Amber
Greenwood
Prof. Slobod
English 113B
7 February 2012
Prof. Slobod
English 113B
7 February 2012
With the way the economy
is, it is now anything new to see college students working or looking for work.
Recent statics show that 70–80 percent of students work while they are
enrolled. Students are constantly looking for a place to work nowadays because
there are so many things that they need to pay for, especially the college
students. There are numerous reasons that students work: extra money, help
bring in family income and pay for school. Students today feel the necessary
need for a job due to fact they are now living in the real world and dealing
with different matters everyday. The most important thing a student needs in
today’s society is MONEY! Most people feel that undergraduates who work are
taking away from time when they need to be studying and concentrate on their
classes.
Teen jobs can be a distraction to school but they can
also be a resourceful way to help college students out. The usefulness of these
jobs outweighs their distractions because they help students gain access to
money when they need it, learn time management, and how to become more
independent. “First generation students, students of color, and students from
low-income backgrounds have become a mainstay in the growing mix in college
today” (Tuttle). In today’s society
there is an abundance of young adults who wish to go to college, but they may
not have the financial support.
Even though there is financial aid available for all
students who qualify, financial aid just might not be enough to cover all
expenses; then for those students who wish to go to college and don’t qualify
for financial, they still need money to pay for tuition. For these students
those teen jobs help them pay for school and other expenses. “As noted,
upper-income students are just as likely to work as their lower-income peers.
However, the primary reasons that those students work offer for working vary by
dependency status and income (Tuttle).”
In Ashley Hall’s “Student Essay:
Broke and bored: The Summer,” (102) she describes summer jobs as tedious and
useless. For a lot of college students, summer jobs become more useful because all
that money that they were working for builds up, they are then able to pay for
anything school related i.e. books, meal plan, housing, and tuition. For
instance, students who don’t qualify for financial aid may have to get a job to
earn extra money for their tuition and books. For students that don’t have
money to pay for school and books they still need transportation to and from
school, so they would have to get a job to save up for a car so they will have
a way to get to their classes on time. These jobs that Hall describes may not
help high school students but I’m pretty sure that they helped plenty of
college students.
However, college students who do
find it necessary to work during the course of the semester, are not aware how
extremely difficult it would be. Working while in school will not only bring
distractions but it will limit class schedule, limit choice of classes, limit
the number of units he/she would like to take, and limit their access to
facilities. “The majority of students who work do not think that having a job
imposes limitations, but a sizable minority does indicate that their jobs limit
some aspects of their college experience” (King). Statics have shown that there
is a vast majority of college students who drop out because of a part-time job
that they had during their college year. I have seen family members drop-out of
college because they had too many distractions because of their teen job. Those
students who do drop-out rarely make an effort to go back to school and finish
out their education. The reason those students drop-out is because they have too
much on their plate and aren’t able to manage their time correctly.
In Addition, Amitai Etzioni’s
“Working at McDonald’s” (315), Etzioni feels that McDonald’s is a job bad for
young adults “I refer to the jobs teenagers undertake, mass producing these
choice items.” She believes that jobs are nothing but a mere extension from a
lemonade stand. Some of the jobs in the fast-food chain may not be the best
working environments because they don’t really give you anything to learn from.
“At first, such jobs may seem right out of the Founding Fathers’ education
manual for how to bring up self-reliant, work-ethic-driven, productive
youngster. But in fact, these jobs undermine school attendance and involvement,
impart few skills that will be useful in later life” (316). These jobs can
bring down the involvement in students because the student would be so busy
going to work that he/she won’t be able to participate in anything activities
or clubs affiliated with the school. These jobs that Etzioni that students work
bring down the his/her(s) attendance in class because the student will start
missing school because they had to work or they are just too tired from work to
go to school.
“About one-quarter of full-time students work full time”
(King). Students who work full-time while in school full-time are pushing their
selves too hard because their trying to over due things. Sooner or later these
students will not be able to take it because its tremendously difficult to go
to school full-time and work full-time, in this case that means that they are
probably working everyday and missing classes to make sure they will go to
work. In which these students probably have no time to sit down and study for
their classes which will put them behind and eventually they will end up
failing their classes. It is better to work part-time while in school full-time
because they are able to still have time for their studies.
Furthermore, due to the fact
that these jobs can be a distraction for students, students must learn
responsibility and time management. Every college student knows that when they
start college have to become responsible for their work and they must learn
time management and how to joggle all of their classes and other activities.
When adding a job to a college student’s list to their load they have to take
on even more responsibility because they have to make sure that they keep that
job. Undergraduate students who work learn alot of responsibility during their
semesters because they not only have to stay on top of their work at school and
make sure they don’t slack but they also have to stay on top of their work as
well. These students learn how to manage their time and organize their selves
so they wouldn’t end up failing a class or getting fired from work. Most people
think this a hard to task, but to those students who do it everyday they
believe that it is easy if you stay focused and don’t play around.
Moreover, in college, students’ learn how to be more independent and more
responsible. Student’s must learn that they are no longer little kids but now
young adults getting ready for the real world and he lessons they must learn.
When working while in college student’s then have to be more aware of their
circumstances because not only do they have a job that they have to attend to
but they also have classes to attend to as well. Student’s who work tends to
become more organized with their schedules. Those student’s mature more as they
learn how to manage all of these different aspects of their college experience
and how to joggle all of these things that they are dealing with. Since these
students’ joggle all of these different things they prioritize and make sure
that they have a day or two to make sure that all their work is done because
they refuse to fall off.
Nevertheless, the student has the choice to see their teen-job as a
distraction. The students who do see it as a distraction apparently do not know
how to manage their time and are not as responsible as their counterparts. It
is simple to be able to manage how your time is spent on work and on school,
all students’ have to do is prioritize and organize their new college lives to
adjust to their conditions. College student’s capable of not only working and
going to their classes but to be involved in their school.
There is an abundance of students who work because of numerous reasons
while in college. “In 2009, about 41 percent of full-time and 76 percent of
part-time college students ages 16–24 were employed” (Unknown). These
percentages show that these students are able to work and go to school. Lastly, teen jobs
have many different negative aspects to them, for college students they seem to
be more positive then negative. Since college students have so many financial
obligations, it is beneficial for them to get a job. The jobs that college
students choose to work help them pay for the things they need so that those
students can be successful in their college career. In the end, it is up to student to see if
working will bring them distraction.
Works Citied
"The
Condition of Education - Contexts of Postsecondary Education - Finance -
College Student Employment - Indicator 45 (2011)." National Center
for Education Statistics (NCES) Home Page, a Part of the U.S.
King, Jacqueline
E. "WORKING THEIR WAY THROUGH COLLEGE: STUDENT EMPLOYMENT AND ITS IMPACT
ON THE COLLEGE EXPERIENCE." ACE | Home. May 2006. Web. 07 Feb. 2012.
<http://www.acenet.edu/AM/Template.cfm?template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm>
Skwire, Sarah E., and David Skwire.
"Student Essay: Broke and Bored: The Summer. “Writing with a Thesis.
Boston , MA : Wadsworth
Skwire, Sarah E.,
and David Skwire. "Working at McDonalds’." Writing with a Thesis. Boston , MA :
Wadsworth
Tuttle, Tina.
"College Students Working: The Choice Nexus." Http://www.indiana.edu. Apr. 2005. Web.
<http://www.indiana.edu/~ipas1/workingstudentbrief.pdf>.
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