The Relationship between

Extracurricular Involvement and

Academic Performance
Elizabeth Castillo

Abstract

College is said to be the time that a young adult has all the opportunities at the

palm of his hand to explore potential careers and lifestyles without necessarily making

those decisions permanent. In this study the relationship between go far a student is

willing to try new activities that might potentially help him or her in the future and their

academic performance is analyzed and interpreted in terms of several outside factors. A

direct and positive relationship between the student’s academic performance and the

number of extracurricular activities he or she is involved is found in a sample population

of 100 students at a college in the city of Los Angeles, California. The question is posed of

whether a strong academic performance is synonymous with a successful career

following graduation and what other factors may contribute to granting a student an

overall positive and successful experience.

Introduction

This research has the purpose to find the answer to the question of whether a

student’s involvement in extracurricular activities is correlated to their academic

performance and if so, to interpret the tendencies of such potential relationship. I

define as extracurricular those activities that do not count as a grade, a student is

consistently involved in, and enhances the college experience in different areas such

as sports, community, academic reinforcement, religion, a job, leadership and service

organizations, the arts, among others. The study was conducted to 105 students of the

University of California Los Angeles, and consisted of 100 quick surveys and 5 in-

depth interviews. As the number of extracurricular activities in which a student is

involved increased, it reflected positively in an also increasing GPA, or, grade point

average in the population. As the number of organizations a student is involved in

kept rising, the proportion of students with higher grades (above a 3.0) also increased

in comparison as opposed to students with lower grades (below 3.0) whose

proportion decreased as the level involvement increased. Several outside factors such

as choice of major, type of extracurricular activity, time devoted per week, hours of

sleep at night, stress and time-management skills were also analyzed to look for

potential relationships among the different contributing factors to a student’s

performance and wellbeing. The results of the time invested in extracurricular

activities did not appear to have an increasing effect in a student’s grades as did the

number of the different activities he or she is involved. 91% of the students reported a

GPA of 3.0 or above while 95% reported being involved at least in 1-3 activities. These

extreme numbers may give the dependent variable (grades) an almost perfect
correlation to the independent variable (level of involvement), which may not

adequately represent the situation of most colleges in the United States. Yet this

information could come in helpful for futures research.

Literary Review

Extensive research has been done on analyzing the relationship between

student engagement and academic success. Such relationship is generally positive,

especially in certain areas of student engagement. Different studies take into

consideration these variations of involvement and measure how a certain type of

activity impacts academic success in comparison to the others. Additionally, other

studies analyze the quantitative measures of involvement and their potential effect

not only on academic performance but also stress levels, motivation and depression,

among other factors that potentially can make college a positive or negative

experience.

In a 2015 study, Lumley surveys a sample of 700 students of medical schools in

the United Kingdom in order to measure their quality of life. His study found that

skills were more important than the time a student devotes to studying. Long hours of

studying negatively affected academic performance due to the build-up of stress; a

factor that according to Wilson-Tan and Stanley (2015) tends to be more common in

STEM careers and usually impacts performance negatively. This hypothesis of

academic performance differences based on career or major is actually supported by

one of the smaller findings in this research. Further research, has suggested that the

type of extracurricular activity is more directly related to academic outcomes than the

time spent in them (Cotter 2016). Cotter’s research shows that involvement in artistic
and academic activities is positively associated with higher grades whereas solely

athletic involvement is negatively associated. In Lumley’s study higher academics

were directly linked to involvement in activities associated with research and

teaching, however, sports was reported as the one where the most time is invested.

These two studies however show discrepancies in athletic involvement. The

study on medical school students shows a positive relation between academics and

sports, while Cotter’s shows a negative one. Purdy and Eitzen’s 1982 findings

coincided with Cotter’s. They found not only that athletes’ academic performance is

poorer than average students, but that their performance also varies within the group

—scholarship holders and important game players have the poorest performance.

Furthermore, they conducted a second study in which they found that white athletes

tend to perform better academically than white athletes, resulting thus in colleges

recruiting mostly black athletes who are often academically marginal and thus have

high rates of academic failure. These findings suggest that academic performance can

be affected in different ways, negatively or positively, depending on not only the type

of activity, but on environmental factors such as place, circumstances, culture or race.

