The first year of college can be quite a challenge in time. It is no accident that many college students put on pounds or lose weight during their first year in college. This is due to the fact that college can be a very stressful and confusing place. There are many personal issues that are brought into the surface because of the amount of academic stress that college can inflict. With that said, college can also be a very fun time. Many people actually never have as much fun in later life as they did during their college years. Your experience totally depends on how you play the cards that you are dealt.
One way to have a tough time in college is to work while you’re studying. While many students can handle working while studying, it’s not just for everybody. You have to weigh the pros and cons of this decision carefully or else you might be postponing your graduation date by several years, or in many cases, this might take yourself out of the graduation pool completely. Some students get so caught up in the work they have started in college that they eventually drop out.
Students working hard
The key disadvantages in working during college are:
1. It hogs your time.
Unless you have a lot of solid time management skills back in high school, college can be especially challenging in terms of handling your time. There are just so many things to do and not enough time to do it. In between social commitments, extracurricular activities, schoolwork, or family issues, there are way too many considerations to keep in mind. Many people can’t really juggle all those things up in the air. You have to pay careful attention to how you deal with pressure and stress as this can greatly affect you.
If you feel that your time management skills is not up to par during your first semester in school, it’s probably best for you to hold off taking that job until you have gained a better handle on how to manage your time and achieve the results you’re looking for.
Don’t dive into a job commitment immediately. Look at how you handle your other commitments first and then see if you can sneak in a few hours at work in your busy schedule. Keep in mind that there are many different kinds of people when it comes to time management. There are zero sum people – those that look at life’s resources as a giant pie.
One of life’s resources is time. In zero sum mentality, if one piece of the pie gets bigger – say your schoolwork – other pieces of the pie – like family time and work – gets smaller. If you have a zero sum mentality or mindset, it’s probably a bad idea to get a job before you get a handle on your schoolwork. Once you are able to study efficiently and produce better and consistent academic results with less and less time, then that would be the best time to go out and get a job.
Managing the stress
2. Can you handle the extra stress?
Sure, having an extra job brings extra money but that money comes at a price. First of all, you have to sacrifice some socializing or study time so you can work. But the sacrifice doesn’t end there. All jobs, regardless of what they are, involve some level of stress. You are already stressed out enough from your schoolwork and perhaps even your personal relationships. Can you really handle the extra stress load that comes with a job? Jobs produce stress not just in terms of the actual work itself but also in terms of dealing with your co-workers. In fact, this is the number one cause of stress – interpersonal tension. Sadly, not all people at a workplace are pleasant. Not all fit smoothly with our personalities. That’s a fact of life. So you have to really be mindful of the extra-stress level a job brings. A better approach to follow would be: Once your academic stress level subsides and you have a lot more free time, maybe this would be the right time to take a job, since you’ll be more able to handle whatever stress the job may bring.
Bottom Line:
Working in school is not for everybody. It takes certain level of personal discipline and time management proficiency to successfully pull this off. While there are many key advantages to working while in school, if you have the wrong mindset or the wrong personality or simply just don’t have the time and patience, this might not only be a waste of time for you but a setback to your academic career as well.
About the Post
This guest post was written by Chris Walker, a professional blogger who writes custom admissions essays for http://www.ivyresearch.com
