Hi there! I’m Emily, a former Accelerated Pathways student currently working on the Marketing team here at Pearson. (Which is what my degree was in, so bonus points!) I’m 27, and I just finished my degree last year.

You might be thinking, “27 seems a little late to be finishing your degree, did you take a gap year? Or five?”

See, when I started college, I thought I knew what I wanted to do. But shortly thereafter, my life was turned upside down, derailing all my well-intentioned plans.

So yes, it took me 8 years to finish my degree. And you know what? I’m okay with that.

Sure I would have loved to finish sooner—having your degree hanging over your head for 8 years is a bit exhausting—but I wouldn’t change those 8 years if I had the chance.

Let me tell you why…

To start, I may have bitten off more than I could chew.

You see, my life was pretty busy in 2009, the year I started my college journey. I grew up on a horse farm, and at that time I was managing our horse boarding operation with anywhere from 6-9 horses. (If you’re not familiar with horses, let’s just say, they’re a lot of work.) I was also starting a small, direct-sell business with a supplement company because I was interested in nutrition. Did I mention I had just started studying for a certificate in nutritional counseling, too? All while getting ready to start Accelerated Pathways in the fall.

Confession: I’m a bit of an overachiever.

So that’s where my life stood when I enrolled in Accelerated Pathways. Life was busy, but I was doing things I enjoyed, so it wasn’t so bad.

Then things got interesting.

6 months after starting college, my family went through a crisis that completely derailed me. It was the kind of life event that made me question everything I thought I knew about myself and my family.

By that time, I had earned 9 credits, was still running our farm, and I was in the middle of building my nutrition business. But now I couldn’t work myself out of a cardboard box with all four sides down, let alone try to study for Western Civilization 2.

I was depressed, and I started having debilitating anxiety and panic attacks. I had no motivation to do school or participate in anything else that interested me, like my business. My energy was completely diverted to dealing with my family situation and trying to find some semblance of normalcy in my life (unsuccessfully most of the time).

I realized something in my life had to give, and school was one of the only things I could easily set aside.

So I took some time off. That was a really hard decision.

For the next 2-3 years, I watched my friends work through their degrees at local colleges, graduate, and get jobs. Meanwhile I felt like I was trying to run backwards through molasses while tied to a bungee cord.

At this point, I was 22 and still struggling to get any traction with my coursework. I had been starting and stopping my college work for the last couple of years. I’d get through one or two courses, then come back to a standstill for a couple months.

I was questioning what I really wanted to do with my life. What degree did I want? What career should I pursue? Who was I? (Yeah, it got pretty existential.) I thought I knew the answers to these questions, but as I took the time to pursue counseling and do some serious self-reflection, my old answers just didn’t cut it.

I changed my major from Communications to Liberal Studies, trying to find something to motivate me toward finishing. I tried working on some new small business ideas, and I took an internship at a web development company.

Basically, I spent my “gap months” exploring as many things that peaked my interest—or that I thought might peak my interest—as I could. I was trying to remember who I was and find something I wanted to do with my life, all while slowly completing college credit. Middle-of-rush-hour-traffic slowly.

Coming out of the fog.

Four years after I began college, I saw the light at the end of the tunnel, and fortunately, it wasn’t an oncoming train. I had been working with a counselor on and off for those 4 years and felt like I was conquering my depression. This meant I had more brain space and, with much introspection, was slowly getting an idea of the career path I wanted to pursue.

I started to see the connections between all those random business ideas I’d tried and internships I’d done over the last few years. I saw the connections between my interests and could finally distill from that what I actually wanted to do with my life.

Watch out, here I come.

That’s when I really started gaining traction on my degree. (5 years into the process… but who’s counting?) I started picking up speed, earning more credit in less time than I ever had before. After a couple months of intense research, I decided I wanted to change my major (again), this time to Marketing.

After what felt like an eternity, I was really getting excited about school and the possibilities life held for me.

In 2014, I decided to go to the first Accelerated Pathways National Student Conference in Texas and was blown away by the students there.

