How Kalamazoo College Students Work

Kalamazoo College students are known for their busy schedules and academically-geared attitude, but how does this affect their work habits? The findings of this study reveal that, indeed, Kalamazoo students are much more focused on academics and less on working than the average American college student, working an average of only 8.2 hours per week as opposed to the 30 hours per week national average. However, this does not necessarily mean that Kalamazoo students are not as hard-working. On the contrary, a majority of students work while enrolled: 64.3%, a number that isn't significantly different than the national average. Personally, I believe the choice to work only a handful of hours per week is a beneficial one, especially for Kalamazoo students; many studies have shown that working more than 10 or 15 hours per week is likely to be detrimental to academic performance. Another important finding is that as GPA increases, the average number of hours worked per week decreases, with only one notable exception: a very high-achieving student who works 12.5 hours per week and maintains a 4.0 GPA.

This relationship is probably due to students with a higher GPA working less in order to be able to allocate plenty of time to do schoolwork. An alternate explanation might be that students who work more hours have less time for school, however I believe this is unlikely; all but one of the respondents indicated that they do not believe work interferes with their academic performance whatsoever.