The college experience is priceless, but the tab is exponential.
Knowing friends with and without financial aid, there seems to be two main goals when receiving higher education: 1) Graduating and 2) Graduating with the least amount of debt.
A survey conducted by YouGov, 4 out of 5 college students work part-time averaging at about 19 hours per week. I am one of the four.
Let’s talk about the college triangle. The diagram suggests that in order to achieve the college experience, students must choose two options: good grades, a social life, or sleep. But since 80% of students are working part-time it’s no longer a triangle. Rather it’s a very overwhelming square.
When I first started college, I was surprised about how much group work classes are composed of. Working a part-time retail job made it difficult to schedule a time to meet up for the project. Even more so since I wasn’t the only one with a paying job.
Then finals week hit. Coworkers were begging to switch shifts in order to study for their finals. Especially since most of us were spending about a full day a week working. So the all-nighters used for studying were both physically and mentally tiring.
Whether you’re thinking of working on campus or off, the stress of juggling education and a much-needed paycheck accumulates.
It’s a paradoxical loop. Working in order to pay for college to avoid a strenuous job in the future while struggling to get through college because of a strenuous part-time job.