Any newcomer to Oswego is likely to hear the infamous, and perhaps absurd, lesson that each hour of class time should equal three hours of outside study time. Upon calculating the number of hours with my nose in a textbook, I realized the sheer abundance of my college experience that would be spent studying – a dozen hours at least! As if having classes five times a week, a job on campus and being involved in one of the hundreds of clubs may not consume enough of one’s time, studying for dozens of hours outside classes is a bit extreme.

But when it comes to managing one’s time, no matter how jam-packed a schedule may be, there are no similarities among college students.

Many times I have heard comrades telling me how late they stay up each night doing schoolwork. Regularly, most students may stay up until about midnight completing homework assignments, finishing those last few paragraphs on a research paper or cramming for an exam. Either that, or they may be playing Halo 3 on their X-box until they reach the 10th level, or watching movies. Nevertheless, we all have our own personal schedules, and our own free times and work times.

Outside of classes, though, there is a wide variety of ways in which college students can fill up their spare time (if they have any at all, that is). Positions for on-campus jobs fill up quickly, and sports teams and club members make time for that in which they are involved. As students eagerly participate in these activities, time to fulfill their academic obligations seems to fade into the background. Add three hours of study time for every class and students may likely be living on Red Bull and lattes for the rest of their college years. In addition, making time for friends would also be consumed in the hurricane of extracurricular activities.

Although time management is as difficult as getting dressed with your roommate in the room, it may be manageable. Even if a student does not get in all the "necessary" hours of study time, having enough so that the information absorbs into the memory works just as efficiently (easier said than done, I know). It all depends on who we are, our internal clocks and how valuable a college education appears to our discovering eyes.