<p>I find that I agree with Mr. Sowell, but was met with ridicule amongst my classmates and teachers when I told them that I would rather not take a part time job and concentrate on my studies. They argued that most employers would rather hire a person with solid work experience and a 3.0 GPA than a person with a 3.8 GPA but no work expensive. I am still inclined to agree with Mr. Sowell, but find it interesting that the counterargument also makes perfect sense.</p>
<p>In a perfect world, Mr. Sowell is correct. The problem is how students get spending money. If students don’t work, how are they suppossed to get money? Not all parents hand their college age children spending money.</p>
<p>I would have loved if I didn’t have to work during college, but things cost money and you have to work to earn money.</p>
<p>insomniatic, but if you had been given the option of taking a college loan, or a larger college loan if you already had one, wouldn’t you rather not have worked during college?</p>
<p>I completely agree. I have no intentions of working while studying. I’m sure when exam time rolls around, no one wants to be working when they could be putting in some hours studying. Even if you study on the job (depending on the type of job) there will always be distractions. I can always work during the summer to earn some money.</p>
<p>No, I wouldn’t have. I don’t believe in borrowing money if you don’t have to. If I can’t afford to buy something, then I don’t buy it. I will not take a loan to buy it. Of course, there are exceptions (house, car, etc.).</p>
<p>I disagree, because what Sowell doesn’t realize is many college students don’t work to pay off loans, we work to pay for rent, utilities, and spending money. I have no college loans but still have a part time job because I need the money now. Not everyone can mooch off their parents til 22; many students pay their own rent, bills, etc. And what about spending money? Unless you’re still collecting allowance from Mom and Dad in your twenties, what about money for everyday stuff or going out?</p>
<p>Sowell acts like students need to constantly study, when in reality college students have a lot of free time. Most people are in class 10-20 hrs/week, obviously no one needs to study for 40 hours a week. Just about everyone I know has a part-time job; it’s not hard to work 10-20 hours/week with most majors.</p>
<p>I’ve been working ever since I started college, and I can say that while my job itself did not interfere with class/study time, I found my job in general to be a distraction from my studies. I would find myself stressing, not only about my grades, but about my job performance and co-workers.</p>
<p>My last day at this job will be Sept. 20th, and it is going to be such a relief to not have to mentally multi-task like that.</p>
<p>well, this was always my dad’s philosophy for me. i was never allowed to get a job in high school, because he wanted me to spend all of my time on my studies. now i’m a senior & i really want to get a job [probably after i send all of my apps in, though (:]</p>
<p>Unless you suck balls at studying and time management and/or work a monstrous amount of hours per week, it’s not a choice between a 4.0 with no work or working and a 3.0. If anything, my part time job forces me to get stuff done on time and not put it off. Anyone who seriously thinks that college students are thinking deep, productive thoughts even half of the time or studying to their full capacity is deluding themselves.</p>
<p>The only difference between me and someone who doesn’t work is that on Friday night, I’m getting paid 15.00 an hour to basically do my math homework versus hanging around in skeezy bars building my hangover.</p>
<p>No way would I take a larger loan just to avoid working. So I can graduate with hardly any work experience? I don’t think so! I have quite enough in loans just for going to school, I can’t afford not to work. There is no reason for most students not to work at least 5-10 hours a week. I am able to work 15-20 hours a week and study 20-30 hours of week, socialize, and do volunteer work. No way would I just take out more loans. So I can pay interest on what, pizza money? New pair of shoes? Foolish.</p>
<p>This was my father’s philosophy when I was in high school. Then I graduated and he screamed at me to find a job and get out of his house. Sigh.</p>
<p>It’s wonderful to not have to work while receiving an education if your parents support you. Obviously, I don’t have parents to support me, so I have to support myself with a part time job and my boyfriend has to do a lot of work to help me out. I’d say it’d be ideal to find a job that doesn’t suck and isn’t stressful. That’s what I’m looking to do this semester, and if I fail I’ll take a leave of absence from my job so I can take 19 units during the spring. I don’t pay for my school at all and I still need to work to pay for food and rent. </p>
<p>I wish I had parents to support me so I could have that luxury. Hopefully my boyfriend will make more money so I can. ;p</p>
