Academic stressors can majorly impact the overall college experience. For me, time management is the killer when it comes to stressors. I am in the UWGB string orchestra, meaning that I have to devote a large amount of my time to learning and playing new music rather than having a lot of time to do homework. We have to play 4 concerts total every year, and we need to learn different music for every single one. The amount of time it takes to learn these difficult pieces is staggering. Naturally, balancing homework for my classes and time practicing music starts to become pretty difficult, especially when we receive new music. My two online professors in particular usually assign multiple assignments a week along with either an essay or a quiz. This means that I have to find time to spend on those assignments while also considering the fact that I need to practice music for hours. The week before a concert is the hardest time to manage what I spend my time on as it usually becomes consumed with practicing music.
In tandem with my time spent on orchestra, my online classes are real time killers that can be less than ideal. My two online classes this semester are Environment and American Law. They can be annoying because they assign mostly homework without much educational material to go off of. Some students might not mind having online classes that focus more heavily on homework, but I like being clearly taught the weekly material so I have a clear plan of what the homework relates to and how to go about it. Sometimes, the classes give no direction at all and ask us to write essays about our opinions on certain topics which are topics that I oftentimes know nothing about at all. I feel like my opinion pieces for my online classes can often times fall flat and don’t really convey what I feel because I struggle to understand what exactly I am writing about. I find in person classes much easier to manage compared to classes that are only online.