Not only did I meet other students like me who had big goals and dreams, I got to practice pitching a business idea to several of the executives at Accelerated Pathways. After the convention, I got even more involved in student community. It was an amazing experience to meet other students passionate about leadership and living out their gifts, learn in-person from our professor, and work on group projects that helped us put what we’d learned into practice.

All of these things combined to give me the boost I needed to push harder to finish my degree.

As that summer rolled around, I had close to 69 credits and started seriously looking for jobs. I knew I wanted to start my own business, but my leadership studies showed me I still had some skills to learn if I wanted to be successful in entrepreneurship. I needed real, hands-on business experience first. So I started looking specifically for entry-level jobs and internships in marketing that would fill the gaps in my knowledge.

And that’s when the folks at Pearson reached out about a job with the Accelerated Pathways program. (Happy dance!)

While the position wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, it was a starting point. It was a chance to get some experience, gain some marketable skills, and see how a company operated. And the best part? They would help me cover my expenses for the rest of my degree.

It was a no-brainer. I accepted the job and moved to Texas in the span of a week. From then it was like I was on fire. I put my nose to the textbook, if you will, and knocked out 59 credits in 18 months while working 35-40 hours a week.

No, I didn’t have a social life. But, after 8 long years, I finished.

So here we are, back where we started.

Thanks to the experience I’ve gained and the connections I built over the last 8 years, I was able to transition to the Marketing team here at Pearson after I graduated. Which means now I get to do what I love every day, with some pretty awesome people to boot.

And that’s really why I wouldn’t change how long it took me to finish my degree.

While taking 8 years to finish a degree isn’t the best path for all students, sometimes life just happens. Things outside your control will change your best laid plans. That can be frustrating and discouraging, but I’ve learned those life-disrupting events are the same ones that help you figure out who you are and make you into the person you want to be.

So if I could go back in time and avoid the pain and depression caused by my family crises, I wouldn’t. I wouldn't run from from those trying times. I wouldn’t run from the questions about myself and my future. I would embrace them.

Even if that means taking a little longer than everyone else to finish my degree.

Enjoyed this post? You may also enjoy Why I Walked Away From College… And Why I Went Back.

“I’m insane.”

This wasn’t an admonishment to myself. It was a truth I realized every time I reviewed everything I was trying to accomplish in the span of a 24-hour day. It was a statement of fact, brought about by the reality that I was attempting to work full time while studying 20-25 hours a week. Yup, I was crazy.

Trying to earn your college degree while working full time is no picnic. Yeah, I had it easier than a lot of people because I was using Accelerated Pathways, which meant I could fit school around my work schedule. But since I was living alone and supporting myself, I still had to make choices like, “do I read this chapter in my textbook or go grocery shopping so I have something to eat?”

Decisions, decisions.

Over the course of 18 months, I completed the final 59 college credits of my degree while keeping up a full-time work schedule (and eating regular meals). It was exhausting, and I had little-to-no social life. But because I’d already been working on my degree for six and a half years, I was super motivated to graduate as quickly as possible.

Despite the insanity that was my life for those 18 months, I survived with remarkably few mental breakdowns. So if you find yourself in a similar situation, trying to balance school and work and wondering how you’re going to survive, I know exactly how you feel. Here’s how I got to graduation with my sanity (mostly) intact.

10 Tips for Surviving College While Working Full Time

1. Schedule, Schedule, Schedule

You’re trying to juggle a full-time work schedule and a full-time course load. That means if you want to have any amount of sanity in your life, you must schedule everything out—work, study time, study breaks, course assignments, etc.—then you have to stick to it.

I’m not going to lie, this is hard. But you’ll thank yourself in the end when you finish your courses on time without any late assignments.

2. But be Flexible, Because $&%# Happens

However, no matter how well you schedule your life, something unavoidable will come up. Your car will need new brakes (speaking from experience here), you’ll have an unexpected work trip, your coworker will give you the flu when you expressly asked them not to… rude.

So when life throws a wrench into your best-laid plans, be flexible. Let yourself off the hook for events that are out of your control, because trust me, you don’t want to waste precious energy freaking out about something you can’t change.

