Free Mindy Marks, Phd, Is Associate Professor At The University Of California, Riverside. Essay Sample

The article is based on the question, why college students devote less time to studying and more time to leisure?” Standards for all post-secondary academic institutions have fallen over time. In the study conducted (Babcock & Marks), data is collected and reviewed from four time periods: 1961, 1981, 1987-1989, and 2003-2005 to compare the changes in students’ study habits over time. Students appear to be studying less not because of working for pay but because of having “more free time for fun” (5). It further reviews the causes of diminished study time is the result of leisure activities “They appear to be studying less and spending extra time on leisure activities” (9). Moreover, part-time work, human capital, and improvements in education technology also cause the declination of study time. Perhaps one of the biggest reasons why students study less and devote more time to leisure is because most work in jobs, which was not the case several decades ago as the data suggests. Between going to school and working, students demands of their time has left them with little desire to study. In fact, a large focus in the article is the students’ apparent demand for leisure.
Another factor is as college costs continue to rise, there is the notion that “students could be working more and studying less” (8). However, the study shows that rising college tuition costs has little impact on students’ studying less and working more because this already appears to be the case regardless. The rationale is that students are not studying less in order to work more. The reason they are studying less has little to do with working and everything to do with leisure activities.
Philip Babcock, PhD, was an esteemed professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He joined the university in 2006 and passed away in 2012.

Work Cited

Philip, Babcock, and Marks Mindy. "Leisure College, USA." Econ.ucsb.edu. 1 May 2010. Web. 2 Apr. 2015. <http://www.econ.ucsb.edu/papers/wp02-10.pdf>.