So, for instance, a student with a lower course load could do well in school and work a job side by side one semester and feel confident about it. The next semester the same student could take a higher course load, fail to manage time effectively and get poor grades at the end of the semester. Existing research about the effects of working of GPAs seems to split between, it having a positive or a negative correlation. “analyses of prior U.S. Department of Education data collections have consistently found that working more than 15 to 20 hours per week (the amount of work varies slightly from study to study) has a negative impact on persistence and degree completion” (“WORKING THEIR WAY THROUGH COLLEGE”, 5). Although, it should be noted that another study found that students who work 10-19 hours week have the highest GPAs (DUNDES AND MARX, 5). The writers attributes this to increased time allocation to studying. Therefore we cannot make any conclusions about the effects of working on college GPA, but because the of research findings in both directions, it is highly likely the it depends from individual to individual and an average might not be a good way way of representing the results of any study in the field. Another important factor is the type of the student’s college. Community colleges are uniquely important for any research involving work while in college because of a disproportionate number of community college students working. “84 percent of community college students work while also attending college compared to 78 percent of students attending public comprehensive four- year colleges.” (Rouse, 4). College can be considered the primary activity of students enrolled four-year colleges, but about half of community college students report work as their primary activity (Rouse, 4). Also, community college classes are generally regarded to be more relaxed and less competitive compared to four year college courses making it easier to work with a similar course load. Internships and other jobs directly related to a student’s major have an
interesting effect on the student’s performance. “Students with the highest GPAs were more apt to have jobs that related to their post-graduate plans, their college studies, and to be employed for the purpose of gaining job experience.” (Marx, 5). Although we can be sure of this correlation we are not sure about the direction of causality. It could be that the most motivated student are naturally more proactive and hence are more likely to get such a job and also perform well in school. Hence we can not conclusively tell what effect working in such a job has on GPAs. There are, however, other advantages to working in such jobs. They boost the resume, provide industry experience and help build contacts that may later be useful in getting a job at graduation. Also, what we can say from the fact the students with such jobs have higher GPAs is that the jobs itself do not cause cause students GPAs to decline significantly and hence can be the best case situation for the student. There does, however seem to a specific number of hours a student can work without affecting performance in school. A study conducted by Kim Miller, PhD; Fred Danner, PhD; Ruth Staten, PhD for their research paper “Relationship of Work Hours With Selected Health Behaviors and Academic Progress Among a College Student Cohort” shows that student may work up to 20 hours a week without affecting performance in school. Other studies citied in this paper do not agree with the number of hours but they all do seem to agree that students can work at least some hours before it starts to affect their GPAs. We do need to realize, however, that just because a student can work, without affecting his grade, does not mean he should.
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