3. Make Sacrifices (It’s Only Temporary)

Okay, now don’t hit me, but if your roommates (or friends or coworkers) invite you to dinner Friday night, you need to be ready to say no. It’s pretty depressing watching friends have a great time while you’re chained to your desk with a textbook shackled to your wrist. But remember that this is temporary. You won’t always have to say no because someday you will finish your degree. But you’re not there yet.

I had to bow out of a lot of social dinners, coffee-shop crawls, and parties, which was really hard because I’m an extrovert. But I knew attending those events would throw off my carefully-planned schedule, creating more stress in my already stressful life. No thank you.

4. But Also Take a Break

Breaks are important. They give your brain a chance to reset and make it easier to focus when you hit the books again. However, not all breaks are created equal. Scrolling through Instagram won’t set you up for success in your next study block. But getting up, walking away from your desk, and doing something totally different will.

Try a couple different study/break routines to find what works for you. Maybe you’re a Pomodoro Technique person, or you like to study for several hours straight then take a longer break. Find what works for you, then stick to it. Soon enough, it’ll become second nature.

(My personal favorite technique was to study for 50 minutes and then take a 10-minute break. I used the 30/30 app to schedule my study and break blocks for the day and then let it run. It kept me on track and ensured I used my time wisely.)

5. Find Some Cheerleaders

While you may have an iron-clad internal motivation pushing you through your degree, having some cheerleaders in your corner can get you through those really tough patches when you’re feeling discouraged or tempted to ignore your schedule.

I had a work friend who would check in with me and cheered me on. My family were also great cheerleaders, letting me vent, proofreading papers, and giving me a loving push when I was lagging.

Since I did the Accelerated Pathways program, I also had a Success Coach. She helped me stay on track, schedule classes, and adjust my schedule when the aforementioned $&%# happened.

6. But Treat Yo’ Self Too

Find ways to celebrate accomplishments as small as reading a chapter in a textbook or finishing a course. Don’t make it complicated, just do something that helps you unwind and relax, and tell yourself “good job.”

Celebrating the wins—big and little—will help you keep pushing forward. Not only will you feel your hard work is appreciated, but you can also look forward to that next episode of Stranger Things.

7. Change It Up

I love my routines, but during the insanity of working-while-studying, I discovered that changing things up every once in a while actually helped me focus. Spend a few hours on a Saturday morning at a local coffee shop instead of in your apartment, or head to the library for a quick hour-long study session during your lunch break. Read textbooks or write your papers from a cozy chair instead of your desk to break up the monotony. Whatever works, right?

8. But Be Consistent About Your Health

I noticed I studied better when I fed my body (i.e. my brain) well and worked out a couple times a week. I had more mental clarity and generally felt better. It’s ok, you can yell “are you crazy, lady?!” I can take it. Finding time to make healthy meals and snacks on top of working and studying does seem impossible. But remember those study breaks I was talking about earlier? Those are great for making easy snacks, tossing a 3-ingredient meal into the slow cooker, doing an online yoga video, or making a quick grocery run.

9. Embrace the Tired

Even if you do your very best to sleep, eat well, and take good breaks, you will be tired. My mom gave me one of the best pieces of advice when I was exhausted and trying to survive my hectic schedule. Embrace the tired. Understand that you’re just going to be tired for the next few months. And maybe have an extra cup of tea. Tea always helps.

When you finish school, you will catch up! It took me a couple months of Netflix to feel like a fully-functioning human again, but I got there. And you will too. That being said, don’t push it. Do your best to get at least 7-9 hours of sleep. Yeah, it will cut into your late-night study time, but honestly, it really will help you keep up the crazy pace you set for yourself.

10. But Still Take a Day Off Now and Then

Sometimes you just need a break. And I’m not talking about a 15-minute study break here, but a longer, several-hours-to-GASP-a-full-day break. This was really hard for me, because, as I said, I’m an overachiever and don’t like to break when I’m on a roll. But even I had to take a day off between courses sometimes. It felt really weird, like my body was instinctively thinking, “Why aren’t we studying? We should be studying!” But without fail, those breaks always helped me start my next course feeling rejuvenated and ready to crush it.

One Last Thing—Don't Forget How Awesome You Are.

