Working and going to school can create stress but it can also help grades

SPEARFISH, S.D. (KOTA) - More than half of the US population has some kind of continuing education a college degree or a post secondary certificate.

But the stress of attaining that goal, often while working to pay the bills, can take a toll on students.

With the cost of upper education schooling continuing to rise, many students look to scholarships or grants to help afford that tuition, but some students take a different route by getting jobs.

“For first-year students roughly 46% of our students are working, when we get up to seniors it’s more like 76%,” said Vice President for Enrollment Management, John Allred.

While working and attending classes can put quite a bit of stress on a person, Allred says doing both can help students become more academically successful.

“As they look at students who are working while they go to school, if students will work up to about 20 hours a week they find them more academically successful. They’re coming from high school where their time is highly organized, and then they get to college and they don’t have that rigidity in their schedule. Students that work more than 20 hours it becomes more challenging to balance their schedules to put in the time to their academics and focus on keeping those good grades,” continued Allred.

Allred says there’s a balance, working too much while attending classes can cause students to feel overwhelmed, damaging a student’s grades and social life.

“And even if a student thinks there’s no way I’ll qualify for aid, it is worth their time to go in and fill it out even if it’s just as a safety net to have that possibility,” said Allred.

Last year, Black Hills State University gave out 9.7 million dollars in aid, including scholarships and Pell grants.

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