On any given day, during basketball season, Jon Miller, senior English and philosophy major, wakes up and goes straight to class. He then gets lunch and has another class after that. When class is over, he heads to the gym for about two hours for basketball practice. Hopefully he can get to the cafeteria before it closes at 7:30 p.m. so that he will have just enough time to eat a quick dinner. If he is the on-duty Resident Assistant (RA) that night, his shift will start at 8 p.m., if he is not on duty he may have a shift with CSI International, Cabrini’s cleaning company, starting at 10 p.m. On Fridays, he works from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Maria Monastra is a junior honors student studying English with a finance minor. Monastra is taking 17 credits while being a writing tutor in the Writing Center, working in the Admissions Office as a Student Ambassador, being the President of Alpha Lambda Delta (a first year honors society), and the Master Learner for Honors Living and Learning Community (LLC). And that’s just on campus.
Monastra and Miller represent a group of students on campus that go against the normal Millennial stereotype. What is the true picture of the Millennial Generation? Is it an overworked group of highly motivated people like these two or is it the slacker? Recent research institutes have tried to find the balance between the stereotypes and the students found on college campuses.
A research study done by Stew Friedman of the Wharton School, with research backed up from the Pew Research Center and the Families and Work Institute, compared the graduating seniors of 1992 and the graduating seniors of 2012 to see the relationship between work and family opportunities in both Generation X (those born between 1965 and 1979) and the Millennial Generation. He found that the class of 2012 is more likely to expect to work more hours a week than previous generations, so much so that they do not realistically see how they will be able to have kids.
Like most students, Monastra is trying to best prepare for her future, a hard thing to figure out at 21 years old. Between classes, jobs, internships and extracurriculars, she finds it hard to balance what is really seen as important in the eyes of others.
“What’s going to look best? An ‘A’ in your 400-level business law class or in a theory class?” Monastra said. “Is that best to people who are going to be looking in the next step – employers, graduate admissions staff – or is a B student going to look better who is able to put him or herself all over the place?”
In the little time he has between activities, Miller still finds time to be a member of the Black Student Union (BSU), a CRS Ambassador, and a member of the men’s basketball team while simultaneously taking 16 credits and continuing his relationship with his girlfriend of two years. Next year, Miller will continue to be an RA in Xavier Hall and hold a six credit internship in the fall.
“I think it’s fair to say that there’s not really a minute in my week, and a lot of students would agree with me, where I have a lot of me time,” Monastra said, “where I have time to sit down and do a lot of restful things.”
Off campus, Monastra nannies two days a week, she holds waitressing jobs during the summer and winter breaks as well as intern positions. Last year, she worked for the Philadelphia Public Defender’s office and this summer she will intern at United States Liability Insurance Group (USLI). On June 9, 2014, Monastra will take the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) – a test she’s been studying for for over a year. This semester, she’s dedicated 10 hours a week, including a three-hour online Princeton Review class to studying for the test.
“So in terms of their work ethic, or feeling entitled or spoiled, another thing that we observed was the change in how many hours people expect to work.” Friedman said. “So in 1992 the anticipated hours per week was 58, in 2012 it was 72.”
According to this study and the research done, it could be argued that Millennials realize that the work required (or expected) is going to be much higher than what it was when previous generations graduated college. But this also has an effect on their future families and the kids they plan to have – or not have.
“Having seen their parents’ generation – which went from 15 percent of mothers in 1992 being full-time employed to 50 percent of the class of 2012 – they see what’s required.” Friedman said, “And many, especially women, are saying to themselves, ‘well if I’m going to have kids then one of us should be at home. And it’s probably going to be me.’ So again, there’s another tension.”
Friedman found that 42 percent of the graduating class of 2012 said they planned on having or adopting kids, compared to the 78 percent from the class of 1992. “So they still want to have kids,” Friedman said. “They just don’t see how they can do it. Or other things have become more important.” Though the percentages have gone down with their intention to have kids, most of the people surveyed still want to have kids. That percentage is relatively the same for both generations, but Millennials don’t see how they will be able to do it – which is where the percentage decrease of intending to have kids is found.
Both Miller and Monastra agree that they would like to have children one day, but with some stipulations. Monastra doesn’t want to have kids if she can’t give them the opportunities her parents have given her. Miller doesn’t want to have kids if he can’t spend a sufficient amount of time with them – like 72 hours a week.