In 1971 Eddy talked about the enhancement extracurricular activities add to

the curriculum and even suggested combining them because of how much more

efficient and rich they make the students’ learning process. In a 2014 study,

Zacherman evaluated the relationship between the two, without taking into

consideration the type of activity. The results showed a curvilinear relationship

between the time invested in activities and the GPA. This research is one of the few

that has been conducted on the effects of over-involvement, a theory that is also
supported by the findings in this research. Zacherman’s results display a positive

relationship between student extracurricular engagements for 0-1.5 hours a day.

Anything more than 1.5 hours showed negative academic outcomes. There are

however, limitations to this particular study as over-involvement is the much less

studied opposite side of the extracurricular engagement spectrum. Furthermore, the

sample included only first-year students and seniors, which are on either extreme of

the student spectrum and tend their behavior is not representative of college students

as a whole since they are too new or about to leave.

Astin’s developmental theory (2014) suggests that involvement has an effect

on a student’s study habits and learning experience, which in turn translates to better

academic outcomes. He defines involvement as physical and psychological energy

invested in the academic experience. Additionally, feeling useful and productive keeps

the student more motivated and decreases depression, which is one major cause of

poor academic performance (Holland 2016).

Chan’s research findings (2016) further support a positive relationship

between academic outcome and student involvement through “deep approach”

learning. Close interaction with faculty and fellow students, attending study clubs,

playing sports, and all other extracurricular activities require students to develop

certain skills that stimulate a deeper learning which translates into a higher academic

success. Another study (Kuh, 2008) studied the impact that these activities have on

motivation to return to school after the first year. Engagement in extracurricular

activities enhances students’ confidence in their own ability and according to a 2007
study, facilitates identity development, which is a common struggle of college students

and tends to bring negative consequences (Higgins).

Other studies have linked academic success to the independent approach of

individual students towards allocating the proper amount of time for studying and

developing appropriate study skills. One study (Webber, 2013) showed that time

spent preparing for class and engaging in academic tasks positively correlates with

higher grades, as one could expect. Moreover a more recent study (Thibodeaux, 2017)

has also indicated that one of the most important factors for student academic success

is the adequate use of study time. The study evaluates the difference in academic

performance between students who have higher self-regulated learning skills and

those with lower ones, the latter being less successful.

One of the problems of the previous studies, which seek to link academic

performance solely on cognitive and organizational abilities, with little, if any, effect

from external or contributing factors, is the nature of the samples. This research was

conducted in a small university, which embraces the rigorous study philosophy theory

presented by the study. Additionally more than 50% of the sample is Caucasian, which

is generally not the case in any university, especially in a country so diverse as the

United States. Race and culture are some more factors that may play a role in

academic performance by fostering pride and confidence in a student or doing the

opposite. In a 2007 study, Baker focuses on the extracurricular involvement of under-

represented students, particularly Black and Latino. The study brings up Ogbu’s

(1993) theory of oppositional cultures, which states that minorities tend to reject

what they have been historically denied. This could trigger feelings of inferiority and
alienation and, in turn, account for poor academic performance. Additional findings of

the study linked academic success positively to some extracurricular activities and

negatively to others, further supporting the already discussed theory.

Another allegation against the rigorous study for academic success theory, is

the disregard for a student’s psychological and emotional wellbeing as crucial to a

successful college experience and the positive correlation between it and academic

performance. For example, in 1945 Partridge discusses the role of Greek life in making

Negro students feel the support of a community during a time when life was harder

for them, and how that feeling of belonging resulted in an overall positive experience.

A 2015 study (Lima) found that extracurricular involvement gives commuters a

strong sense of belonging that is otherwise absent and accounts for their significantly

higher rates of college dropouts. One last study in 2010 (Mooney) found an increase in

academic achievement to be linked to regular attendance to religious ceremonies, a

final example of the importance of emotional wellbeing as a stimulus for academic

success.

Previous research has shown that extracurricular involvement has qualitative

and quantitative effects on student academic outcomes. Some of this effect is linked

directly to the motivation and confidence that is sparked by belonging to a club,

organization or establishing closer relations with the faculty. The type of activity

joined may have a direct impact on the performance of a student Purdy’s study show

that those athletes with larger amounts of scholarship tended to perform poorly since

most of their attention is focused on sports which do not have much academia in

them. The higher education institution works on a system that requires adaptation
and involvement can help smooth the process out in several ways. Studies have shown

that those individuals who seek out activities to enhance their learning beyond what

is in the curriculum, tend to have an overall more positive college experience and this

is usually linked to a stronger academic performance.

