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| source: google.com |
Nowadays, we often see many college students chose to work while in
college. They usually work in part-time, about ten to fifteen hours per week (Perna,
2013). Because it is part-time, they usually work as a shopkeeper, or waiter /
waitress, teacher in private course or helping to run family business. These
students also have various reasons, such as to pay the college bills, to look
for experience before work, to apply what they have gotten in college itself
and many other reasons.
Not only the college students who work, but also many employees go
to college in order to study. By being well-educated employee and possesses
higher level of education, it can increase their salary in their work. Yes, we
all know, education is really influencing the salary of a worker, beside the
experiences and skills. Employees who
graduated from college
earn more than
those who graduated
from high school.
As explanation above, Orszag (2001) classified students who work
into two groups : the students who are working in order to pay the college
bills and the workers who are studying. Meanwhile, those who are working itself
can also be categorized into two, full-time workers (thirty five hours or above
per week) and part-time workers (those who work for only ten to fifteen hours
per week). Moreover, the relation between job and the academic environment can make
various effects.
This kind of routines can affect the students performance during
the class. They can be well-motivated to study in the college or the opposite,
will be lazy to study because of their routines. Orszag (2001) found that
full-time worker might disturb their performance on their studies. It is
because their job is their main activity and study is sideline activity. Meanwhile,
students who work for ten to fifteen hours per week or fewer than it have
slightly better GPA than the others. Why? Because, part-time job basically used
to displace unnecessary activities, such as watching tv, reading comic, etc.
Despite of that, by working full-time or part-time and on-campus or off-campus,
makes students can manage their time more proper than the others (non-worker
students).
Full-Time Versus Part-Time and On-Campus Versus Off-Campus
The effects of working to the college students determine by whether
they work full-time or part-time and on-campus or off-campus (Orszag, 2001). Orszag
said that by working full-time can decrease the students’ academic performance,
while working part-time can encourage them to the academic activity. Also,
students who work on-campus are more interested to stay in college rather than
those who work off-campus.
Orszag (2001) found out that students who work full-time or studying
workers get negative effects to their academic, because they spent more hours
in work instead of in college. Then, Ehrenberg and Sherman (1987) found out
that students who work full-time at off-campus job, were less likely graduated
than those who are not working. A survey result leads that working foull-time
is the reason to students to be dropped out of college. The dropout students
were asked to state their main reason why they were drop out, 20.8 percent
reported that part-time job is the reason and 11.5 percent stated that
full-time job as a reason.
Another survey result found out how work limits students’ academic
performance (from NCES). 40 percent reported that they have limited class
schedule, 36 percent reported that it caused their class choices decrease, 30
percent reported that they could not freely take classes and 26 percent
reported that they have limited time to access the library. By this
limitations, working students can not easily and freely take and chose classes
they need to fulfil their credits. Furthermore, they can not get higher grades
for each lectures. They also do not have anough time to finish their homework
or assigment.
Meanwhile, Orszag also found that working can make students manage
their time better than those who are non-worker students. They, at least,
decrease some of unproductive activities such as watching tv, gaming online,
etc. This condition forces them to manage their routines between work and study
and this become an advantage for them.
Another issue is that on-campus job is slightly better than
off-campus job. Tinto (1987) said that part-time and on-campus job can improve
the students ability of social and intellectual to the community at campus
area. Working on-campus also brings the students into communication with
faculty outside the classroom, which can be a significant fovor in retaining
students. Moreover, Ehrenberg and Sherman (1987) said that on-campus job has
possitive effect which probably caused by the job is more career-related to the
student’s academic program. Student who work on-campus has access to campus
facilities, such as library, which is probably another advantage for them and
more likely make them stay in campus longer.
Debby Kaylor, director of the Boise State University Career Center,
believes that on-campus job offers an opportunity to improve the skill of
employment which can help the students after graduation. She added that the
students can improve their skills on communication, teamwork, time management
and customer service during on-campus job. Eventhough off-campus job offers
something better such as good income, but by working on-campus, students will
still have more time to manage their academic and studying rather than
off-campus job. It is possibly because an off-campus job consumes more hours
and it makes students do not have enough time for study.
Conclusion
Working students are now becoming a hot topic in academic world.
Not only those students who work, but also those employee who study. Their
routines can be a benefit for them as long as it is not consumes a lot of their
time. They possibly can manage their time by the condition, but we can not
guarantee that they can manage it well if they spend more hours for work. As
the result mentioned above, working students must know their portion of work
and study, if they force to work full-time (thirty five hours per week) they
are much more risky to get drop-out or miss their class. Meanwhile, for those
who work part-time (ten to fifteen hours per week) are more likely to get
possitive effect academicly as their work not consuming a lot of their time.
Chosing on-campus or off-campus job is also influencing their academic
performance. On-campus job helps students to gain emploment skill, yet the schedule
is not tight. While off-campus job offers better exchange such as higher
income, but the schedule needs a lot of time.
References
Orszag, Jonathan M., Peter R. Orszag, Diane M. Whitmore. 2001. Learning And Earning : Working In College.
US : Upromise, Inc.
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Profil of Undergraduates in U.S.
Postsecondary Educational Institution: 1995 – 1996. NCES 98-084.
Tinto, Vincent. 1987. Leaving College : Rethinking the Causes and Cures of Student
Attrition. Chicago : University of Chicago Press.
Ehrenberg, Ronald and Daniel Sherman. 1987. Employment While in
College, Academic Achievement and Postcollege Outcomes : A Summary of Results.
Winter : Journal of Human Resources pp 1-21.
Perna, Laura W. 2013. Understanding the Working College Student.
http://www.aaup.org/article/understanding-working-college-student.
Lucier, Kelci Lynn.
2012. Consider Pros and Cons of Working
in College. http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2012/09/13/c.
Special Notes :
- Made at 12 January 2015
- This article was designed to fulfil the assignment of Intermediate Writing during my 3rd semester at University of Muhammadiyah Gresik