<p>While I admire people who work really hard, I also know a lot of people who would study late into the night and waking early (getting only 2-6 hours of sleep per night) to do work or so they have time to pile on extracurriculars/internships/jobs through the semester. Then, the same people are forced to stimulate their bodies with sugar-drenched coffees throughout the day and are clearly stressed about maintaining their overloaded workloads.</p>
<p>While I can understand why students go that far, at what point do you think a line should be drawn between doing too much for your education and an acceptable life? </p>
<p>How important should our health and happiness be in comparison to our education, and how far should we students be willing to compromise? </p>
<p>Is it okay to choose to under-perform and under-deliver while having a more peaceful, steady life? When does it cross the line of being "lazy" or "unmotivated"?</p>
<p>I think once you’re living the life of under 5 hours of sleep every single day, waking up to grouchy mornings in desperate search for coffee… it is probably excessive and they should drop something. I mean, I assume this means said person does not procrastinate so it isn’t a time management issue but more of an overload issue in which there is just not enough time in a day to complete everything.</p>
<p>I think health and happiness should come first. Maintaining a 4.0, having a job and an internship, and being presidents of like 3 clubs will mean nothing if someone’s mental health becomes a problem. And with that much sleep and dependency on coffee, I can see mental breakdowns, depression, and more mental issues coming way just because someone is obsessed with looking perfect on paper. </p>
<p>Lazy, unmotivated to me = someone who can be doing so much more but freely chooses not to just because they can or they would rather waste their time doing something that does not benefit them whatsoever. </p>
<p>I don’t know, it’s a hard line to draw. I think underperforming and overperforming are both two potentially harmful actions. As always, moderation is key. It’d be nice to have that perfect balance of fun and study time and work time… haha</p>
<p>it only becomes excessive if it’s interfering with your mental/physical health. You can’t draw a line at # of hours slept each night or number of parties attended because it’s all about what the individual wants/needs.</p>
<p>It’s the exact same thing with non work stuff.</p>
<p>I wish I was the type of person who only needed 5 hours of sleep a night. Let’s just say it was a rough semester when I ended up having to that every night…</p>
<p>I took 17 hours during my first semester of freshman year, and 21 hours during my second semester of freshman year. I am in an Engineering major. In both semesters, I ended up with an impeccable transcript (38HRS and 4.000). </p>
<p>I slept for 3 hours (from 3:00AM–>6:00AM) Monday through Friday. On weekends, I slept during the day, and studied from 11:00PM–>7:00AM. </p>
<p>As for supplements, I initially used caffeine. But soon, my body became accustomed to the caffeine, and I switched to Ephedrine-Caffeine-Aspirin mix (ECA stack). It allowed me to work for 8+ hours straight without any fatigue.</p>
<p>As for mental breakdowns, I recall increased irritation, depression, and abnormal levels of stress; I remember once sleeping for 20 hours straight.</p>
<p>I was blindfolded by lies from parents, who convinced me that anyone who is not working extremely hard–will fail.</p>
<p>When it gets to the point that you’re not getting a decent amount of sleep and having to rely on drugs, you need to cut back. Academics come first, extracurriculars second.</p>
<p>This week I’ve been going over 24 hours without sleep every few days and sometimes 32. It’s not due to me not wanting to sleep, however. It does have a huge impact on how motivated I am for the day. </p>
<p>Like, yesterday around 4 PM I had planned on being at school until 8 PM. I kept going in and out of consciousness while studying so I decided to go home. I passed out for like 5 hours. Went back to bed for another 3. Been up since and I’ve cleaned my whole house, did the dishes, worked out, and am starting to read some material before my mathematical physics class. I consume a large amount of coffee each day just by nature, but it’s definitely been the only thing holding me up. I am studying quite a lot more but sometimes you just have to deal with it. Things are going to get harder and you’re going to have to study more. Not all people are created equal and sometimes the nature of the subject is just more time consuming. Like for instance Real Analysis here is the hardest class you’ll take for undergrad and I’m spending a lot of time on it already. I also have a history class with no textbook setup, so we have to download these articles that are over 40+ pages on Monday and be able to teach them to someone in 5 minutes on Wednesday. Lots of time spent doing analysis, specially when the language is from the 1800’s. The teacher is letting the students teach each other the material. I guess he is trying something new. My physics class is just A LOT of homework and we’ve already covered all the material for the first exam in the first week! Things move incredibly fast and you gotta keep up here or you will just fail all your classes. I also have at least 4-5 quizzes a week and a lot of reading, presentations, and writing papers in my engineering ethics class. My easiest class is jogging cuz all you have to do is run the course and then you get to leave. </p>
<p>So where you draw the line is how much work I think you do on top of what you must do to pass the class with a decent grade. I’m taking 17 units this quarter, 24 next quarter, and 16 my last quarter. I want to graduate, so you gotta do what you gotta do! I am also on an internship this quarter and will probably do it spring quarter as well. </p>
<p>I think you should enjoy what you’re doing because there’s no way I’d be willing to take on these many units of just math and physics classes after this quarter to graduate. It is not okay to underperform because that speaks volumes of what an employer is going to think of you when they read your transcript where jobs are tough competition. A great GPA is expected of a liberal arts person. Same thing with technical subjects because they want the best people working at their company. </p>
<p>Don’t major in something that’s hard if you’re not up for the challenge. Cut back on the exc’s cuz classes are more important if you’re falling behind.</p>
<p>LOL I remember I was in the middle of the night, studying hard under the use of all those supplements (caffeine, ephedrine); and then I check CC, and see some thread where they guy complains by saying “Oh yeah I am anti-social, I have 10 close friends, 2 girlfriends, and go out every weekend” or a girl complaints by saying “Oh yeah I am super-shy have no friends, but once my boyfriend and I got drunk and passed out at my friend’s house.”
I am like “Are you serious?” If that’s “shy” and “anti-social,” then who am I? I was studying 12hrs (at least) everyday and using all those performance enhancers, and never companied LOL</p>