College can be not only a stressful time in any young persons life, but it is also an expensive time in every young persons life. Working full time while in college can lead to more stress and can lead to your grades suffering. Yet a part time job can help aide you with the ever rising financial costs associated with college life, such as room and board, books, and of course rising tuition costs. Financial aid from grants, loans and from our parents can only take us so far. A part time job besides giving us some more financial freedom can help us learn many of life’s skills that we will need after college is long over, such as the value of a hard earned dollar, time management due to juggling full time classes, building credit and financial responsibility, studying, the part time job and whatever semblance of a social life we can maintain throughout the process.

Some people claim you can’t work your way through college any more. While this is true due to the extremely high price of just one year of college tuition. If somehow you were to work enough hours at a good rate of pay to make enough to pay off your tuition, books, travel expenses and room and board, you would literally have no time left to go to classes let alone to study. it would take roughly about 50 hours per week for 50 weeks at minimum wage just to afford tuition, fees, room and board. The average student in college will pay about $100,000 dollars for 4 years of college, which could go higher depending on the major they are taking. In the 1980s you could pay for your college just working 10 hours per week, but now after years of federal subsidies this is no longer the case. Federal subsidies are a major reason why college costs have rising over the years, despite the fact that the federal subsidies were designed to lower the cost of tuition. The colleges basically have had no incentive to cut costs or make things more affordable, instead it has led to higher costs. Students today are paying a much higher share of the cost than students 40 years ago. Even after financial aid comes into play most students end up needing about $9500 dollars more then their student aide provides, hence the need for many students to seek a part time job to offset college costs.

Yet college students can and do ease the burden by taking on part time jobs. Some jobs actually do quite well for college students. Jobs that many college students take advantage of include night desk clerk jobs, such as at hotels, as these type of jobs have plenty of down time to sneak some studying in while on the job. Overnight shifts especially on the weekend are a favorite of college students. Some college students, the ones who are extremely book smart utilize their learning skills by offering tutoring sessions to other struggling college students, which re-enforces the knowledge they already need so that it becomes second hand to them while offering some much needed capital. Some colleges offer students on campus jobs, such as at the student book store and the cafeteria, which has the added benefit of keeping you on campus so the next class is not far away nor are student facilities for use after the job is over. To maintain good grades you should work no more than 20 to 24 hours per week at the max. Anything more than this and your grades and study time could suffer, according to major studies done on the subject.

There are benefits to maintaining a job throughout your college years. You think less of the money you spend that is given to you via financial aid or from your parents, but when your earning a mere $10 an hour you think twice before parting with your hard earned cash. You gain a better understanding of the value of every dollar you earn. You will also learn how to budget and how to pay bills on time or before they are due, as your income may vary with part time work. You will also learn time management skills that will stick with you for the rest of your life, because balancing class, work, studying and a social life is not easy, in fact it takes quite a bit of skill to pull off, and this will set you up for great success in life.