A lot of people on here seem to be really hard-working and achieving. I was wondering, especially with the added rigor of college classes, what your lives are like outside the classroom. What clubs or sports, if any, are you in? How many hours a week do you socialize? Do you have any downtime, to just relax? How many hours a week do you sleep?
I sleep 8 hours a night because I prioritize it (I also don’t have classes until 9:30 am). I’m in a club sport that has 3 mandatory hours of practice a week and 3 additional optional hours. I also am in a choir, which is also a 3 hour time commitment. It really depends on the weekend because papers and exams come in waves, but I would say I haven’t really had time to socialize beyond getting dinner with my roommate in the dining hall since the middle of October, and likely won’t until finals in December.
I would say my current social life is pretty nonexistent, but I kind of knew that coming in given that the school i attend is so rigorous.
@Qwerty568, what college do you attend?
@jerseygirl188 Tufts University. Not a party school, not a work hard play hard school. A large portion of students (36 percent) live off campus and many kids go home on the weekends which I would say contributes to some of the issues.
I’m at Northeastern studying CS. I would say I spend a decent deal of time doing things other than academics while still achieving what I want at a high level.
Socially, I have a best friend that I practically eat at least one meal with a day and usually chill with as well. On weekends I’ll usually go to either a small party or hangout and have a casual drink with friends. I’ve got a small circle that I’ll hang out with regularly anytime, from weekdays to weekends. Living in Boston, I go out into the city pretty regularly, usually with friends. Usually I have a day I spend inside a weekend, either to work or just relax and have a day to myself.
I don’t really do clubs, but I go rock climbing usually weekly if not more and do intramural flag football as well, just for fun.
I usually work downtime into my schedule as a priority, usually before bed at least. Time spent reading or posting to CC is often in that category.
Sometimes sleep loses out, but overall I say I average 7-8 hours with an occasional 5 hours sprinkled in.
All of that said, it’s only possible through strong time management and awareness of priorities. It’s certainly possible, but it takes true work. I have a packed Google calendar that doesn’t just have classes and homework but my entire life, from birthday parties to meals with others to even sometimes scheduled days in.
So I’m in my third year of college studying Political Science and Religious Studies (i.e. lots of reading and writing intensive coursework) – I would say that I have a good balance between work, sleep, and play.
Sleep:
Like another user said, I prioritize sleep pretty often, so I’ll usually get at least 7, if not 8 hours, a night. Weekends usually are closer to 9-10. I am not the sort of person that can function without enough sleep - I cannot focus in the slightest and it can be pretty agonizing. Sometimes I’ll take a late afternoon nap as well.
School:
I haven’t had that many issues maintaining good grades - I have a 4.0 GPA and I’ve rarely had to pull all-nighters (though there was this one essay…) My time management skills aren’t perfect, but I almost always manage to put away enough time to dedicate to my assignments and studying. Only time I’ve felt overwhelmed by my classes is when my inner masochist convinced me to register for graduate courses one semester. I survived… but just barely, lol. I should note, however, that I don’t attend a particularly rigorous school and there’s likely very little grade deflation going on, so that probably works in my favor GPA-wise.
Work:
I have an internship that’s 10 hours per week and I can handle it without issue. The internship has a lot of down time and is generally very chill, so sometimes I can do homework there - kill two birds with one stone. Along with my internship, I also work as a tutor which is another couple hours per week. I tutor during the breaks in between my classes, so it doesn’t really feel like it drains that much of my time.
Social:
I have a pretty good group of friends that I hang out with regularly. I grab lunch with my best friend everyday and on Thursday and Friday afternoons/evenings I’ll usually go out into the city (either for shopping, a museum, a restaurant, etc.) I’m not involved in a ton of extracurricular activities because that aspect of college life isn’t really a part of my University’s culture (very large commuter population) - but I am involved in a couple of pre-professional clubs and I’ve made some friends from that involvement. My love life is a completely different story… haha.
Thanks for the responses guys!
With class and work, not a lot of time for a social life. My roommate and I do just about everything together, so that’s cool.We are super close, almost like brothers. We study together, laugh together, cry together, go out do stuff or stay in and watch movies together.
I’m a freshman at Case Western studying engineering. I work part time (10 hours a week), compete on the varsity track team (9 hours a week), and am a member of Case’s team competing in SpaceX’s Hyperloop II competition. Things are pretty crazy - I often don’t get back to my dorm until 8:00 after leaving at 9:00am for classes. It’s manageable for me this semester since I’m only taking 16 credit hours and 4 of those are calculus that I took in high school. I’m upping my credit hours to 21 next semester, so I’m not going to work, or keep it to about 5 hours if I do.
As for sleep, I’m getting more than in high school, but I’m realizing how important it is to function, so I prioritize it more. When I find myself playing on my phone, I tell myself that I’m wasting my sleep time, which normally does the trick to get me back to work. I normally stay up until 1 or 2 am doing work and wake up at 8 for class, but I normally sneak in a nap between work and track, so I average 7 or 8 hours a day.
As for my social life, it certainly isn’t nonexistent - I have a group of friends that I eat breakfast and dinner with, and work on Chem with. I do get a little left out, since none of the work or play a sport, so they have a lot more time to socialize. That being said, I feel like a social butterfly here, since I’d only hang out with friends on the weekend back in high school.
Overall, if you budget your time (google calendar has saved my life),prioritize, and work hard during the time that you set aside, you should be able to strike a pretty good balance between all elements of your life.
Penn State, junior, chemical engineering. 15 credits of classes + 3 credits of research. 3.95 GPA, this semester not yet included.
Sleep: ~7 hours a night.
ECs: Book club once a week, volunteering at animal shelter once a week. Research meetings twice a week.
Downtime: At least a couple hours a day in which I read or watch YouTube.
Socializing: Basically none. I used to grab dinner with someone pretty regularly but we’ve both been busy for weeks and weeks now.
It is great to read posts from students who are functioning well. Keep it up!
University of Oklahoma geography major - senior. 18 credit hours, 6 of which are in grad classes, and 3 of which are in my capstone (intensive senior research project).
Sleep: Irregular. Sometimes a full 8 hours, sometimes 2. I’m such a devoted napper I made an interactive map of the best places to nap on campus.
Clubs:
- Cycling club: Every Tuesday and Thursday as well as some Saturdays
- Outdoors club: meets some weekends
- Sorority: few hours on Sundays as well as some events during the week.
- Hillel: Jewish group that I go to once a week
- Participate in a number of one off events including some sponsored by my school’s innovation hub and the urban planning program.
Social Life:
I chill with friends on the weekends. I usually party/ go to the bars every other week depending on my schedule. On school days I might study with friends and then go out to eat with them but my social life is fairly limited Sun - Thurs.