Social Life vs Studying

<p>Hello CC'ers!</p>

<p>I was wondering how all of you weigh your "social life" in your life? How often do you all spend time with your friends? If you don't spend a lot of time with them, do you ever feel lonely? If so, how do you "cope"? Some say that their social life isn't one of their priorities in their life at all and some of you may have never faced this conflict.</p>

<p>As for me, I am constantly debating between attending parties/hanging out with my friends and studying for the next unit test/SAT's. Most times, I end up rejecting offers to stay home so I can study.</p>

<p>My spring break is coming to an end and my friends have invited me on four different days to party, shop, etc throughout the break. Unfortunately I couldn't go because I attended an SAT camp (that took up a lot of time, but it was beneficial!) and my AP Chem teacher decided that our Acid/Bases test would be tomorrow. I feel sad looking at all the pictures on Instagram and Facebook, thinking about all the fun that they're having in the nice weather while I'm stuck at home studing. I've never felt so lonely before. </p>

<p>My friend, on the other hand, believes that one shouldn't "study their life away". This actually hit me hard, because I barely go out to have fun socializing these days and "studying my life away" is exactly what I've been doing (esp with AP's/SAT II's/SAT exams coming up). As much as I enjoy my personal hobbies, I still would like to spend time with friends and enjoy activities with them. </p>

<p>So, how do feel about this subject? I'm curious to hear your thoughts. </p>

<p>Allow me to quote from Barron’s AP Psychology:

The question is really: Do you care more about enjoying the future or enjoying the present?
In my opinion, you should balance both. Go to parties, but not all of them. Make sure you finish your studying, but don’t freak out over the plethora of tests that we get bombarded by.
Until this year, I would hang out with friends almost every weekend and attend parties very often. However, things changed this year, as we headed our separate ways for school. Being as engrossed as I’ve been with studying this year, I haven’t bothered to reestablish a “strong social life” this year. I still occasionally meet with friends, but much less often.
Essentially, you have to decide: party now, work later or work now, party later. The “later” may come sooner or later than you expect, but the “now” will still be now. </p>

<p>Outside of track and work during the week, I don’t normally hang out with friends outside of school during the week. I go out every Friday/Saturday though. I would say that I have a healthy social life but also have a good academic style. I’m going to Brown this coming fall. </p>

<p>Generally people only befriend me because they have a mistaken belief that I’m smart like they are, so I actually tend to study more when I have a social life because I don’t want to “disappoint” people by getting bad grades. </p>

<p>I usually study when I have to make a choice. However, sometimes I know I have to stop shutting myself inside like a hermit, so I prioritize socializing for that one weekend (like this weekend–went to a sleepover, out to lunch, and over to a friend’s house to film a video for school). I also usually go out with the BF once a weekend, but not if I have to study a lot.</p>

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<p>Wait. There are smart people where you live? Weird…</p>

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We import them. And this is College Confidential, so when I say “generally people only befriend me” I mean “the one friend I have only befriended me.”</p>

<p>I have a good social life, and a good study life.</p>

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<p>Lol so humble</p>

<p>Well I don’t have any friends so that decision is easy for me! HAHA!
The more important question is: Studying or Internet?</p>

<p>I certainly believe that a balance would be ideal. Unfortunately, it can be quite difficult to achieve that middle point.
For me, I never had much of social life. I’m finally starting to become really extroverted, but I have my hardest high school schedule this year and I have to constantly be working and studying just to get slightly above average scores.
I do at points feel lonely. I’ll see what my friends are up to on Twitter and I’ll regret having to study or sleep instead of going out. What little social life I have has taken a toll on me, but I find ways to cope, usually by just talking with friends or by shoving aside homework with a “**** this attitude!” and making time to hang out.</p>

<p>My social life consists almost entirely of the people in my academic clubs, or my extremely nerdy friends that don’t hang out much outside of school. We once went to the library.</p>

<p>I use full extent of my day. I study and do homework during my free periods, I try to work out for at least an hour after school every day, chill with friends or go to club meetings after I work out and leave extra time to study and do work at night. I reserve at least one weekend every three weeks to go all out because I feel a steady social life is important to success in school.</p>

<p>I study when I have to, but not any more than the bare minimum. I am a kid and I’ll never have this time again. I’m going to use it to have fun and be with my friends and family while they’re still around and not working and far away. </p>

<p>Eh, I only hang out with friends on the weekends (well, mostly). In middle school I’d go over friends’ houses almost every day or they’d come to mine after school, then in high school I started limiting that and now it rarely happens. I play sports with most of my really good friends so technically that’s two hours after school every day that we hang out playing lacrosse/track (depending on the season). </p>

<p>On the weekends, I go to the movies or out to dinner with friends. Some academic programs/clubs also have my friends in there. I know that probably sounds like I don’t really hang out with them, but you have no idea how much you socialize through those things. I made a million new friends just from joining those two sports teams and a few others in yearbook and science olympiad.</p>

<p>I feel like I have a balance. Then again, I don’t have like a raging social life with parties every weekend (well except last fall, I went to 5 quinceneras in a row). If I’m socializing, it’s through shopping, dinner, hanging out downtown, etc. Nothing that makes me hungover or sleep deprived. So it never gets in the way of my academics or vise versa.</p>

<p>I try to hang out with people when I’m free, which isn’t too often with my busy schedule. I hang out with lots of people at track practice every day though. I agree that a balance between studying and socializing is optimal. In general, I try to adopt the “work hard, play hard” mentality.</p>

<p>I hang out with friends outside of school once or twice a month on the weekends. We have a study group that meets before tests and such… so I see them more. I used to never hang out but I didn’t have enough time to really care. Just do prepping for 30 minutes everyday after your hmwk… or use it as a homework break…</p>

<p>I’m well-known in my school, so I guess at first glance that one would feel that I have an active social life. However, I only hang out with one friend at his house maybe twice a month. The other times, I would just go into the downtown area of where I live, but it’s beginning to be populated my eighth graders…which REALLY annoys me. I always get jealous whenever I see my schoolmates taking pictures at a party or hanging out with their friends, especially when it’s a good guy friend hanging out or taking pictures with an attractive girl who is in my good graces. I think that saying early on (as a freshman) that I’m against teen drinking really made a difference lol.</p>

<p>I’m sure that my parents are happy that it’s this way X( </p>