Methodology:

The question in this research is to find if there is a positive correlation between

a student’s level of involvement in extracurricular activities and their academic

achievement. The Independent variable in this study, or the level of involvement,

(measured in number of activities) will be tested to see what kind of effect, if any, it

has on the dependent variable, or academic performance (measured through GPA).

I handed out 100 surveys to 100 UCLA students in which they answered quick

questions like GPA, major, number of extracurriculars, hours per week, stress levels,

among others. Half the surveys were passed randomly to students in small classes

and, the other half were gathered by knocking on doors in an apartment complex

close to campus. In-depth interviews were conducted to 5 students. They were

selected based on availability and different levels and types of involvement in order to

represent a larger population as inclusively as possible. The interviews were

conducted in a one-one way private atmosphere to avoid interruptions. Finally I

transcribed the first 15 minutes of each interview and quantified the survey results on

an excel spreadsheet to begin interpretation and analysis of the data. The purpose was

to find some kind of pattern to explain any possible correlation between the two

variables and provide worthy and useful knowledge to the student community.
Findings & Discusion:

Based on personal past observations and experiences, I came up with the

hypothesis that higher levels of extracurricular involvement tend to reflect positively

in school with better grades and higher productivity. Hence, my hypothesis predicted

the independent and dependent variables to have some kind of positive correlation—

as one increases, chances are the other will too. Table 1 shows the distribution of the

average GPA of 100 students in relation to the number of extracurricular activities.

Table 1
Extracurricular involvement and GPA population proportion

GPA

Number of 2.49 and

activities 3.5-4.0 3.0-3.49 2.5-2.99 below

7+ activities 100% 0% 0% 0%

4-6 activities 67% 33% 0% 0%

1-3 activities 46% 43% 11% 0%

None 20% 60% 20% 0%

The first column shows that students are heavily involved in at least 1-3 activities. The rows show that the
more activities a student is involved in grade distribution is skewed to the left, indicating a higher GPA.

The proportion of students who achieve a GPA of 3.5 or higher increases as the

number of activities increases, totaling up to 100% of students having above a 3.5 GPA

at the maximum level of involvement. In contraposition, as the level of involvement, or

the number of extracurricular activities decreases, the distribution of GPA shifts to the

right to include the lower ranges. From this sample of students, I can conclude that in

general, students who are involved in at least 4 activities will most likely have a GPA

of 3.0 or above, an assumption, which cannot be made for students who are involved

in less than 4 activities. This information is represented visually in the graph below:
 The green population is too small to have any significance. Therefore the

following relationship compares only the blue and red populations (students with 3.0

or above, blue and red bars) proportionately: At a level of zero involvement higher

GPA (the blue) represents only 25% of the total. As involvement increases to 1-3

activities, higher GPA increases by 27%, then by 16% at 4-6 activities until all students

involved in 7 or more activities have a high GPA.

The following table shows the distribution of the same students’ GPAs in

relation to the amount of hours per week they devote to these activities as opposed to

the quantity of activities they are involved in:

Table 2
Extracurricular involvement and GPA population proportion

GPA

Time of 2.49 and

involvement 3.5-4.0 3.0-3.49 2.5-2.99 below
 40+ hours 50% 50% 0% 0%

30-39 hours 44% 66% 0% 0%

20-29 hours 80% 10% 10% 0%

11-19 hours 46% 37% 17% 0%

1-10 hours 48% 48% 4% 0%

The table does not show a clear pattern between the effect of time spent on academic achievement,
suggesting that the relationship between these two variables may be weak or not generalizable.

