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Balancing Act of Kalamazoo College Prepares Students For The World After Graduation
By Munirah McGovern

College students undergo many major life changes: first adjusting to living away from home, having new experiences and making new friends, and later on the challenge of balancing all of these commitments while completing a high level of schoolwork. K College is no exception to this rule; in fact, many say that the workload experienced by K students may be harder than the average school because of factors like the quarter system, which packs extensive learning and information into a ten week term, and participation in many of the college’s 93 student organizations.

Lenya Friesner K’08 sums it up, saying “There's ‘busy’, and then there's ‘Kalamazoo College’“.

“K pulls students who are perfectionists, high achieving, smart, capable, and used to doing well” says Dr. Danielle Standish, a staff psychologist at K College’s counseling center. These qualities enable K students to deal with the course load they experience at K, but it also makes them experience more stress. “The students are uptight and focused, which makes life harder for them for more responsibilities they have as the weeks pass.” The more commitments a student has, the less time they have to spend on each individually, making it harder for them to focus as usual, and forcing them to make decisions on how to spend their time.

“I think you have to determine what is important to you. At K everyone is involved in multiple things, so it’s easy to end up with too many commitments and not be able to balance them all. You have to decide where you want devote your attention, and how much time you can invest” says Amber Cussen K’09, a Biology and Art major with a minor in Chinese.

Perfectionism and procrastination are the sometimes deadly combination that plagues all college students, especially with students at demanding schools like K. A majority of students at K were at the top of their class in high school, and many of them got there by being perfectionists. The change to a college workload is hard for a lot of students, as is the acceptance of the fact that they won’t always receive the same type of grades that got them to K. Once students experience a grade that wasn’t what they hoped for, many start to dread their next assignment in the fear that they won’t do as well as they hope and so they put it off, which is the beginning of a pattern of procrastination.

“Students often procrastinate from fear of failure, but they can also procrastinate from fear of success,” says Dr. Standish. “Leaving something till the last minute gives them an out, ‘I could have done better if I’d had more time’. Also, some thrive on the last minute pressure and adrenaline that they get from doing something at the last minute.” Some students are able to balance this pressure and get their work done, but others spend so much time trying for perfection that they are unable to get anything done. “I do think that people become so perfectionistic that they get consumed by getting it right until it’s not even about the material anymore, it’s just their personal battle.” For students in this type of situation, Dr. Standish suggests remembering the things that keep you grounded and making time for them. Those who spend all their time worrying about grades don’t leave themselves enough time for friends, family, and other support, which often makes their performance less meaningful than those who make time for all parts of their life by not leaving things till the last moment.

This school year, the counseling center has seen an increase in issues related to academics on campus with an upswing in traffic around fifth week of fall quarter continuing steadily towards finals. During winter quarter the schedule is busy from second or third week on, and during spring quarter with spring fever, students coming back from study abroad, it is “relentless”.

In spite of the academic pressures, freshmen are anxious to be involved in many of the activities and groups available at K. This attitude of participation tends to continue on throughout their college career, adding to the community and making it more well-rounded, but also adding yet another responsibility to an already full plate. The main reason that students continue to participate is the impact that it has on their lives to impact the lives of others.

“College is college, you have your work that you have to do and then there’s work that you can do to make a difference around you. I don’t think I’d be happy unless I thought I was doing something to make a difference," says Kammy Webb, president of the newly founded American Civil Liberties Union on campus, as well as a member of EnvOrg and an RA in DeWaters Hall.

Though it may be hard for current students to look 10 to 15 years down the road and see what opportunities and experience their current situation may afford them, alumni truly appreciate what they have gained here. Some alums are able to look back at say that their time at K gave them enough experience to join the workforce and make an immediate impact.

“The stress level at K is so much higher than in the real world that it prepares you for life after graduation. You end up more prepared than some people who have spent ten or fifteen years working professionally in the field because of what you’ve had to deal with for four years at K,” said Brennan McBride, a K alum and member of the class of 2007.

In the end, if students can manage to balance all their responsibilities, they learn not only how to manage stress, but how each of their commitments feeds off one another. Clare Lindley, K’08 said it best. “I guess I've figured out the few things that keep me happy and so keeping them balanced is so important. Even though it's difficult, they're all vital to one another.”