Many feel that students underestimate the amount of effort they will have to put in to succeed in college and therefore do not allocate a reasonable amount of time to studies. Many faculty observe that increasingly, students have an instrumental orientation toward college, seeing it as a route to a credential that they need for the future, and wanting this credential to be easily attainable. They report that student questions often focus on what is the bare minimum that needs to be done to pass a course or get the desired grade. A study of students in one undergraduate class found that full-time students reported spending only an average of ten hours outside class on their studies. They also reported that they tried to work during the weekdays so that their weekends would be free.
More research has to be conducted in order to explore the effects of employment on learning.
To delineate some of the boundaries of the issue, a forum on the employed student was held on October 27, 1997. Twenty-six faculty worked together in three groups to explore the topic. They are in survival mode and are not used to making their own decisions about time allocation. They may not be aware of other possibilities, such as going to school only part-time or seeking financial aid. Advisors could ask students about their employment or other responsibilities in helping them to set their courseloads.