"Working and not working Very different or not really?" This is one example of the questions we ask ourselves when referring to one of the many discussed subjects related with education: the difference between working and non-working students to finance their own education. Though, I"ll limit myself on focusing only on three differences. Students who work to finance their education differ from the ones who don't in studying, when it comes to availability, concentration, and economic situation.
Students who work to finance their education don't have as much time to study as students who don't. Working students have more limited free hours. For example, back in Portugal where I used to live, I had a friend who worked many hours so she"d always be late for classes; consequently, besides not having all the notes, it was difficult for her to catch up because of the lack of time. Another example of the way working limits the time availability is how whenever I called this friend of mine to go out and spend some time with her, by going to the movies, walk on the park or even just go to the coffee shop in the same street in front of her five floors building where she lived to have some "girl talk" and the chocolate round and with sprinkles cake that she loved so much or ice-cream, she could never go. On the phone by the sound of her low, tired, and calm voice, I could perceive how much she really wanted to go out with me, but couldn't because she had to study or was possibly working at the time. On the other hand, students who don't work to finance their education have more and enough time to study. For instance, I don't work to finance my education and that gives me enough time to organize my study material, clarify my questions that I might have and be well prepared for tests. Furthermore, I remember when I was in Portugal last year I used to have classes every day from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.