This grad school student works full-time in New York and spends $500 a week on airplane tickets to attend class in Chicago. Here's how she manages her time and still makes TikToks.

02.09.2023 - 06:29 / insider.com

Flying from New York to Chicago every weekend for grad school while also working a full-time job may sound impossible for most, but a woman on TikTok has detailed exactly how she does it.

"I usually hop on a 6 a.m. flight and use the flight time to study because I have a quiz every class. And once I land in Chicago, I call an Uber downtown," Elophia Mengestu — who goes by the handle "loafs_" — said in a recent TikTok video.

Mengestu moonlights as an MBA graduate student at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management in Chicago on the weekend and works a full-time job in New York as a marketing manager during the week.

"I've always been a person who's so motivated and fulfilled by my career and my education," Mengestu told Insider.

This year, she decided to pursue her MBA at her "dream school" by starting with one class for the quarter on Saturdays at about the same timeshe started her new job as an "influencer marketing manager" in New York.

Doing so requires "maximizing the time that you already have," the 25-year-old told Insider.

Mengestu said her Saturdays begin at about 3 in the morning to get ready and catch her 6 a.m. flight to Chicago.

During her two-hour flight, Mengestu will use the time to study for her class or listen to a podcast.

Once she arrives in Chicago at about 7 a.m. local time, Mengestu will take another 30 to 50 minutes to Uber to campus.

This typically gives her enough time to get breakfast, study, or catch up with classmates before her 9 a.m. class, she said.

After class ends at about noon, Mengestu grabs lunch or talks with her classmates before she catches another Uber back to the airport at 3 p.m.

By 7 p.m., Mengestu is back at her apartment in Williamsburg, New York City, which she shares with a roommate.

Mengestu began the 700-mile commute to school in June when her quarter began.

"I had gotten this job opportunity and then I had also gotten into theprogram, and I was really passionate about both," she told Insider. "I really wanted to do both."

Pursuing her dreams comes at a hefty cost, financially and socially.

A round-trip costs about $500 to $550, according to Mengestu, who also provided receipts of her flight tickets to Insider.

Her short flights can be expensive because she doesn't buy her tickets ahead of time. Mengestu said she was wary of any unforeseen delays or last-minute changes, such as class cancellations.

The Uber rides to her university are covered by a voucher provided by the school. But the rides to and from her apartment in New York cost about $30 to $55 a trip.

In a follow-up TikTok video, Mengestu said the commute was less about saving money and a necessary evil.

"It absolutely is expensive. It hurts my bank account every day, believe me,"