CoelhoClueDraft

Chris Coelho Literature and Society - Dr. Sherry 9-29-13  Drinking Affects on Grades  Problem - In today's society, college is not only looked at as place to further your education, but also looked at as a big party. When you speak of college to somebody that is still in High School they think of drinking alcohol and partying due to the many movies and TV shows that paints a picture and can put stereotypes on colleges. College used to be looked at as a prestigious place to go to gain more knowledge about a specific subject and in return could get you a better job. Are colleges still as prestigious as they used to be? Has drinking and partying overtaken the role of education in colleges? Does drinking affect the grades of college students? In this paper I will investigate these questions using data I collected in the form of interviews and how a student manages his or her time on the weekends. Then I can draw a conclusion on if drinking negatively affects grades, positively affects grades, or doesn't affect them at all.  Background - In college every student will drink or at least be offered a drink throughout their time attending the university. One reason that drinking is so popular in college is because everybody will be 21 eventually while attending college, which makes the access to alcohol a lot easier to obtain, especially if you know somebody that is of age to buy it for you. Throughout my personal experience I don't know any college student that has never drank at least once in their time at college, therefore the frequency of drinking could also be taken into account when drawing conclusions. It is easier to find somebody that does drink on a college campus rather than somebody that does not drink, studies show that 75-85% of students that live on campus have drank in the dorms in the past month (Pedersen & LaBrie, pg. 355). Drinking in the dorms is extremely risky because it could get you not only kicked off of campus, but out of the school as well. This shows what risks underage students take just to drink alcohol, which could be because of the way they thought college would be due to television and movies, or peer pressure. Not only did students admit to drinking on weekends, but it was not uncommon for a student to say they drank on the weekdays either. However, most students that admitted to drinking on the weekdays were involved in some sort of sport, club, or Greek life. How does drinking affect the grades of students? Does drinking on weekdays affect grades more than only drinking on weekends? What causes students to drink? Does being a part of a club, sport, or Greek life affect the amount of drinking?  Method - To find answers to the questions asked above, I interviewed students and also asked students about their schedule on the weekends, and how they spent every hour of their day. The two main questions that I asked the students were how they spent their free time during the weekdays/weekend, and if they drank on a weekly basis. This was extremely helpful in my studies because it allowed me to interview people do who drink and don't drink, asking them the same questions and comparing their answers to find if there was a differences in responses. Also I got to compare the schedules on the weekend of the two groups of people. This helped me tremendously in analyzing my data to come to a conclusion about how drinking affects grades.  <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Findings - <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The broad results of my findings were that most people went out on weekends and drank alcohol with a group of people. However, those who didn't seemed to put more time into schoolwork and some just played video games. Bloomsburg is known as a pretty big party school compared to most others around the area which seemed to influence some of the peoples decision in why they chose this school. <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">One specific person I interviewed was a male, sophomore, and mostly a B and A student. He was a Criminal Justice major and chose this school strictly for academic purposes because it has a good program for his major. Due to Criminal Justice being his major he rarely drinks because if he gets in trouble it could ruin his whole future. Instead, he spends his free time during the week playing intramural football, doing school work, and playing video games. During the weekend he either goes home, goes to visit his girlfriend, she comes to visit him, or he just plays games in his room. Since he started attending Bloomsburg University he said that he has been offered to drink and go out almost every weekend by his roommate and friends. However, only once has he ever gone out and drank. <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Another person I interviewed was a female, junior, and deans list student. She has a dual major of Early Childhood and Special Education, which dramatically influenced her decision to come to Bloomsburg University. Also being from the city it was a nice change of scenery to be out in the country more, but it isn't completely in the middle of nowhere and still will be a fun school to attend due to the nightlife. Even though she would be kicked out of her majors and it could greatly affect her future, she still chooses to drink. However, since she is dual majored she takes 6 classes a semester rather than the normal 5. Being that she takes more classes, she has more work, which in return takes up all of her time during the week doing schoolwork. Doing all of her work during the week leads to her weekend nights being free, which is when she decides to drink and go out. Since she was a freshman she has always gone out on the weekends. <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The last person I interviewed was a male, sophomore, and mostly a C and B student. His major is business in which he has some interest but is mainly doing it because of the influence his parents had on his decision to go to school. He pledged to a Frat in the spring semester of his freshman year and is now very busy with doing Greek life activities. He said during pledging it brought his grades down a lot because of all the time he had to put towards it, but they got a little better since he has been in the Frat due to mandatory library time. Since he is in a Frat he drinks more often than he did before he joined because of events that they have with other frats and sororities during the week nights. Sometimes he sleeps through his classes from being too tired to get up because drinking. Drinking on the weekends is also something that he does every weekend unless he goes home. He has always partook in drinking on the weekends since he was a freshman, but only started drinking on the week nights since he joined his frat. <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Conclusion - <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Based on the data that I collected, it's safe to say a tremendous amount of students at Bloomsburg University drink alcohol on a weekly basis. Although some drink more than others, and some do it during the week, while others strictly drink on the weekend, most of the population has or does drink. "The direct effect of drinking on GPA is uniformly negative (Wolaver, pg. 82)." I agree with the quote because the person I interviewed that drinks during the week has lower grades than the two others that do not drink during the week. Since he drinks during the week it affects his attendance in class negatively as well, which in return, puts him behind in class by missing information that is covered when he is not present. I believe that drinking negatively affects your GPA if you are not careful about when you do it and how much work you have to do before you make the choice to drink. However, there are special cases like the one female I interviewed that does chose to drink and gets better grades than the person that doesn't drink at all. <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Works Cited <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Hughes, C. (2012). All beer and skittles?: A qualitative pilot study of the role of alcohol in <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">university college life. Australian Universities' Review, 54(2), 22-28. <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Pedersen, Eric, Joseph LaBrie, and Jason Kilmer. "Before You Slip into the Night, You'll Want Something to Drink: Exploring the Reasons for Prepartying Behavior Among College Student Drinkers." Issues in Mental Health Nursing 30.6 (2009): 354-63. Print. <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Wolaver, A. M. (2007). DOES DRINKING AFFECT GRADES MORE FOR WOMEN? GENDER DIFFERENCES IN THE EFFECTS OF HEAVY EPISODIC DRINKING IN COLLEGE. American Economist, 51(2), 72-88.