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College can be a pivotal time in a person’s life. It often presents an opportunity to move away from your hometown, make new friends, and start taking care of yourself for the first time. Though college presents a busy time, many students pursue part-time employment during their studies. This begs the question, is it a good idea to work part-time as a college student?
In general, working part-time as a college student is beneficial. It allows you to make an income, learn time management skills, and can even help improve your GPA. That said, working part-time adds another responsibility to an already busy schedule, and decisions regarding employment should be taken with care.
Ultimately, it’s important that you consider the types and amount of work you do, making sure that it integrates well into your life and objectives. Here are some key considerations for pursuing part-time employement.
Financial Benefits of Part-Time Work
Likely the key driver for working part-time as a student is to make money. Depending on your financial situation, this could be money to pay for your tuition/living expenses, groceries, beer money, or a combination of all of these.
Now as a part-time employee, you’re likely working 10-20 hours per week. Depending on the work you’re doing, you could be making anywhere from minimum wage to multiples of minimum wage for more specialized work (think tutoring). Because the amount you make can range, let’s set a ballpark of $15 per hour. This means that every week you can make $150-$300, and in a month, you’ll make $600-$1,200.
Now let’s consider the difference that can make. Let’s imaging this money is going towards your living expenses, with the alternative to this income being taking out student loans. Student loans interest rates can range from ~3% to up to 10%+. For this thought experiment let’s use 7.5%. Now the time to pay off student loans can vary widely, but lets use 10 years.
Let’s imagine you’re working throughout 4 years of undergrad, which represents 8 months of each year (ignoring the summer). This means that you’ll make between $19,200 and $38,400 throughout your undergrad (8 months x 4 years x $600-$1,200 per month). Now, if you borrowed that amount of money at 7.5%, and paid it back over for 10 years, here’s what you would pay:
| Amount Borrowed | Interest Paid | Total Amount |
| $19,200 | $8,148.89 | $27,348.89 |
| $38,400 | $16,297.78 | $54,697.78 |
By working and making money rather than borrowing it, you can save yourself between $8,000 and $16,000 dollars in interest. That is huge savings, and will mean you can start investing and building wealth earlier, rather than paying off student loans.
The weekly or monthly amount may not seem like much, but when you think about how much further ahead it will put you, it makes a huge difference.
Balancing Work and Academics
A major consideration of working part-time as a student is how it will affect your studies.
College is a unique time in that you’re almost entirely self-directed. You have scheduled class times and assignment due dates, but it’s up to you to get yourself to class and get your work done. You are responsible for setting aside time to complete work and study for tests.
Though adding a part-time job on top of your studies may seem like a big burden, it can help you develop time management skills. Parkinson’s Law states that work will expand to fill the time available. By restricting your available hours by working part-time, you will find you’re more effective. You learn to get work done more efficiently and prioritize tasks to ensure you get the most important things done.
You will also likely feel pride in being able to balance everything. It may not happen initially, but learning to balance your responsibilities will serve you again and again for the rest of your life.
Impact on Academic Performance
Surprisingly, working between 10 and 20 hours per week can actually have a positive impact on your GPA.
Students who are working part-time tend to be more productive and disciplined, as they are balancing more responsibilities. From my perspective, it’s likely a chicken and the egg scenario, where more responsible and disciplined students are seeking part-time employment, and working part-time improves responsibility and discipline. Working part-time is a great way to develop these key life skills.
I also find that momentum can make a huge difference on performance. When you’re continuously performing, it’s easy to keep going. However, if you have been taking it easy, and you all of a sudden need to step up, it’s much more difficult. Working while studying can keep you going at a good speed, ensuring your performance stays high.
However, working more than 20 hours per week can have detrimental effects on your GPA. When you work too much, you can stretch yourself too thin, having a negative impact on both performance and mental health. It’s important to find a balance that works for you. This may take some experimentation so be patient with yourself.
Taking Advantage of Work-Study Programs and Financial Aid
Work-Study Programs are financial-aid programs that provide post-secondary students with part-time positions based on need.
These programs often provide high-quality employment, on-campus, making them very accessible for students. Often, there is qualification criteria based on course load, financial need, GPA, etc. But this can be a great option for part-time employment, as the positions are often student friendly.
If you’re considering working while studying, look to see if your school has a work-study program.
Developing Time Management Strategies
To successfully work part-time during school, it’s necessary to develop strong time management skills.
If you start a part-time job, it’s important to do an audit of your responsibilities and time management skills. Consider the following questions:
- How many hours can I comfortably work?
- How can I shift around my schedule to fit in part-time work? This may mean sacrificing evenings or getting up earlier to do schoolwork.
- Do I have time management systems in place? If not, it’s important to develop them.
Time management systems may include to-do lists, a calendar, a prioritization system, or other tools that work for you.
Adding another responsibility is a great way to build time management skills but be careful not to stretch yourself too thin.
Challenges and Drawbacks
Alongside having many benefits, working part-time as a student can also have some drawbacks. Some potential drawbacks include:
- Sacrificing social time to work
- Additional stressor on top of busy school schedule
- Additional risk for exhaustion/burnout
- Less time to study
Typically, the advantages will outweigh the disadvantages, but it’s important to consider your specific situation.
Choosing the Right Part-Time Job
There are a lot of considerations when pursuing a part-time job as a student. They can include:
- Courseload
- Type of Job
- Other Time Commitments
- Location of Employment
- Experience and Connections
For more on the considerations, read here: 10 Things to Consider as a Student Seeking a Part-Time Job
Success Story – My Experience Working Part-Time During School
I can personally attest to how valuable it was for me to work part-time during my undergraduate degree.
During my engineering degree, I held a number of on-campus jobs. I primarily worked as a teaching assistant, meaning that I was responsible for helping a professor deliver a course. My responsibilities included attending weekly tutorials, designing the course project, and marking assignments.
This worked great for me, as it fit well into my schedule. The tutorial felt just like another class in my schedule, and was already on campus, so it was minimal effort to get there. The course project allowed me to work self-directed, so long as I had it done by a certain time. This meant I could juggle it alongside my schoolwork and other commitments. Similarly, the marking had to be done on my own time, at a scheduled cadence. This meant I could plan my weeks around when it needed to be done, and predictably balance it with my other assignments.
Ultimately, working part-time helped me build time management skills, and build connection with professors. It also allowed me to make good money. This helped reduce the amount I owed through student loans and gave me some additional spending money to have fun with friends. I am very thankful I got a job during my undergrad, and highly recommend it for others who are considering it.