Studying while working full time is not easy, and you’re amazing for doing it! When you start feeling overwhelmed by what you have to accomplish before you graduate, take a minute and think about everything you’ve already accomplished.

Think about the skills and knowledge you now have from balancing so much at one time. Think about how you’re graduating without debt and may even have some savings, since you didn’t have to set work aside to finish school. Remind yourself how it will TOTALLY be worth it. You got this. Now go conquer the world!

Working and studying full time is no easy feat. Give yourself a leg up by choosing a college program that’s affordable and can fit into your already hectic schedule. If you want the flexibility to earn your bachelor’s degree while furthering your career, click here to learn more about how Accelerated Pathways can help!

Is getting a marketing degree worth it?

I definitely asked that question when switching my major for the third time. (Long story…) Unfortunately, 15 minutes of googling “benefits of a marketing degree” gave me such a plethora of information—most of it conflicting—that it was hard to know for sure what to do.

I had been dabbling in marketing with a couple small businesses, wondering if I really needed the formal training found in a major or if I could just figure it out myself. To some extent, I probably could have done the latter.

But, as I researched marketing career paths, I realized there are some benefits to earning a marketing degree—namely, a foot in the door (and opportunities for advancement). So I decided to change my major to marketing.

After graduating, I got an entry-level job in the Marketing department here at Pearson, where I’ve been able to put to use what I learned during my degree, what I taught myself on my own and the new knowledge I’m getting from hands-on experience every day.

So as someone who both taught myself marketing and got the formal education, I know deciding whether to get a degree or self-teach feels like a huge, scary, life-defining choice with no going back. But that’s not true.

Truth is… you might want to do both.

Realities of getting a marketing degree

Let’s get something out of the way before going any farther: if you choose to earn a marketing degree, most of what you study will be out of date.

That’s the nature of the beast with marketing. It moves really fast. And since textbooks take several years to just get published (and if you’re like me, you always buy them used. Like, very used), what you’re studying is not always relevant to current times.

All that being said, when completing a marketing degree, you will study basic business subjects such as cost tracking, ROI, and market research that are pretty timeless. And as I alluded to before, a lot of jobs require a bachelor's degree just to get in the door. So even if you have amazing job experience on your resume, if you don’t have that “bachelor’s degree” box checked, you may have a harder time staying in the HR hiring pile.

And while getting through the door is the important first step, you still need to survive the interview process, and that’s where experience comes in.

It’s important to remember a marketing degree doesn’t guarantee experience. While you’ll come out with some good (and some outdated) head knowledge, a lot of marketing is learned by doing and keeping up with current trends.

The best way to avoid knowing only outdated marketing when you graduate? Look at what you’re studying in school as the foundation, and then supplement that foundation with other resources and experiences.

This will help you graduate with a better understanding of marketing than someone who just spent the last 4 years learning out of a textbook. And will hopefully give you a leg-up when job hunting!

How to supplement your marketing degree

Keep an eye on current trends

Marketing is one of those “continuing education” fields where learning doesn’t stop when you get your diploma. It helps to stay up to date on what’s happening in the marketing and business world so you stay in the loop.

The best (and easiest) way to do that is by subscribing to newsletters specific to your interest or which give you a broad look at all things marketing.

Not sure where to start? These are a few I follow regularly:

• Fast Company: everything from design to business to marketing to social news

• Inc.: strong focus on business and marketing trends

• Under Consideration: all about branding and design

• Copyblogger: cover content marketing and copywriting

There are a lot of other ones out there, so keep your eyes open for what peaks your interest.

Read business/marketings books

While I know reading a book after spending all day reading a textbook sounds exhausting, this is still a great way to dig into popular marketing concepts. Marketing and business books give you a look at the author's point of view about their chosen subject that goes much deeper than a blog post or newsletter.

Of course there are so many online articles out there recommending “must read marketing books” that a quick peek at the list will probably make you want to run for the hills. So here’s a few to get you started:

• The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries & Jack Trout

• Purple Cow by Seth Godin

• Linchpin by Seth Godin

• Building a Storybrand by Donald Miller

Recommendations from industry leaders are another great source for book ideas. So if you meet someone in marketing, ask them what books they recommend!