The amount of hours a student invests each week in extracurriculars does not

seem to have a very significant effect on their academic performance. However if we

look at the percentage distributions in columns, two interesting and opposite patterns

can be seen in the first two columns, or the 3.5-4.0 GPA and the 3.0-3.49 groups. The

distribution of the first group (3.5-4.0) suggests a curvilinear relationship indicating

that a great majority of students with a GPA of 3.5 or above tend to dedicate 20-29

hours each week to their extracurricular activities. Very few of these students

dedicate more or less hours than that. The second group (3.0-3.49 GPA) indicates the

opposite tendency in which students tend to dedicate a minimum to a maximum

amount to their extracurriculars and very few students are at the midpoint of 20-29

hours, which contrasts enormously with the first group of students. The following

graph illustrates the relationship visually:

 If a line were drawn between the color change in the graphs it would have the

form of a bell, beginning at a low end in the left corner, reaching a high peak and

ending in another low end in the opposite corner. The opposite shape, like a pit, would

form for the second group (red) if this line were drawn. One possible interpretation

that I give to this phenomenon is that students with higher GPAs tend to dedicate just

enough hours (which this study assumes to be 20 to 29) to out-of-the-classroom

activities in order to still have enough time to study and excel academically. For the

second graph, it can be deduced that the large number of hours that about half of

these students invest outside of the classroom takes away time to study resulting in

lower (yet decent) grades in comparison the students with a 3.5+ GPA.

These data have shown a strong relationship between the amount of activities

a student in and their grades. In contrast, the relationship between the time spent in

those activities does not show a clear relationship to or effect on academic

performance. Previous research, like Cotter’s, which was discussed earlier, has

demonstrated this relationship to always be of less significance in comparison to

other factors. Also discussed earlier, Zacherman has been one of the few to study this

yet ambiguous correlation and he found that over-involvement tends to impact

performance negatively, which could account for the decrease in GPA of the students

who dedicated 30 or more hours to extracurricular activities.

The following findings I present seek to explore other factors that could also be

important contributors to a student’s academic performance. A large number of

previous studies have demonstrated that the specific type of extracurricular activity

students are involved tends to have a clearer and stronger impact on their academic

performance and results (Purdey, Eitzen, Lumley, Cotter). Much research has found a

positive correlation for the category of arts and academics that sharply contrasts the

negative correlation of the category of sports. In this study students were mostly

involved in the following activities: Arts (27%), Academics (17%), Volunteering

(17%), Greek life (17%), followed by sports (13%), and work (13%). Students are

semi-evenly distributed among the different types of activities, however when I made

the correlation with GPA the results were not quite what I expected. I found that for

the six categories combined, the percentage of students with 3.5 or higher GPA

averages to 90%. Because the results were to skewed to the higher GPA ranges I

separated the students with a 3.0 or above GPA (91% of the total sample) and divided

that group into the same two categories of 3.0-3.49 and 3.5+. Most studies discussed

in the literary review indicated that the arts are and academics are the most

commonly associated with academic success and sports tend to be very negatively

associated. My data on the arts supports this previous research, with a little over half,

56%, of the students having a 3.5 GPA or higher. However the results of the academics
and sports categories showed the complete opposite; less than half the students, 41%,

where in the higher GPA group where as an astounding 76% of athletes reported

having a 3.5 or above GPA.

One last finding I found interesting is how the choice of major or career also

plays an important role. Research has shown that some majors tend to put more

pressure than others on students and impact their performance differently. The

humanities, social sciences and liberal arts majors (north campus) account for 59% of

the population, while science, math and engineering (south campus) account for 36%,

and 5% of the students are undeclared. Over half, 56%, of north campus students have

a GPA of 3.5 or higher compared to the less than half 38% of south campus majors.

However the effects of this factors are not as direct as those of involvement.

Conclusion

The findings of this study support the hypothesis that increasing

extracurricular involvement correlates positively with a better academic performance

and success. The results illustrate a strong tendency of GPA to increase in accordance

to the level of involvement in extracurricular activities. The interviews reveal possible

reasons for this positive correlation, which include extracurricular involvement forces

student to develop excellent time-management skills in order to fulfill all their

responsibilities. Arts and sports as method of escape and liberation and peer and

family support were also mentioned by interviewees as factors that contribute to their

“mental sanity” when academics are challenging.

One limitation of this study is the largely disproportional distribution of

involvement and grades. 95% of the subjects in this study were involved in at least
 one extracurricular activity. GPAs were also largely disproportionate with 91% of the

students reporting a 3.0 or above and 50% of the total population had a 3.5 or above.

