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Ace the Transition From Full-Time Worker to Full-Time Student

Remembering how to live like a student didn't come naturally to Claire Seely, who is currently in her second year of a master's program at the University of South Carolina.

"When I had a salary, I could go out to happy hour twice a week, and that was fine. But as a graduate student, I was still doing that," says Seely, who previously worked for a higher education tech company.

"It wasn't until the end of the year that I realized I was out of money," she says.

Returning to school after spending time earning a real salary is challenging for myriad reasons. Not only do adult students need to re-learn how to study, interact with professors and endure multi-hour lectures, they have to grasp how to budget, spend and live like a student.

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Here's what to know about returning to student life after you've worked full time.

[See: How to Live on $13,000 a Year.]

Consider the alternatives. Think -- really think -- about the desire to return to school. "Probably the largest -- or most significant -- piece of the conversation is how passionate they are about leaving work and leaving their income to go back to school," says Kara Blanchard, assistant dean of admission and financial aid at Drake University Law School in Iowa.

Attending school full time may mean leaving valuable employer benefits on the table. The majority of employers offer some sort of educational assistance, according to the Society for Human Resource Management's 2016 employee benefits report. But tapping those may require staying employed while taking classes, so think hard before severing ties with your employer.

Even if employer tuition reimbursement benefits aren't available, adult part-time students can take night classes and other certification courses without abandoning their full-time income.

"A lot of degree programs can be merged into your full-time work life," says Julie Selander, director of One Stop Student Services at the University of Minnesota--Twin Cities. The office offers a financial literacy and money management initiative for students called "Live Like A Student."

This doesn't mean that becoming a full-time student is never a savvy decision -- it's a quicker way to earn a degree. But think long and hard before making the call, considering cost against the financial and professional payoffs.

Prepare your financial life. Before handing in your two weeks' notice, do everything you can to prepare for your transition to student life.

The changeover "works best when somebody has gotten their financial house in order, so to speak, before they decide to leave employment and come back to school full time," Blanchard says.

For example, if you're still paying off loans from another degree program, you may need to place them in deferment while you're in school. (Don't forget that interest may still continue to accrue).

Start budgeting more aggressively to boost your savings and get accustomed to the student lifestyle, Blanchard says.

Meet with your financial advisor, if you use one, to discuss the best assets to tap for tuition payments and how to most effectively manage your finances while you're in school.

[See: 12 Ways to Be a More Mindful Spender.]

Learn to budget. Workers transitioning to student life should "think about things, like forgoing the vacations they've been used to, not enjoying their daily latte or eating more meals at home than they were used to," Blanchard says.

Selander recommends opting to sell your car if you can. "Particularly on our campus, you don't need that car. And that's such a huge expense for the parking, insurance and the gas," she says.

Budgeting better is something Seely, who is funding her education partly with student loans, wishes she'd learned earlier in her second act as a student. "For this year, I made a budget for the first time in my life," she says. "I'm trying to actually have a better sense of what my finances are and how to live at least a little closer within my means."

[See: 6 Ways to Treat Yourself on a Budget.]

Consider financial aid. If you're headed back to school, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, is key to unlocking federal loans, grants and other financial aid.

Take note, experts say, that filing the FAFSA is a little more complex when you're transitioning from full-time worker to full-time student, especially if you're returning for an undergraduate degree.

Here's why: The FAFSA will consider your need-based financial aid eligibility based on your previous year's salary, despite the fact that you won't be making that salary once you enroll.

If you think that you'll qualify for need-based aid (mostly available to undergraduates), the best way to tackle this is to file the FAFSA as usual, before the deadline, then appeal to the financial aid office for a "professional judgment" in which the college's administrators can take your special circumstances into consideration.

You may have to ask for a professional judgment for two consecutive years, warns Fred Amrein, founder of EFC PLUS, a software program that helps with college funding, financial aid and student loan repayment solutions. That's thanks to the new prior-prior year FAFSA guidelines, starting in the 2017-2018 academic year, which will require that students submit financial information from two years earlier.

And, of course, make sure not to over-borrow. Says Blanchard: "We encourage [returning students] -- just like we do with any student -- to not borrow more than is absolutely necessary."

Susannah Snider is the Personal Finance editor at U.S. News. She previously covered paying for college and graduate school. You can follow her on Twitter or email her at ssnider@usnews.com.