Student Research Report: The Crossing of Income and Education, College Student Edition
In Spring 2021, students in Dr. Emily Stark’s Research Methods and Design course completed multiple hands-on data collection projects. They were also assigned a blog paper where they discussed one of the topics they chose to research and explained their findings to a general audience. The goal of this was to give students an opportunity to explore a different form of writing from APA-style research papers. Some of these blog papers will be featured here throughout the summer to showcase the students’ findings. Please feel free to contact Dr. Stark through the contact form on this site for additional information about this course or the assignments used.
By Abbey Everson
I feel my college experiences and opportunities have fallen victim to the limitations of financial stability. I am one of those students who is responsible to pay for their education, in full, as well as their rent, utilities, and leisure activities; I am not one of those few who have the privilege of all their financial duties being handled by their parents, or even the government. According to The American Association of University Professors, 63% of full-time college students worked more than 20 hours a week (2020). This presents to you the number of American college students that divide their time, whether they please to or not, between work and school, to which, from experience, is not the most ideal thing to do.
Although active employment while participating in a higher level of education can have its advantages, the cost of being financially dependent on yourself while studying to become a relevant figure in our society is what your end goal relies on: grades. Working while in college takes away time from students that could be used towards their studies, their door to success. Additionally, when students have to balance work, school, and a social life, for sanity reasons, it shows academic and emotional consequences. According to The Hechinger Report, students who work while in school possess lower grades and a higher dropout rate (2019). As the need for postsecondary education increases amongst society, it is difficult for these students to juggle time invested in work and school. Time invested in education takes away from the time they could be working, in order to provide a stable, newly independent lifestyle, and time invested in working takes away from the time that would be used towards studying.
Recently, I conducted a study in my research methods course, here at MSU, that analyzed the relationship between the employment status of full-time students and grade point average. The data for this study was collected through an online survey which had 92 participants. These participants consisted of 17 males, 73 females, and 2 individuals would rather not say or indicated ‘other’ for gender. The continuous variables that were studied included the number of hours each student worked during the academic week, as well as their current grade point average, as presented in their unofficial transcript.
The results of this experiment did not support our hypothesis, which was as stated: The number of hours a student works during the week affects their GPA, and that women who work during the academic week hold a higher-grade point average than men. Our data and results concluded that there was no significant difference between women and men in the relationship between grade point average, and the number of hours a student works. However, it is important to call attention to the limitations here; because the data for this experiment only consisted of those who voluntarily complete the survey and those who are solely enrolled at Minnesota State University, Mankato, it is easy to say that the results could change drastically with more data from more participants and from those who attend universities all over Minnesota or even the nation.
As a student, it still remains relevant and true that you feel as if your grades may not be where you want them to be because you are balancing academic responsibilities with the weight of working. If it doesn’t take an academic toll, it takes a mental and emotional one. Having to stress about both school and work is not easy on a newly found adult. According to Baumann et al. (2017), the more a student finds themselves balancing both work and college courses, the stronger their symptoms of depression appear. If you feel as if you are one of these people, being pulled by school and working, I suggest you do what you can to better your situation, academically and industrially. Some suggestions include:
· Speak to your professors about extensions on assignments if you feel underprepared and behind
· Speak to your employer about either a set-weekly schedule or lessening your hours per week
· Look at loan options that may aid in financing your housing situation, as well as tuition
· Apply for scholarships; there are a lot of options out there
· Take fewer credits each semester- 12 to 15 credits seems to be the most manageable
References
Barshay, J. (2019). The paradox of working while in college: work interferes with studies but
boosts adult earnings, researchers say. The Hechinger Report.
https://hechingerreport.org/the-paradox-of-working-while-in-college/
Baumann, M. R., Bennett, J. M., Garza, R. T., & Oviatt, D. P. (2017). Undesirable effects of
working while in college: Work-school conflict, substance use, and health. The Journal of
Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, 151(5), 433-452.
Perna, L. W. & Odle, T. K. (2020). Recognizing the reality of working college students:
Minimizing the harm and maximizing the benefits of work. American Association of
University Professors. https://www.aaup.org/article/recognizing-reality-working-college-students#.YII4gy1h2qB