The ideal situation for students is to attend class during the day, at

least for most of my fellow night students and I.

Many of us would like to go back to a time when classes actually

took place during the day, not at night, when all that’s on our minds

is food and getting home after a long day at work.

One of the first things I noticed as a night student was that for

day students, it’s much easier to pick which classes you need and want

to take.

As a night student, however, course registration becomes a problem

when the classes you need are only offered during the day. It’s

frustrating when you’re eagerly looking at the schedule of classes in

search for that one class that’ll get you into your senior year, but

never finding it.

Additionally, the university is not going to offer a class just so

one night student can take it. So we’re left to suffer, and we become

hopeful that one day, the class we need at 7 p.m. on Wednesday night

will finally be offered.

In the meantime, the best option night students have is to take as

many classes as we can. Get the rest of your classes out of the way

instead of waiting for that one super-desirable class to be offered in

the evening.

But night students also have it hard because most night classes only

meet once a week. For many day classes, the course meets multiple times

throughout the week. As a result, students are pressured to retain the

information for a longer period of time. If you have a question, you

have to wait until your next class meeting, which could be six days

away. Calling a friend from class might help, but not if they are just

as confused as you are.

Calling a professor during office hours is difficult when you work

full time, which is the whole impetus for the night class thing in the

first place.

The best thing night students can do is to talk to professors and

let them know the situation. Most of the time, professors are very

understanding and will help night students succeed in the class.

Night students must also use their time wisely. Right after work,

there is a major rush to get to school on time, find a parking space,

and hopefully pick up a Jamba Juice for dinner.

Do class readings ahead of time. Finish homework during a quick

break at work and do whatever you can to stay on track with

assignments.

Procrastinating will only make things worse, especially for night

students. We all know that the last thing students want to do at 10

p.m. is open up a textbook.

Most of the time, night students just want to get some rest before

the whole cycle starts up again in the morning.

Night students almost always miss the multitude of seminars, career

days and special classes offered by the university during the day.

There are a number of times when an advisor or a professor has

suggested to me an important meeting to attend, but I always give the

same response: ‘?Oh I can’t, I’m a night student and I’m not on campus

during those hours.’

Night students are missing out on that part of the whole college

experience. It would be nice to attend a club meeting or a career day

event, but unfortunately, it’s not possible.

While night school may not be the ideal, it is admittedly not the

absolute worst either.

Sure, you might not get the class you need to take this semester,

but day students have similar problems with classes being so packed

that they cannot register.

Night classes also aren’t that bad because there are less people on

campus, but even still, finding parking continues to be a problem.

Another good thing for night students is that we always have others

people in our same situation to talk to. It’s easy to talk to fellow

students because they’ll understand how you couldn’t make it to see

your counselor on time because you had a last minute meeting at work

before heading out the door.

They too work full time and are just as tired as you are, and are

just as eager to get a degree.