This left almost no population with little involvement and/or poor academic

performance to be compared with, which could have inaccurately favored my

hypothesis. For this reason I mostly compared the two highest groups of each

category in the sample. For future studies I recommend gathering larger samples for

the population to be more representative.

Finally, an honest description of the project was given to all subjects prior to

their agreement and all subjects decided to participate fully out free will.

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Interview 1

Researcher: Can you start by telling us what is your year and your major?
Student 1: Yeah, I’m a fourth year biology major.
Researcher: Any minors?
Student 1: I have an anthropology minor.
Researcher: Ok, what’s your GPA?
Student 1: Oh god…
Researcher: Approximately?
Student 1: I feel like a 3.4
Researcher: 3.4 ok. How many extracurricular activities are you involved in?
Student 1: Does like a job count?
Researcher: Yeah but you like, when you mention your job just mention that it’s a job
and then however many…
Student 1: Do you want me to list them?
Researcher: Yeah!
Student 1: Ok, so I have Hooligan.
Researcher: Mhm
Student 1: And I am, in a, the president of a medical outreach club, that goes on
mission trips. And I have two jobs, and, I, on and off like sing in, a choir that’s at USC.
Researcher: Ok. Why did you join these activities?
Student 1: Ooh, I’ve been a musician my entire life, and, so, the music stuff kind of just
fell like, those just kind of happen, like I knew people who were involved in Hooligan
so I joined, like I joined choir at UCLA and then found out about this other choir cause
I just love music so like it’s what I needed to do to like stay sane like for me for like my
passion…
Researcher: Yeah…
Student 1: And then medicine is also a passion of mine but also like I need those
extracurriculars to like get into medical school or grad school, whichever route I go so,
I enjoy doing them but also they’re like more of a necessity for like the future of my
life.
Researcher: Yeah, and they also like make you feel like less stressed or something and
like for school?
Student 1: Yeah Hooligan and choir definitely do those things like they’re definitely
like my release I guess of, yeah.
Researcher: Ok, where you always involved in extracurricular activities, like ever
since you were in high school?
Student 1: Oh yeah!
Researcher: How involved, like have you, con… do you consider yourself like all…
Student 1: I am like a super type A person like I can’t be doing nothing so like I have
been doing a lot of different things like my entire life, in high school too like I was
doing like at least three or four things at once.
Researcher: That’s, has it always been like music relater or?
Student 1: Music has always been there, and then like in high school I did waterpolo
and student government so like that probably what changed into like the medical stuff
now, but music I’ve always done I’ve never done music, I didn’t do musical theatre
until college but I’ve done like choirs and like I played piano, I still play piano
obviously but I did like piano lessons and played in orchestras and stuff.
Researcher: Ok, do you feel like because of like, this helped you be better prepared for
college like all that you had been doing in high school?
Student 1: Yes. Especially for school like UCLA cause I got really good at time
management really early on and so when I came here I didn’t have the huge struggle
of like balancing everything that I feel like a lot of people have, cause I already knew
how to do it.
Researcher: And do you feel like right now, like, all your extracurricular involvement
has enhanced your overall college experience? Do you feel like you’re getting all that
you want to get out of college?
Student 1: Yeah, definitely, like I can’t imagine not doing any of these things like you
have to make decisions sometimes like “am I gonna stick with this? Or am I gonna quit
this” and, but like it’s never like “Oh I’m gonna quit everything, I’m just not gonna do
anything this quarter” I would feel like I would go crazy, like, I would never see
humans.
Researcher: Ok, so, that goes to my next question, where and when do you find the
most motivation like, for school?
Student 1: At my job
Researcher: At your job?
Student 1: Because I work, I have like a desk job for housing so like I sit there for like
hours at a time and like sometimes there’s things to do but there’s not always things
to do and so it’s like “Oh I’m here might as well like do my homework and stuff”
Researcher: Oh I see
Student 1: And then, I like I really micromanagement life so like I have my calendar
app and I will like look at the gaps and be like “Ok so I don’t have anything from 2 to 4
