Gabriel Gonzalez
Student Life Editor
When I have work, I wake up at 3 a.m. and leave the house by 3:20, making it to work by 3:55. My shift ends at 1 p.m. I work at Walmart as a produce associate, transferring fresh produce off pallets and into aisles. It’s not easy work, but it’s also not complicated work, making it the perfect downtime between my ESU classes. I work four days a week: Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. The days in between I go to school.
Even though I don’t get a day off and I have to go to bed by 8 p.m. if I have work, I don’t hate it. If anything, I think it has done more good than bad. And strangely enough, that studies suggest that might just be the case.
The National Center for Education Statistics reported that on average students who work have higher GPAs than those who don’t. The Journal for College Student Retention and the Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice have similar findings. Even though some of the studies may seem dated, current reports have similar findings, implying that not much has changed.
The psychology is simple. The less time you have at your disposal, the more you need to spend it wisely. With no time to fritter away, I’ve definitely been forced to plan and segment my workload to complete assignments on time and to allow for some freedom. This provides structure even beyond the class schedule and the school environment, which is beneficial in its own right.
On the side of less structure, nonworking student, Berlinska Gerard, nursing major said, “Not working does leave me a lot of free time, in the sense that I do push things back.” (A very common symptom of free time: procrastination.)
On the side of more structure, worker of three jobs and communications major, Bianey Amyis said, “It’s definitely a rush, but if you have goals for yourself, you can get it done.” That isn’t to say she was promoting her lifestyle, as she did have complaints concerning the stressful split between work and schoolwork.
Brendan Dolan, computer science major and part-time worker, is somewhere in the middle. “I feel like it all depends on where you go,” he said. “I feel like if you find the right manager and what’s best for you, it can be very structured.”
But not all work is good work. Studies have consistently shown that working full-time is not good for students. The average baseline GPA for nonworking students is 3.04 while the average GPA for those working 20 hours or more is 2.95. Not a big difference, but not nothing. Students working less than 20 hours have a GPA average of 3.13. Either way, there is a .09 GPA difference when choosing between working more or less than 20 hours.
Just because the best option may be to work less than 20 hours to receive the structure from working while also having enough time to focus on academics, doesn’t mean it’s feasible. I like working. I enjoy clocking in, doing my thing and going home just as much as the next guy, but I’d knock my hours down in a heartbeat. I just can’t afford to. I have bills to pay and people to support. It’s a situation many students face. Other students are working to pay off their loans. Work, depending on what is required, can be yet another stress on top of assignment deadlines.
In a perfect world, we’d all be able to approach the issue with a focus on comfort, but this is the real world. Just remember, whether you have a job or want one: being a student is full-time.
