Part Time College Students

In comparing full time students to those who attend part time we assume full time attendance is preferable. In some ways it is, but in other ways, not frequently noted, it is not.
Of course it can be wonderful to be able to devote oneself totally to your studies without other responsibilities like work, commuting and living expenses interfering.

Being a full time student however, offers a host of it's own social distractions about which we are all well aware and they frequently heavily tax a students attention and interfere with their progress. In addition, for residential students, there is the total immersion in the artificiality of a college community. This is a kind of remove rom life.



Commuter colleges serve the interests of students who work. Many people have no alternative to this. Taking classes while working is a very different, difficult but also interesting alternative. You take many fewer courses per semester as few as just one. Whatever academic study and thought is involved is therefore more focused. Your progress through the program is less rushed, therefore choices like the selection of courses and faculty and sequencing can be more thoroughly considered.

And then there is the reality of splitting each day. perhaps it could be considered compartmentalizing it, into work hours, social hours and academic class attendance time and study. This requires the presence, or the development of, some highly valuable skills.
Organization and planning are necessary to coordinate the very different activities. The student has to become flexible enough to be able to switch into and out of his multiple, differing roles. This requires adaptability and good perceptual abilities to assess whats going on whenever he enters a new role setting.

Then there is the advantage of being able to consider his work setting in the light of what he is learning in school. This may provide insights about what lies behind ordinary events. Similarly he is in a position to put a spotlight on what he is learning in school compared to the life realities encountered at work. This provides a context to better understand abstract ideas.

Attending college part time should be recognized as having these advantages as well as the acknowledged disadvantages.