Students have to balance their lives in school and in work in order to sustain an income.
One thing that most students can agree on is that college is expensive.
Because of this, many students work to help cover the costs of getting an education. A lot of students who work have a job in the restaurant or service industry, which can be even harder than other student-jobs.
The hours that service-industry students end up working are often odd and generally vary from week to week, making scheduling and managing their time a little trickier.
“The hours vary every week, but I usually work around 15 hours,” Abby Pressimone, a senior religious studies major, said. “There are some weeks when I’ll have to work 25 hours and some weeks when I’ll have to work less than 15.”
It also does not leave much time for things like hanging out with friends and just relaxing.
“A lot of my free time is now gone,” Emily Smull, a sophomore education major, said. “Before, weekends would consist of hanging out and doing homework, now most of my free time is spent doing homework.”
These students also have to keep track of their income because it is mostly from tips leading to their salary being unpredictable.
“Tipping is entirely dependent on the customer,” Ben McGinnis, a Cabrini alumnus, said. “I’ve been working in restaurants for a long time and it’s always the customers. I’ve seen bad waiters get big tips for no reason and I’ve seen great waiters get awful tips.”
For some students no amount of tips can make up for some of the treatment they get on the job.
“If you work a full dinner shift, it is on average around $80 a night, but for what people in the service industry deal with it’s hardly enough,” McGinnis said. “All you need is for one person to berate and belittle you, just for doing your job and no tip can fix that.”
There also seems to be a worry about missing the “college experience” because of all of the extra time their spending working.
“I would say that there definitely have been times when I did feel like I was missing the ‘college experience,’ but I have had a job off campus for all four years of my college career, so I got used to it after while,” Pressimone said.
Although it is hard sometimes they make the best of the situation that they are in. They are making money, working hard and still manage to find time to just be a regular student.
“The college experience is there every day of the week at all hours,” McGinnis said. “Even while working you can find it.”
