Students at Kansas State take an average of 14 credit hours per semester, of which they are told to spend three hours per week studying for each credit hour they are in. Beyond classes, many students participate in at least one of over 475 clubs. Several students also work part-time jobs.
With the number of ways to get involved, many K-State students find a lack of time a common concern.
Alexandra Lyle, sophomore in biological systems engineering, took 17 credit hours during the fall 2016 semester and said she consistently felt like she could use more time.
“Seventeen credit hours in an engineering school is pretty daunting, so just getting everything done and balancing my time was extremely difficult,” Lyle said. “There are some things I wish I could have done differently to have more time, but I don’t really think it would have been realistic.”
As a former dancer, Lyle said she missed having the time to exercise, and she plans to find a way to fit workouts into her schedule throughout this spring semester.
“My goals for this semester are to actually exercise,” Lyle said. “I used to be a dancer in high school and in really good shape, and I didn’t exercise at all last semester because I ran out of time.”
Kathryn Collins, freshman in industrial engineering, said she wishes she had found the time to volunteer in the community last semester.
“I was very preoccupied with myself trying to figure out my life and what was going on, so I didn’t have a whole lot of time to give back, so that’s something I am trying to focus on more now,” Collins said. “My main goal right now is to commit a lot more of my time to volunteering. I am hoping that every Saturday I can help conduct a meal because it’s just volunteer based. I’d like to increase our impact in the community.”
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Aaron Gallaway, freshman in open option, said he used more time than he should have hanging out and socializing with friends.
“My biggest challenges were falling behind in school work, mainly from hanging out with friends too much and having too much fun on days when I should have been doing homework and other projects,” Gallaway said. “My grades were not too bad, but they could have been better if I wasn’t as social.”
To combat this, Gallaway said his new semester resolution is to budget his time out more appropriately.
“I wish that I would have had a clear budget of time for every single day, even the weekends,” Gallaway said. “My resolution would definitely be to have a block of time each day of just studying so that way I get all my homework done and get ahead in studying and be able to spend more time on my more difficult classes. Then I can feel better about hanging out with my friends and socializing. And that way if I did happen to get sick or need a break, I wouldn’t get behind at all.”
