need to be there every day for a week, or late into evening or whatever.

Long commutes can really wear you down. Trust me on this!

I've just finished my first year, have 2 school age dc and 2 year old dt's.

I think its only really been doable for me as I did the ou so fully able to work around the kids. I don't think I could commit to travelling into the city and childcare probs etc

How often do you need to be there and what's the course? Some courses would be much easier over 4 years, especially with children. My full time degree course was three days, my friends part time one was two, so not much difference and in that situation I would choose the full time course.

I'll be at Uni next September as a single parent with 10, 8 and 2 year old in tow. It would be 1.5 hour bus journey here too. So I'm on the waiting list for on campus housing - it's a big RG Uni and has family accommodation that is guaranteed for the duration of the study. If not then I have 3 naice surrounding towns that I'll live in and it'll be a maximum of 30 mins commute via tram.