Cramming for that latest exam, studying stacks of flashcards and poring over thousands of pages of assigned reading isn’t as indicative of the college experience as it once was. According to a study by UC researchers, students are studying less than ever.
Although gut reaction tends to paint this as a problem that needs solving, I’m hesitant to agree. I’m sure many people remember being dismayed to hear during their orientation that as UCLA students, we were expected to study two hours for every hour of class time we had. That estimation could leave some students with more than 24 hours of studying every week.
The research, conducted by Philip Babcock of UC Santa Barbara and Mindy Marks of UC Riverside, indicates that students today spend 14 hours a week on average studying. Not so shockingly, students living in 1961 studied a lot more than we do, spending roughly 24 hours a week studying ““ just the amount of time that universities tell us we should be studying now.
Instead, today’s students busy themselves with meaningful extracurricular activities, whether it be internships, part-time jobs, or participation in clubs and other organizations ““ resume builders which are arguably more important than studying. In these trying economic times, students are recognizing that putting your GPA on a resume is not as important as work experience.
UCLA needs to do more to make this reality clearer to incoming students. Studying is by no means an unimportant activity, but at the end of the day, we pay thousands of dollars for a diploma that does not guarantee us a job.
The idea that students are studying less, then, should come as no surprise.
In the current job market, studying has become one of the least efficient ways to ensure success. Internships, part-time jobs, and other career-oriented, non-academic activities seem to be the intelligent alternative.
The university should, as it already does for some majors, require that students complete a substantial internship to graduate. Failing that, UCLA ought to make up its mind.
Does it want to press professors to make classes so tedious that a student must spend 24 hours of studying a week to do as well as we’re doing now?
A more plausible solution would be to impart upon the student that though studying enough to do well in your classes is important, equally important is landing an internship or part-time job. Unfortunately, the importance placed on studying is symptomatic of the entire higher education system of America.
Students are stuck trying to meet the goals of studying set by universities while at the same time trying to ensure they can succeed past their bachelor’s degree.
Dongning Zhang, a fourth-year neuroscience student, said she studies eight to 10 hours per week.
“I would study more, but I also have to spend time at my internship and on the research I’m doing so that I can get into a good med school. I sacrifice studying time so that I can boost my resume for medical schools,” Zhang said.
According to the study, about half of college seniors spend 10 hours or fewer studying and more than 65 percent of students have a B+ GPA or higher, according to the 2009 College Senior Survey conducted by The Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA.
This doesn’t mean that students aren’t being productive. More than 50 percent of seniors reported having an internship ““ something that would no doubt take time away from studying.
Babcock and Marks conclude their research by stating that there is an endemic problem of lack of effort in U.S. colleges both by professors and by students, but I come to a much different conclusion.
Students are spending less time studying because studying isn’t as instrumental to their success as it used to be. It may sound obvious to college students, but college administrations around the country seem to be stuck in 1961.
Instead of focusing on that next multiple-choice test or dry reading assignment, students are increasingly focused, as they ought to be, on activities that will either land them that dream job or get them into the graduate, medical or law school of their choosing.