so I’m gonna go to the library…
Researcher: yeah
Student 1: And like do my homework cause that’s the only time I can!” And I HATE
staying up late like when I get home at the end of the day I’m going to bed I’m not
gonna sit up and do my homework…
Researcher: yeah…
Student 1: That’s not how I function
Researcher: That’s really good. You mentioned you had two jobs can you tell me
more, I’m guessing one of them is the housing…
Student 1: Yeah I work for housing dispatch, both jobs are for UCLA, I work for
housing dispatch and I am also a swim instructor for UCLA so I work like sixteen
hours a week at housing and like four hours a week at recreation cause we are only
allowed to work 20 total
Researcher: Yeah
Student 1: By the law so
Researcher: Yeah so like you’re basically working the maximum
Student 1: Yeah I work 20 hours a week between the 2 of them
Researcher: and your extracurricular activities, and your homework, ok wow…
And you get your eight hours of sleep?
Student 1: yeah pretty much
Researcher: wow ok, that’s impressive. What activity do you enjoy the most out of
everything that you do, which one do you enjoy the most and why?
Student 1
Student 1: I think Hooligan probably just indicative of how much time I spend working
on Hooligan things just cause it’s I think what makes it great is the group of people
because I don’t really have like, there’s not this kind of community in a lot of
extracurricular activities and so it, and I love doing it and I feel good when I do it, and I
feel like I am being helpful, and I have the skills that not a lot of people in Hooligan
have and so I’m often useful and it’s nice to feel useful
Researcher: Yeah, I agree…
Student 1: And also, all of my best friends are in this club so like…
Researcher: Ok that’s good, do you, were they your best friends before or did they
become, you met them here?
Student 1: yeah
Researcher: Ok I see. Do you ever feel like stressed and overwhelmed by school? And
if so how do you deal with it, how do you alleviate it?
Student 1: Yes I feel stressed, I force myself to take days off especially like with
something like Hooligan where even right now I’m doing so many different things for
like one show, and like I went in to it letting the people in charge know like “hey, I
know this is going to be a lot for me so like, I’m probably going to burn out at some
point, and I’m going to need to take a night off… like I don’t know what rehearsal it’s
going to be but there’s going to be a rehearsal where I’m just not going to come
because I need to take a mental health day and make sure to take time for myself, like
I literally schedule time where I am going to sit down on the couch and watch TV and
not do anything. And I think exercising is also really good for maintaining…
Researcher : You also exercise?
Student 1: Mhm, like mental health, just like swimming really clears my head, or going
on a really short run or something, even just walking around, getting fresh air…
Interviewer: ok that’s good, what is the busiest that you’ve ever been and what where
you doing and why? How did you manage and what did you accomplish? Wait, I think
it’s a lot of questions, do you want me to like, ok so what is the busiest time that you
remember that you’ve ever been in college?
Student 1: Last quarter, when I was all of sudden the music director in “Pippin” and I
was the president of my other club that was trying to like recruit members for our
spring break trip and like taking three classes, and trying to graduate, and I had just
started working for housing so I was like just starting to work like 15-16 hours a
week. And so I was like kind of just like everything happened at once and I was really
overwhelmed and I was insane.
Researcher: And how did you manage to not go crazy or burn out?
Student: I mean I did go crazy but I think I relied a lot on my friends to keep me
grounded cause I was just getting really stressed out in a way that I had never
experienced before that I kind of wasn’t prepared for and so I relied on my friends a
lot and I also started to micromanage really hardcore just to like literally
micromanaging when I was going to eat and sleep and all of those things.
Researcher: And for your friends what you’re saying, is it like it’s good that your
friends are there in the things that you’re doing because they help you stay….
Student 1: Yeah that and like if I needed to talk something out or like have someone
just be like “It’s going to be ok” and like that kind of thing….
Researcher 1: Do you feel like you made these friends, wait let me rethink that
question, like if you hadn’t joined all these clubs and activites and you hadn’t made
these friends do you feel like it would be harder for you to like push through
everything if you didn’t have the friends that you have right now?
