Does anyone have tips on how to balance a part-time job with school? How many hours a week can you work as a full-time university student?

The advice I have been given is give yourself a month or so to get into a routine and see how much work you are going to have to do. Than take it from there. As Lamoid said it really depends on you. If you have good time management skills you should be set, but, if you procrastinate, now that's a different story.

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Biological and Medical Science UWO 2012

Also make sure you've got a boss who is reasonable and somewhat flexible. In my first year I worked 30 hours a week becasue the boss wouldn't let me work any less. Failed several exams as a result. So be smart about it, not dumb like me.

I'm currently working a part time job and a temp part time job. Try a temp job at christmas or something to see if you can handle it.

I work 9 hours/wk at one job, and 8 hrs/wk at the other currently. I wouldn't work more than about 16 hours if you have a heavy courseload.

Will employers let you control how many hours you work?

I'm sure it varies a bit by employer in terms of how good they are at getting you the "exact" number of hours you want. But if you say you want 15 hours per week they won't schedule you for 30... but maybe every once in a while you'll end up with 20. Or some places maybe they are only able to give you 10 unless someone calls in sick. It also depends - if it's a big place that has like 50 employees, you're probably more likely to consistently get the hours you want than a place that has 5, where when one person calls in sick, quits, etc. there may be more need for the others to take extra hours to cover, or they may hire you and not be able to give you as many hours as you want at first.

It seems common that places want you to be available for at least 15 hours per week though.

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Yeah. In high school I made a dumb mistake in Grade 10. I got a job at a retail place that had just opened and I was working 30 hours a week. All of my marks dropped by 15% except for Science, somehow. Haha.

I'd say if you're in university, your best bet would to work no more than 15 hours/week. It seems easy to pull working and school off at first but eventually procrastination and the "OMFG I'M BROKE I NEED TEW WERK MORE!" factor comes into play and thus, marks die.

I think you should definitely make sure you know what your boss is expecting of you before you agree to the job. You have to put your foot down and let them know your school is obviously more important. I worked at Tim Hortons for a year and a half..in the ads they say it is really flexible however they are often really short staffed and cannot be flexible. I worked for 6 months without a weekend off which meant I never saw my parents. A lot of bosses are really good about it if you say that you can only work a certain amount of hours as long as you arent constantly coming back to them with changes and switching shifts etc.

yeah i want a summer job because then i don't have to worry about school. any suggestions on where to work?

You have to find a job that's flexible. I work at a coffee shop, so they're pretty good. Having the right boss works. It really depends on your course load. Last year I did 5 courses first semester with about 24 hours. And then I did 4 courses plus a lab working 40+ hours and I still did fine. I would recommend doing 4 courses with about 15-20 hours per week. I find it pretty manageable and I still have time to have somewhat of a life.

But really it comes down to what kind of student you are. It also helps if your job lets you do homework there. Mine doesn't, but I worked at a call centre and we were allowed to do whatever we wanted between calls, so I found that a good time to read my textbooks.