Keene State Owls still struggle with balancing their social lives and academics through their college experience.
Many college students, especially at Keene State College, have still been figuring out how to balance these throughout their four years here.
It becomes hard for some students during the weekends, especially on ‘Thirsty Thursday.’
While some are serious about their school work, there are others here who find their social lives more important.
Students at KSC spoke out on how they balance their social lives and academics.
Sophomore at KSC, Kelly Hanley, said that she tries to find balance between the two, which has been challenging for her.
Hanley said, “It is easy to pick your social life over academics.”
Hanley continued, “If you have a social life it’s hard to balance out academics. You’re encourage more to party than study.”
According to Hanley, the best way to compromise both social life and academics is to have two different groups of friends.
One for parties and the other for studying.
Sarah Morrison/ equinox Staff
Sophomore at KSC, Michelle Gill, agrees with Hanley.
“It is a social norm to party, but college is more important to do well academically,” Gill explained, “I do my school-work during the week and party on the weekends. It is very hard for me to do my school work because I procrastinate.”
Sophomore at KSC, Julia Gardner she said she believes that doing school work from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. is a great way to succeed academically.
“After an hour or so stop and take a break away from the work as a reward for yourself. Write down all your assignments down and due dates. I found that color coding folders and notebooks are helpful.” Gardner explained, “Usually on the weekends it’s easier for me to find the balance between schoolwork and social life.”
From doing these things Gardner said, “Spring semester [of my first year] I did well [enough] on two of my health sciences classes and environmental class that I am eligible to be a tutor for those classes because I received a B or higher.”
According to students at KSC, most people in college may have at least one challenging class.
They either pass with flying colors, withdraw from the class or fail it.
Hanley’s personal experience changed the way she views her academics here at KSC.
“My first semester [of my first year] I wasn’t serious about my classes due to the amount of freedom I wasn’t used to. Instead of getting a [high] GPA I got into trouble through partying, which sent me back a semester in the spring. I have learned to put my academics first through that experience,” Hanley said.
Gill attributes something similar, but a bit different from what Hanley experienced.
Gill explained, “My first semester [of my first year] I was partying a lot and failed a class. Spring semester I became more serious with my academics and focused more on myself.”
Gardner shed some light on the struggles of her first year’s sprng semester.
“The most challenging class I overcame was Anatomy & Physiology 1 because there was a ton of workload and memorization. It was important for me to stay on top of everything.”
Gardner suggests that people who are still struggling to balance their school work should seek help from the Aspire program.
They help college students get organized with school work and provide tutors for those how need the extra help.
Leigha Hall can be contacted at lhall@kscequinox.com