Student 1: Yeah, I think I would’ve burned a lot sooner and I would’ve just crashed
and burned.... It would have been very sad.
Researcher: ok, so you already answered this question, do you ever give yourself a
break… describe your overall college experience like do you feel satisfied with all that
you’ve accomplished? Do you feel like you could have or could do more?
Student 1: I think like…
Researcher: Or if not…
Student 1: Sometimes I think that I could’ve done something differently but I’m not, I
wouldn’t say that I’m unsatisfied with like? In college you kind of get on a path and
you stick to that path and it’s kind of like by chance whatever club you fall in love
with. I kind of tried different clubs before I got here but I’m sure there’s another club
in campus that I could’ve fallen in love with just as much. I definitely think sometimes
like how would’ve my life be different, but I don’t regret and I don’t, I’m definitely
satisfied. I don’t think I could’ve done anything more cause I’m like at capacity but I….
yeah
Researcher: That’s good though, but not anything more like anything you would’ve
done differently or you’re ok with…
Student 1: Yeah!
Researcher: Ok, how happy are you with your grades? How important are they to you
and why?
Student 1: With grades, I think at a school like UCLA it’s hard because no one is ever
satisfied with their grades. I’m not super upset about my grades but I’m not like “oh
my God I’m the best student ever”.
Researcher: I mean 3.4 is pretty good I think…
Student 1: Yeah and the only thing that gives me anxiety is like graduate school,
mostly medical school because it’s like “oh you have to have above a 3.5 and, like I
already know I’m not a good test taker so, that’s out the window but, I mean grades
are important to me, but I don’t think they’re as important, like, I’m not going to spend
hours and hours every day, I don’t want to spend my college life hold up in a library,
that’s not how I want to live my life. I think because I made that decision I’m a much
more well rounded person now, than if I was just like an academic.
Researcher 1: How would you describe your study habits? How and when do you
make time for studying? Do you ever go to office hours? Do you spread out you’re
studying or cram the night before or something?
Student 1: It kind of depends on the class. For my science classes I will map out how
many, usually I’ll do a lecture a day, every day leading up to the test, however many
days it takes, if that makes any sense. For my north campus classes I definitely slack
one those because they are just different and studying for north campus classes seems
like a baby compared to south campus, which is an assumption that has come back to
bite me in some classes because some north campus classes aren’t as easy as you
think they are but I definitely like to spread it out. But I also, I cannot study for more
than four hours at a time. The longest I’ve ever studied is like on an eight-hour work
shift. I’ll like study all eight hours but that’s cause I have to be there and I have to sit
there… But I cannot just go to a library and knock out 8 hours it’s usually like I break it
up into chunks cause I need to like move around and rest my head, rest my brain and
stuff.
Researcher: Do you feel like college has helped you acquire abilities that will be useful
later in life and how?
Student 1: Yes, so many. Time-management, communicating in a professional way like
talking to professors, talking to people who are trying to, like, trying to get research
positions and you have to talk to people and go out an find it for yourself and working
with peers, like even with Hooligan where people who are younger than me are in
charge of me in my department and that’s not, it’s not weird because they have this
authority and I’m ok with that. And yeah, that’s such a loaded question! How could you
not learn something in four years? there’s so much to learn at college!
Researcher: Well, I mean you’ve done a lot of things so you definitely seem like you’ve
acquired those abilities but, you mentioned something about research and I know you
want to go to med school, can you talk more about it, have you been doing any
research in like?
Student 1: Yeah! I work in a behavioral neuroscience lab that studies PTSD in rats so I
actually, the graduate student that I work with because she’s got her PhD so she’s like
gone now. But I met her in choir here at UCLA so I networked with her that way so I
would just casually mention “hey if you need any undergraduates!” and she’s like
“actually I do, I need an undergraduate assistant”. So we did all the things and we read
all the papers, and I met with her and the professor in charge of their lab, and I
worked in there and it taught me a lot.

