I might fail my classes, but at least I have a paycheque

Being a full-time university student is hard. Having a job and being a student is even harder. 

I often find myself choosing between submitting an assignment on time, studying for an exam or doing a task for my job. Most of the time I take the late penalty or get a bad grade on a quiz before I even consider neglecting my job. 

Readings and ungraded assignments aren’t even part of the equation for me. I simply don’t have time for them. 

It’s not because I don’t care about my grades — academics have always been a priority in my life. Before university, I’d never received a grade lower than a B+, and I cried when I got my first C. 

As much as I want my grades to improve, it feels like an impossible task when I also have to manage so many other responsibilities.

Every week I attend five three-hour classes, work at least 20 hours, commute via the bus, cook, buy groceries and do housework. I feel like I don’t have enough hours in the week to do it all. Something always slips through the cracks. 

I need to skip class so I can make an editing deadline. I need to finish one more article before I start an essay. I need to neglect sleep, fun and academics to finish my work. 

Even after I ignore every aspect of my life to meet a deadline, more work is always on my desk for the next day. 

This is the reality for many other Dalhousie University students. The Dalhousie Gazette received 211 respondents on an affordability survey for students living in Halifax. Of those respondents, 64.9 per cent of have jobs, with 42.6% working over 10 hours a week.

48.2 per cent of students with jobs say they have skipped class to work, and 74.1 per cent have neglected their schoolwork for their job. 

Audrey Benneyworth, a fourth-year environmental science student at Dalhousie University, works two jobs on top of her schoolwork. She says she submits an assignment late at least once a month because of her job. 

“It’s not easy for me to back out of a shift or get coverage for it,” says Benneyworth. “I’m stuck in the situation where I have to go to work, and I have something that’s due. Do I stay up all throughout the night and sacrifice my sleep and well-being, or do I submit it the next day?”

Having a job while being a student means making constant little sacrifices. After spending my entire day in classes and working, the idea of losing a few hours of sleep to work on an assignment feels necessary. 

Although health specialists recommend adults get between seven and nine hours of sleep per night, studies show most university students aren’t getting the rest they need.

When I have to choose between my studies, health and work, it feels like the third always takes priority. 

Some nights after I get home from a long meeting, I feel so tired I can barely look at the unfinished assignments on my computer. Yet I will stay up until I finish them because I can’t afford to fail my classes. 

At the start of the semester, one of my professors told the class that when she was in university, she’d take meticulous notes and review them almost every day. What she doesn’t understand is that most students are in a completely different reality from hers. 

When balancing a job, school and responsibilities means I can’t get the right amount of sleep I need every night, how am I supposed to spend hours a day reviewing notes that aren’t even graded? 

Balancing student life while working becomes even harder when you feel the constant need to prove yourself at work. Hazem Hussein, a third-year management student, says there have been times he neglected schoolwork to stay late at his job.

“I wanted to make myself look good at work by staying longer,” he says.

Many workplaces create a culture where employees are expected to go above and beyond by starting early, staying late or picking up extra shifts. This creates a burden on students who not only have to adapt to these unrealistic expectations, but also need to balance them with classes and schoolwork. 

When students depend on a paycheque to afford basic necessities, it’s easy to neglect schoolwork to meet these unrealistic standards.

Although I do struggle to balance my job and schoolwork, I know I’m one of the lucky ones. My parents fully cover my tuition and pay a portion of my rent. This lets me have one part-time job related to my major.

Many people around me don’t have that privilege. I know students who have to balance multiple jobs on top of their studies. I honestly don’t know how they do it. 

Knowing this is the reality for many students, universities need to create accommodations for those employed so they can have the same opportunities to succeed academically as those who are unemployed. Many of these changes are easily achievable.

By granting employed students extensions on assignments or decreasing the amount of mandatory readings, students could have the opportunity to actually succeed while also making enough money to pay their bills.