<p>I am trying to get a job right now, although it is difficult. I want to know where this guy thinks we can simply get larger loans to keep as spending money. I currently have no loans, but if I got them, it would simply take away from my financial aid, not give me any money. Unless it’s private loans, but some of us have no co-signer. You should work. When you get out of college, you don’t focus exclusively on work, so why should one focus exclusively on college while they’re there?</p>
<p>Yea you can deffinatly work a part time job and still have plenty of time for study. Its not like your going to be studying every living hour that you aren’t in class. A lot of free time just leads to lazziness anyway. If you want something done, give it to a busy person.</p>
<p>didn’t read the link, but based on this thread i don’t think that guy is much of an intellectual because it’s pretty clear there are a lot of issues with what he is proposing. most students don’t work 100% regardless of whether they are working or not. and most students need some spending money for food, going out, and other necessities. loans don’t cover that (and even if it did, who wants to pay interest on trivial stuff like that?). not to mention where are you going to get work experience? working only summers isn’t as good as working all year round even if it’s a part-time job. the most i’ve worked was about 30 hrs a week and 6 classes (18 credits) and it was possibly one of the best semesters in terms of gpa. this guy advising students not to take a college job is a fool if anything.</p>
<p>with that said, it is good to find a balance between work and class and social life in college. and eliminating one or the other doesn’t necessarily make it easier to balance the rest.</p>
<p>It depends greatly on the person. I remember during my first two/three years of college, I only worked one year. During that one year where I worked(and I mainly did it for work experience and to have something to put down on my resume), my life was more balanced than when I wasn’t working. When I wasn’t working a lot of my free time was spent sleeping, eating, or doing non-academic activities. Having a job made me manage my time better than when not having a job. The freedom of not having a job made me delay or procrastinate even more. Maybe it was an atypical situation, but I imagine some students are/were/going to be like me.</p>
<p>To think that outside of the 10-20 hours/week all your time should be spent on just studying and EC’s is stupid. A part-time job is no big deal. Even if it’s a work-study, that’s better than not having one in order to earn extra cash. Unless you’re parents are giving you allowance for food, fun, etc. where are you supposed to get spending money? Or money to pay for rent, utilities, books, etc? </p>
<p>The only period of the year I don’t work is when I have swim meets. My varsity sport takes 25 hours/week during peak season, not including travel time to meets, so that’s a job in itself. Even when we still have practices but haven’t started meets yet, I work weekends at a restaurant, on top of difficult courses and being heavily involved in several EC’s. It can be stressful, but I need the money if I want to do fun stuff.</p>
<p>He says if it’s absolutely necessary to have a job than you should, everyone seems to have skipped over this part. I imagine the people on CC are much better at managing their time than the average student so possibly this doesn’t apply to the people on here, but I agree with Sowell.</p>
<p>^ Nah, lots of people on CC are simply well-off compared to the average joe and don’t need to work. In the real world, many (most?) college students work during the year, it’s considered typical. How many people have parents who pay their full tuition, room/board, meal plan, books, utilities, and give them spending money? Even if you did, wouldn’t you feel bad being 20something and collecting allowance from poor mom while 15 year old kids have jobs?</p>
<p>Unless they’re in demanding sports/activities or intense majors, college students have lots of free time. 168 hours in a week, a third are spent sleeping, maybe 10-18 in class - you don’t need to study 100 hours a week! Managing your social life, academics, and job are a typical part of college life.</p>
<p>and whoever suggested working summers and using that for spending money for the year - that’s a great idea. I worked a lot this summer and i’m only working 12 hours/week this fall, which is awesome.</p>
<p>it’s not like we work in coal mines either - most of us have easy jobs as office assistants, working around campus, etc.</p>
<p>I worked 10-25 hours a week all through high school and about 5-7 hours a week through middle school, so honestly I don’t think working in college is going to kill my GPA. If it does, you have time management issues. I agree with the opposite of what this guy does - kids should have jobs in college, even if they don’t need the money. It teaches you how to work with other people and be a part of a cooperative environment, which is probably the most useful skill you can bring to a job interview.</p>
Managing your social life, academics, and job are a typical part of college life.</p>