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working / school
I am going
back to college this fall. 
My aid
covers tuition and fees, but I have to participate in school activities
in order to keep my scholarship which is NBD because I need some
incentive. 
I am going to have to work at least part-time in order to cover the rest of COL as well as start getting out of debt. I've spent most of the past 5 years as a medical office coordinator trying to go to school fulltime. Now I'm going to be a full-time student who is also working.
In order to balance school, work, and ECs, do I want to be looking for more
office-y type jobs or am I better off with retail / service type jobs? What kind of job did you have in school? Was one kind better than another? Generally, is one area more flexible about schedule changes than another?
I know I'm assuming that in a crappy job market I'll have options, but I do have a quite a few choices and I'll stay registered with my temp agency for holidays.
Re: working / school
I'd get the job first, then work the activites around it. Some meet at night (5pm, or even 7pm), some meet in the day (12noon, or 4pm (after last class of the daytime).
I would get a PT job that relates most to what you want to do upon graduation, if you can get it. Flexibility really depends on the employer. They are likely hiring you to cover the same hours each week. You need to be upfront with them about your class schedule (and if there is one or two clubs you really want to join, then that schedule too). But don't make yourself look too unavailable either.
Good luck!
If you only need to work PT, then I suggest keeping your options open but it would be best to get a job closely related to your field or with skills related to your field.
I currently go to school PT, work PT and work FT. So anything is possible.
A lot of it will depend on when you like classes. I didn't mind day or night. My local univ. offered almost all classes at night too so a ton of people had 8-5 jobs. Through the majority of college I had an Accounting job at a local cpa office and then had a bookkeeping job - Accounting major if you can't tell. Both were very flexible. I usually tried to do morning classes or night ones. Usually I had like 2 classes either MW or TR and then a couple night ones. That way I could still work 3 days a week. If you are able to find classes where you can do mornings there are some places where you can work just afternoons.
I personally could never do retail because I enjoyed having my weekends off so I would look for a pt office job, but make sure they are flexible, or check out the univ class schedules for other classes then what you just need to take this semester to see when class times are typically offered.
My Lunch Blog
When in college, I worked at a convenience store and in the auditing department of a local retail chain. The convenience store was mindless, but the owners let me do reading and homework when it was slow - BONUS! The retail auditing was major-related, so it was good experience.
Could you look for something more flexible that would allow for double duty, like babysitting? Once the kids are in bed, you could study and do school work.