The balance can be tricky particularly for students who are working full time while they are enrolled in a university. Even when there is time to get to all required classes, additional time is needed to complete assignments and research. If either work or study are excessively stressful for the student, the quality of both may suffer. Due to these stresses, the drop-out rate among part-time students is higher than the rate of other students. For a student who already has a job and not enough time to study, the temptation to simply give up on graduating can be great.
Many part-time students are older and already have careers, marriages and children to deal with. Children demand a lot of time and leaving them in day care for prolonged periods of time can cause feelings of guilt and anxiety in parents who are spending all of their time at work or at school. Spouses also may feel neglected. If they are not also in school and therefore not experiencing the same difficulties, spouses may not be totally supportive or understanding. In a married and domestic situation, if a pregnancy occurs, it may lead to a major disruption in academic progress.
Full-time students can focus all of their time and energy on their studies. Going to class five days a week and working continually on academic subjects puts a student into a particular frame of mind that is conducive to doing well and completing university. When this schedule is broken up and mixed with work, family, children and other responsibilities, it can be more difficult to maintain the energy and enthusiasm that are necessary to do well academically. Students who are employed in a field that is related to what they are studying may have less difficulty with this, as the work and the study tend to reinforce each other and progress along similar paths.