A New Age of Learning

As a 19 year old Freshman in college who has worked since I was 16, I am interested in how much dedicating my time outside of classes to work instead of a club or organization will alter my overall college experience. Will I graduate and feel that I missed out because I wasn't able to take advantage of everything that is offered here at San Francisco State University?

Many of us are told that college is really a time to get involved, to join that sorority or fraternity, take part in that club or student association, or join a sports team to make connection and meet new people. My overall goal for this blog is to do some research, and possibly interview different mall employees who are also college students to see how working while being enrolled in school full time can effect the overall expected "college experience." What I would like to discover is, does dedicating most of your free time to working versus extracurricular campus activities have a long-term effect on what you take from college overall? Do students who have worked their way through college feel that they have missed out on the going with the flow vibe of college in exchange for making money. I question this, because many of my classmates intend to do internships and study abroad and do things that are related to their major so that they are much more ahead of others graduating college in their same field of study. 

Another thing that I am hoping to learn more about, is how much of a difference it can make on your grades to work or not to work while in college? From experience I know that it is very difficult at times to stay focused on both school and work, making sure that you are getting assignments turned in on time and attending classes. Especially as the semester goes on and coursework for your classes picks up as does the amount of hours that you are given at work. Does working while in college affect student's GPA in the end?

In a 2011 census taken by the United States Census Bureau, in 2011 about nineteen percent of college students who were enrolled in school full time were also employed full-time. It's this rise the amount of college students working, that sparked my interest and made me decide to start a blog about it. Do college students in today's society benefit from working by increasing the connections they make, or would we benefit just as much from joining fraternities and sororities and making connections through those organizations instead? Joining a fraternity or a sorority would also lend a hand in giving college students that "college experience" of having fun and making connections.

Throughout the next few weeks, I would like to take a look into different aspects of the changing social norm of today's college students. Whereas before it was not very common that college students would also work while pursuing their degree, in today's day and age, it's very likely you'll hear students talking about the stress of having to split their time between working and studying.