(Quotes by students: M=Male F= Female)
College students often have many responsibilities and obligations other than school. Many students work full or part-time jobs, take care of family members, raise children, and have friends and other relationships that need their on-going attention. Students provided specific examples of some barriers they faced with competing demands of family responsibilities.
· “Like me, because there’s no time, I sometimes have to take my kids to the doctor or go to work, so I have to sometimes leave other things to come to school” (F).
· “I have three kids, and I need to work, and my husband, he’s had some health problems so that’s been kind of hard not working and going to school” (F).
· “I would stay up late after I helped them with anything they needed help with, as late as I had to in order to finish my work” (F).
· “The situation that I have is with my kids. A lot of the times I have to wait until I put them to sleep… and then to study after I put them to sleep, and I’m tired, and it’s hard for me to even read” (M).
· “Figuring out, like, when I have time to study and days that I could get my baby sitter was hard, so when I had to come the whole week to school it was hard for me because I didn’t really have time to study” (F).
Competing Demands of Work
(Quotes by students: M=Male F= Female)
Students described work-related distractions and issues they experienced while attending BC.
· “Because I run my own business, it does affect you in the way where like if parts don’t come in and your contracts are about to expire… sometimes you don’t even want to think about things like that” (F).
· “… My job always varied. So it ended up becoming a problem, you know, having to figure out how to do school, how to do work, so I ended up having to quit my job” (F).
· “Like I want to take classes here and at the same time work part time, but it’s hard to find jobs” (F).
Competing Demands of Social Activities
(Quotes by students: M=Male F= Female)
Students attending college usually have to balance school and study time with time spent with friends and other people they socialize with in their lives. Scheduling time for social activities is a barrier shared by several students.
- “It’s kind of hard to make time for your friends because if you’re open, they’re busy, and if they’re open, you’re busy” (M).
- “Yeah, because my friends, they'd work all morning, and they'd be off by noon, and I'd have noon classes, and they'd be like, "Hey man, just come over and chill out" (M)
- “I don’t see my friends anymore. A lot dropped out” (F).
- “… especially when the person doesn’t understand where you’re at in your life, and you’re in school and you’re not and they’re all, ‘Oh, let’s do this and do that,’ and you’re like, ‘No, I can’t. I have homework’ ” (F).
Overcoming Barrier 1: Managing Competing Demands of Multiple Responsibilities
(Quotes by students: M=Male F= Female)
Although it may seem difficult or even impossible some days, there are several ways college students can learn to manage their time when faced with multiple responsibilities and obligations involving family, work, and their social life. Some workshops and classes offered at BC can help students learn to manage their time and develop stronger study skills habits. Students shared some strategies that helped them to manage demands of multiple responsibilities. Common strategies students shared to manage family demands were (a) to make school a scheduling priority and (b) to use available time wisely.
Strategies to cope with job-related issues included (a) to apply for set hours, (b) to schedule work around school schedule, and (c) to get a campus job. To manage scheduling demands for social activities, students suggested (a) to plan and (b) to schedule social events around school responsibilities.
Managing Family Responsibilities
(Quotes by students: M=Male F= Female)
Students shared strategies for managing family obligations and school responsibilities. They said it was important to plan and make school a scheduling priority and to use ALL available time wisely.
- “When the kids are at school and you’re not at school, you should use that time whenever possible” (F).
- “What I did was I decided just to get all my classes on Mondays and Wednesdays or either Tuesdays or Thursdays and just try to do my homework while I was at school” (F).
- “I do have to take care of the kids, my nieces. I just kind of plan the day ahead and find out what I need to do throughout the day in order to get my stuff done” (M).
- “I would stay up late after I helped them with anything they needed help with, as late as I had to in order to finish my work” (F).
Managing Work-Related Responsibilities
(Quotes by students: M=Male F= Female)
Students who have to balance working and going to school can also benefit from reading about how other students in their same situation have learned to manage work-related responsibilities. Students shared several strategies that helped them manage job-related issues in order to achieve at BC: (a) apply for set job hours, (b) make school scheduling priority, and (c) get a campus job.
- “When I talked to my boss, first things first, she has to understand that you’re going to school and that should be your first priority” (M).
- “I got really lucky and blessed because now I have a job here on campus. I have classes in the morning, then I have school, and then I have classes at night, and it works out really well” (F).
- “Now school comes first because later on in life it’s going to be better, so school, family, and then work because work is always going to be there regardless, so I put school first (M).
- “They have all these programs here, like work-study and stuff, so I was able to work part-time at school, go to my classes, and in between an hour or two to study” (F).
- “I make it a point to find only a job that allows me to have an easy, laid back situation, so I can study at work” (F).
- “The job dates that I worked were two to six, and it never changed. In the morning, I could come to school and then in the afternoon work” (F).
- “I try to get all my classes in the morning and go to work in the afternoon” (M).
Managing Social Life Issues
(Quotes by students: M=Male F= Female)
Many college students feel a great deal of time pressure from friends and other relationships. Often, people in college students’ lives do not understand why college students have to spend so much time doing homework, studying, and attending classes. It is important for college students to help friends and others understand their new college schedule and responsibilities. It is also important for college students to make sure they are planning their lives around their school obligations if they want to achieve academic successes. Students described strategies for effectively scheduling social events around school demands: (a) plan and (b) schedule social events around school schedule.
- "Work before pleasure is do all my homework first before I go do whatever it is I want to do and have fun (M).
- “Realize the things that are most important for you to do first and then those that can wait” (F).
- “I prioritize” (F).
- “I had to really try and plan out my day, and I literally sat down, and I wrote hour per hour what I was to do, and I tried to stick to it” (F).
- “When I know something is going to come up, I try to do everything ahead of time. I try to plan things or try to write a list of what I’m going to do” (F).
- “I think that personal relationships have a lot to do with planning out your day and how many hours a week you should spend with homework (F).
- “I'd be like, ‘No,’ and then that just put my friends off to the side, and that was just one of the best choices I made, just putting school first” (M).
