Personal Narrative - Working While Attending College Essay

Alene Semuels is a writer for The Atlantic, and formerly wrote for The Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The author's purpose for writing this article was to inform college students and the public about opportunities to work while in college. Also it shows college students that working a full time job might not be the wisest thing to do while attending college full time. When this article was written, there was a new trend beginning to arise. In 2015, Georgetown University did a study of students who worked while in college. They found that 70 percent of students were employed while in college and 25 percent of those students are working full time while simultaneously going to college full time. Both the Chicago Tribune and CNBC wrote articles about the findings in the Georgetown study. Putting these things together, Semuels felt persuaded to talk about the topic from two

Taking advantage of my situation I joined the Business Club and even entered an Idea Pitch Contest where my group received first place. Being able to be part of these student activities while working part time and improving my grades allowed me to develop better time management skills and learn how to be a better

Over the past twenty-five years, college costs have accumulatively risen four-hundred percent. The percent of parents who contribute to their child’s student debt has dropped from thirty-seven percent to twenty-seven percent, compared to three years ago. Due to the lack of aid, most students have to try to balance a job and school at the same time resulting in eighty-five percent of college students working at least twenty hours a week. It has also been noted that students who work twenty hours or more a week while attending classes at the same time are less likely to graduate due to the high stress environment. Sixty-two percent of college students who drop out were responsible for their own college education. Even when students drop out, thirty percent are still faced with college debt, creating a loophole impossible to recover

In order to get a decent paying job, you have to have a college degree. Many people will not be able to go to college full time because they have to work part-time or full-time to be able to afford college and can not move on to a higher paying job with out it. Low income students have always struggled with college bills. Financial and political forces are making it harder than ever to get a college degree, which is crucial to getting a high paying job (Philadelphia Inquirer, 1). It is extremely difficult to get a job and go to college full or part time, just to have a higher paying job. Many students hope to avoid a soaring loan debt. They work long hours; take courses part-time and are commuting to college rather than living on campus. These compromises greatly reduce chances of earning a college degree in a timely manner if at all (Philadelphia Inquirer, 1). As a result, students must rely on even larger loan debt to get through school. Many students have to put off getting their degree and some never go back to get it.

First, our family's dynamics. Right, wrong, or indifferent, our family has dynamics that may not be in play in your "typical" student's family. I say this as a precursor to this... I believe your priorities and ours may not always match, but hopefully the success of Emma, the child of topic, does match. First of all, my husband and I both work advanced careers. Many days I leave as early as 6am and get home as late as 6pm, and some days, I work until 9pm or later. Jeremy and I switch off working late many times as well. I have two children with special needs and have hundreds of appointments each year to attend, which also means at times, I work in

I’m raised in an environment filled with negative stereotypes, high dropout rates, fewer resources, and low expectations. As a Mexican American from the San Fernando Valley, educational opportunities do not come often. In middle school it massed into my head that going to college is my way towards success. Soon it became the only option for me and as a result, I joined Project Grad to begin my journey towards college. They introduced me to the Chicano Youth Leadership Conference during my junior year. After applying and attending, the conference eliminated the label that Latinos are not college material. Subsequently, I grabbed as many opportunities as I could. In my junior my school did not put me in any AP classes. Therefore, I went to go

While many students will have to spend lots of money paying for college, I will be earning paychecks. I know that it will take some time before I earn paychecks large enough to pay for a house of my own, but I am confident that with hard work and patience I will be living independently sooner than I would if I attended college. In his article, “10 Rules for Going to College When Nobody Expected you to,” Joe Rodriquez actually said, “don’t worry too much about the high cost of college tuition”(12). On the contrary, the high cost of college tuition is something that everyone should worry about. It’s easy to say “don’t worry about it” when you are not the person who has to pay for something. There are news stories all of the time that talk about the enormous amount of students who have debt that they can’t pay because of the lack of jobs for college graduates. College tuitions costs have risen drastically over the past decades. Going to college is good idea for students who know the job they want requires a degree. If a student is unsure about their future career, then they should consider working for a while before they spend money on college

Taking a lot of classes and to graduate at a 4- year university isn't a choice for all students. Students who works full time, also to help a sick family member or to manage the own learning are worried about college classes. Students don’t have to worry about giving up on a job because of college. They will have time to do more of college work, and if students don’t have a way of doing community college and having a job they can talk with someone on campus and the campus staff will help students manage a organize

Darolia (2013) places itself in a theoretical context which concerns the link between time use and student outcomes. Darolia notes that students have a fixed amount of time to accomplish various tasks (e.g., academic work, extracurriculars, and social activities). Working while in school further limits a student’s time constraint; as a consequence, work-study can injure the quality of those aforementioned activities. In order to ground his point, Darolia cites the work of Kalenkoski and Pabilonia (2010) which asserts that work has a negative impact on first-semester GPA for full and part-time college students. However, Darolia notes that work can positively affect student outcomes, because work encourages students to engage in better time-management practices. He does not directly support this in his paper; but, he cites a study which asserts a positive association between FWS and credit completion (another indicator of student

they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please

full-time work, tens of thousands of these college students are likely to drop out of

Working college students can also suffer outside of classes and the workplace. For example my schedule illustrates the conflicts of trying to take on too many duties. Since I work nights during the week, the weekends are a more convenient time that I can study. Because I have to use my weekends to do school work, I can’t do other things. My apartment is a mess since I have no time to clean it. Worse, my girlfriend is threatening to leave me because I have no social life. We never even go out like we once used to now when she comes over, I am too busy studying. However the rewards of earning a college degree in this economy can be the difference between having

Before part-time studies were introduced in institutions, employed people were suffering because they got no other alternative that they go for to pursue their studies. Since they only have time after 5 o’clock when they knock off and during the weekends. When part-time implemented, many

After the initial stumbling block more commonly known as residential life, I faced the towering challenge of settling into classes. Once I had registered (which was itself something of a dilemma), I had in my hand a sheet of abbreviations that rivaled a military briefing or a computer manual. My first class, on a Thursday morning, was located in a building called CBW, which stood for Classroom Building West. Surely the

What has my journey to graduation been like for me? My journey has been a crazy, fun-filled learning adventure. I met many goals and accomplishments I set for myself but I also faced some challenges on the way. For example, I finally met my goal of graduating with a 4.6 GPA and maintaining it. Also, I accomplished completing my last four years of grade school and now I am on the way to college. My last year has been interesting and there are many goals, accomplishments and challenges I can reflect on.