Work/School Lifestyle

Taylor Rudowitz

Tucker

SLS 1501

11-6-2017

Do you remember when you were little and your parents told you no matter what, school

first? What if down the road you get a job when you are very young and it turns into a possible

future career? What would you do then? Focus on the job, focus on school, it may seem like a

very hard decision. Fortunately, when I was put in this situation I made the decision that was for

the best, and I did both. I am currently an Assistant Manager at a restaurant called Zaxbys. All

that I have heard since I have been in college is how crazy I am for working full time and going

to school full time. But I am ready to explain how this is a better lifestyle than ones most college

students lead and the how the number of hours you work does not affect whether school comes

first or second. There are three research topics that I would like to discuss but first I want to

explain how crucial it is to understand that everybody is different and every single person

functions differently. If we generalize all college students as the same then there are many being

left out.

The first research topic was conducted in Estonia. They wanted to find out which

students had an overall higher academic success, working or non-working students. They had

many trials of random surveys of kids and they asked how they were doing academically and

whether they worked or not. The results were not too surprising but still led me to want to do

more research. The result was that working students only experienced a small negative affect on

their academic success. I really wish in their research method they would have been a little more
 Work/School Lifestyle
specific and mentioned grades or grade point averages but instead they simply asked the kids.

But this definitely got me thinking. I first thought that maybe if I did take some time off of work

I could do a little bit better in school but I already do a lot of studying as it is. I needed some

research showing that is possible to do better in school even if you work more.

This next example is great because it has to do with online classes. The research said that

the majority of full time online college students also work either part time or full time. They

gathered the grade point averages of these students and also asked whether they worked and if it

was part time or full time. The research showed that the highest grade point averages among the

students were the kids who worked part time. This was almost what I wanted, but it still led to

prove that a work/school lifestyle is a great one to have. Many college students are full time

students and then full time party-ers. I have not been to a single party or club since I have been in

college and I truly do not feel the need to. I would rather be making money and advancing in my

job so I can possibly become a general manager soon. I guess people just have two different

ways of looking on how they want to complete their life.

So as I said before, everybody is different and functions a certain way. Everybody also

has a different balance of school and what else they do in their life. This next research study

studies this exact notion. The question asked was, Was having a good balance of work and

study beneficial to a persons success? The way they tested this question was randomly

selecting students across the nation and deciding whether or not they had a good balance of work

and school. The results were pretty obvious in the fact that a good work and school balance leads

to greater and further academic success. This goes to show that while still remaining different, if

everybody retains a proper work/school balance then they will have better success academically.
 Work/School Lifestyle
The main problem that I came across when I was doing my research was how set

everybodys minds were already about the topic of working while going to school. Many believe

that unless all of your time is devoted to school it is impossible to thrive in the academic

environment. I am living proof that this Is not to be considered true at all. While I may not have

the best grades, I have graduated high school and am currently going to the University of Central

Florida. This is something I am extremely proud of this considering since the age of 17 I have

been working my way up within Zaxbys. While it remains that everybody is different, I also

believe that living a work/school lifestyle is a healthier and better one than school/party lifestyle.

Conducting this research has shown me that there is no problem with the work/school

lifestyle I live as long as I say so. This lifestyle may not work for everybody but it definitely

works for me. And at the end of the day I always have a backup plan in case one of the two end

up not working out.

 Work/School Lifestyle

Reference page

Beerkens, M., Magi, E., & Lill, L. (n.d). University studies as a side job: causes

and consequences of massive student employment in Estonia. Higher Education,

61(6), 679-692.

Barczyk, C. C., Hixon, E., Buckenmeyer, J., & Ralston-Berg, P. (2017). The
Effect of Age and Employment on Students Perceptions of Online Course
Quality. American Journal Of Distance Education, 31(3), 173.
doi:10.1080/08923647.2017.1316151
Lowe, J., & Gayle, V. (2007). Exploring the work/life/study balance: the
experience of higher education students in a Scottish further education college.
Journal Of Further & Higher Education, 31(3), 225.
doi:10.1080/03098770701424942