Be data driven

If you want to be successful in marketing, data is your bread and butter.

Now, I know you might be thinking, “wait a minute… isn’t marketing creative and stuff?” And you’re absolutely right, it is very creative.

But if you want to keep your job, you need to prove that your marketing efforts are working. Data is how you do that.

Say you create a campaign to market a new product. You write emails and Facebook posts, create ads, write blogs, maybe some videos, schedule all this out, and start executing. You have high hopes for this campaign. But how will you know whether or not it worked? What metrics are you tracking? What determines success? And how do you prove it to your boss? Or your boss’s boss? How can you replicate and improve success in the future?

That’s why being data driven is so important.

Familiarize yourself with analytics tools like Google Analytics, insights on Facebook, etc. Learn how to track everything.

Learn to love spreadsheets (and other business tools)

So how exactly do you track everything? Spreadsheets.

“Spreadsheets” might sound terrifying, but trust me. With just a little work, they’re going to become your best friend. Spreadsheets let you organize, sort, and filter the data so you can see exactly what you need to make the right decisions.

Knowing your way around Excel and Google Sheets will make you a valuable asset to any marketing team. If you can take a bunch of raw data then manipulate it to understand where it came from and the story it's telling, you’ll be able to make smart marketing decisions.

You don’t necessarily need to be a spreadsheet power-user, but being able to sort, filter, run formulas to count or lookup data in other sheets and create graphs from that data will be some of your best tools in your spreadsheet toolbox.

Get certifications

Certifications are a great way to boost your resume and learn some more practical marketing skills at the same time. And many of them are free! (Or very, very inexpensive.)

Not only are many of these certifications free, but they're incredibly convenient too. Hubspot has a library of free certifications you can add right to your LinkedIn profile. And they’re super practical!

(Google Analytics is another practical certification to look into. Having a basic understanding on how it works and being able to show that on a resume will really help you when hunting for jobs.)

Hone your copywriting skills (at least a little bit)

Marketing has changed over the years from being ad-driven to story-driven. This means marketing agencies and teams are focusing on content marketing more than ever before.

And copywriting is a big part of that.

Being able to take an idea and put it into words that connect with your customers and get them to take the action you want (buy a product, sign up for an ebook, etc.) will make you an invaluable member of a marketing team.

Even if you’re not interested in copywriting, being able to recognize good copy will make you a well-rounded marketer.

A good resource to get started is Copyblogger. Their specialty is copywriting and content marketing, so they’re a great place to start exploring those subjects.

Practice what you’re learning

Getting a marketing degree is important. It opens doors and shows that you spent the time to educate yourself. But if you aren’t able to get a job with it, that diploma becomes a really expensive piece of paper.

Marketing is about what you can do, so it’s crucial to start building those skills while you’re in school. Finding a way to combine both studying for a marketing degree and gaining practical experience will start you off on the right foot.

Combining the Degree and Self-Study

I found the happy medium between building those much-needed skills and formal education thanks to Accelerated Pathways. And you can too!

Getting hands-on experience in college is challenging. You have to juggle class times, homework, group projects, and getting to campus, so trying to add extracurricular activities on top of that like a job or volunteering feels impossible.

Accelerated Pathways won’t make you choose experience over education. Everything Accelerated Pathways offers is online. There are no class times, and you can study when you want, from wherever you want. This means you’ll have the freedom to use your time to focus on career skills and still stay on track to graduate in 4 years (or 3 or 2—it’s up to you!)

Throughout my degree, I did a little blogging, ran email campaigns, set up WordPress sites, played with Photoshop, explored Google Analytics, promoted my small business on Social Media, and took as many free seminars as I could find. All while studying for my degree.

Not all of these ventures were successful, but all these little projects helped me learn what I liked about marketing, what I didn’t like, and what I wanted to focus my career on before jumping into the workforce.

If you can demonstrate practical marketing experience when applying for jobs post-graduation, it’ll set you apart from the crowd and show that you’re serious about your career and ready to learn and work hard.

Want to find out if Accelerated Pathways will help you? Learn more here!