Andrew Oyler
English 102
4/12/15
Working In College
Abstract
Many full-time
students find it hard to maintain a job, a full course load, and keep their
grades to an acceptable level therefore the general conception that college
students are poor comes to play. Research was conducted by creating a survey
that was sent out to students at the University of Louisville, and by interviewing
two students on the topic. 50% of students that are employed who completed the
survey said their academics were negatively affected by their job. 36.36% of the students that are not employed
said they do not have a job because they did not have time or needed to focus
on school; and 91.6% of the students that are not employed said they feel their
academics would be affected if they were to add a job in their daily schedule.
Introduction
College students
tend to be generalized as poor and struggling due to the lack of students with
jobs or students that have to spend their money on their education. The reasons why students do not have jobs
while attending school can be unclear. Depending on some student’s financial
status’s they must work to pay for their education and possible all the
essentials to live, or in some extreme cases to help out their own families.
Students who do not work may feel they do not have the time to incorporate a
job into their schedule or that it will take away focus from their schoolwork.
This research can help explain the motives behind student’s reasons to work or
not work while in college, and whether their academics are affected by this
decision.
Methods
Participants: Students at the University of Louisville
Procedures: A survey was made to gather information on students who
attend the University of Louisville and their employment status and motives
behind these. The survey was sent out through an email to an English class at
the university and posted to Facebook to collect results. Two students were
interviewed, one male and one female, to gain a more in depth response of their
personal motives behind their employment status and if their academics have
been affected by this.
Data Analysis: The data was broken down into two groups, students
that have jobs and students that don’t, their opinions on their academic
performance due to their employment decision was then taken into consideration.
Whether or not a student needed the job for financial reasons or for their own
pleasure was then noted.
Results
All of the
participants in this survey are full-time students (12+ hours), 65% of them
male, 35% females. If you refer to table 1, the table shows that majority of
participants that do not have jobs do not, because they feel they do not have
time for a job, or they feel they need to focus on schoolwork. Adding these two
figures together, this is 36.36% of the participants, a little over one third.
Table 1:
(Describes the motives behind a
persons employment decision)
|
Do you have a job? If
yes, why? If not, why?
|
|
|
Yes, I
need to pay for school.
|
4
|
|
Yes, I
need to help my family.
|
0
|
|
Yes, I
need money for my own pleasure
|
8
|
|
No, I
don't have time.
|
4
|
|
No, I
don't need the money.
|
2
|
|
No, I
need to focus on school
|
4
|
Around half of the
students that are employed feel that their job affects their academic
performance in a negative way, according to figure 1. 12.5% of participants
that are employment strongly agree that their academics are affected
negatively, and 37.5% agree, which totals to 50% of students.
Figure 1:
(Chart
shows students agreeableness with their academics being affected by a job)
Figure
2 shows that almost all of the participants who are not currently employed feel
that their academic performance would be affected negatively if they added in a
job in their weekly schedule. Of the 10
students that are not employed, 9 of them answered yes to feeling as if their
academics would be affected if a job were taken on.
Figure 2:
(Chart shows how students without a
job feel about their academics if a job was added into their schedule)
(Chart shows how students without a
job feel about their academics if a job was added into their schedule)
The male student
that was interviewed on the subject did not have a job because he felt he did
not have enough time for one. “Working on top of going to class everyday,
homework, and leisure time is too much for me and something I do not want to
have to deal with.” He said. According to him, taking on a job would take away
from the time he has to study, and wouldn’t allow him adequate time to relieve
stress or do things he actually enjoyed.
The
female student that was interviewed was employed because she needs to pay for
her education. She stated that she did not want to have a large amount of debt
when she graduates and that her parents did not have the money to pay for her
education. When asked if she felt as if her academics were negatively affected
by her job she answered, “Yes, it is hard to find the time to study, go to
class, and work, but it is doable. If I did not need to work as much as I do I
would have a lot more time to spend on studying and getting better grades.”
Discussion
These results
suggest that many students academic performance is affected by their jobs or
that they feel that a job would affect their academic performance, helping to
explain some of the reasons why some college students choose not to work. This
research was not given to vary many students, and majority of the participants
were also males, so there was not much diversity. This research can help
explain why college students are generalized as being poor by showing why
students choose not to work and how a job can affect a student. In the future,
an experiment could be done to help find more information. Student’s academics
can be observed in two different semesters, one where the student is employed,
and one when the student is not. This can help show how a student is affected
by their job and in what ways.