Interview 2
Researcher: Ok will you start by telling us what your year and your major is?
Student 2: I’m a third year Art History major, theatre minor, my GPA is 3.62…
Researcher: Ok, how many extracurricular activities are you involved in?
Student 2: I work at the hammer museum 15 hours a week, I also I’m the production
manager for a play that takes like 10 hours a week and I’m also assistant for scenic
design for Hooligan so that takes like 2 hours a week, so far cause we have build days
and that’s coming up…
Researcher: Ok so is that a total of 3 activities?
Student 2: Oh no and I have, I’m part of the art history undergraduate student
association and for that we have meetings of like an hour to two hours.
Researcher: Ok, why did you join these activities?
Student 2: I’ve been working because I need the money and I got it through work-
study. Also in both plays it’s because I’m interested in theatre and I just really like you
know working with those people and like the creative side and I’m part of the art
history undergraduate association because I want to be involved with my major and
like the department
Researcher: Ok were you always this involved in extracurricular activities like ever
since high school and how involved do you consider yourself throughout your school
trajectory how involved do you consider yourself to usually be in school?
Student 2: Well first of all, in Mexico in high school we don’t really have any
extracurricular actigvites like literally, none, the most extracurricular would be sport
but those were mandatory so we would do like an hour a week or something, we
didn’t really have any extracurricular activities but then when I went to law school, I
was a law major in Mexico I was involved with a student organization for
undergraduates I suppose that would be the translation, I was also part of the, of “el
colegio de abogados” you know what that is
Researcher: The college of lawyers….
Student 2: you know like, yeah the group of professionals in law you know in Tijuana.
I was also part of a school newspaper so I;ve always been invoved in college I was the
vicepresident of a club and you know
Researcher: yeah so like
Stident 2: Ever since college started. After high school Ive always been involved with
at least 2 of these
Researcher: Alright ok I see.
Sudent 2: And I’ve always worked so like you can add that.
Researcher: Yeah work counts. Do you feel like based on all that you were doing,
before going to college, do you feel like you were well prepared for it?
Student 2: Can you repeat the question like for extracurricular activities?
Researcher: yeah, based on everything that you were doing before starting college do
you feel like those things helped you be better prepared for college?
Student 2: I wouldn’t say that, it just so happens to be that I was in like high school,
and in the, I went to the same school in elementary and middle school, we had like the
same kind of thing, but I mean it’s just so happens to be that where my parents
enrolled me into elementary school, middle and high school they were very
disciplined, focused, so it was all about managing your time, and getting organized, it
was very rigorous academically so I do think those kinds of school prepare me to be
able to manage and you know, juggle a lot of activities but I don’t think that, I mean if
it weren’t for those schools I wouldn’t be able to
Researcher: So you would say that school, the curriculum in itself is what helped you
be prepared for…
Student 2: The school curriculum and like the values that were imposed it was very
discipline-focused
Researcher: I see. You already said why you work, has this work been a positive
experience in your life?
Student 2: Yes and no, it definitely takes time out of what I would like to do. I would
kike to get more involved in the theatre department or the art history department,
even though I work at a museum that’s related to my major and career, it’s not,
especially because we are like barely starting, bottom of the chain, and that has been a
struggle because I just want more and more but that’s, it is prepared me for what I
want to do later in my career but it’s a struggle, it’s sometimes annoying, frustrating,
like right now I’m just doing it for the money. And I would love to have that time and
invest it in something else instead of going to work right now but I understand why it
will be helpful later on.
Researcher: Where and when do you find the most motivation for school?
Student 2: School as an academic?
Researcher: yeah, school academically and going to school and classes? Pick your
major, where do you find that motivation?
Student 2: My motivation is right now to go to class, GPA, I don’t want to…
Researcher: So would you say your grades are motivating you…
Student 2: Grades, because I don’t want to get kicked out of honors.
Researcher: I see, ok.
Student 2: That’s definitely right now what’s motivating me and, but, no it’s always
been the grades, recommendation letters, definitely building up my resume.
Researcher: So, speaking of your grades, how happy are with your grades?
Student 2: Right now? I think I could do better but since I am doing all that stuff it’s
just been really exhausting and stressful and sometime I don’t do well under stress. I
can be really good under stress or I can be really bad like it goes either or, there’s not
a happy medium. I either like bail out and be like “no I can’t do this” and just sleep all
day or I’m like “yes lets get motivated wuuwuu!”
Researcher: Based on how you’re feeling
Student 2: Definitely
Researcher: What do you do to maintain your grades up, and how would you describe
your study habits since you mentioned that grades are so big to you?
Student 2: I don’t have study habits I normally procrastinate always, that’s my study
habit, I think I’m over confident because I’ve never failed a class, I’ve never had GPA
below 3.5, like ever in my life so I’m just like overconfident in what I’ve been taught
and I know that I can do it, ok I may like sleep all day, but I know ill do it and ill get an
A. So I don’t really study I just go to lectures whenever I do, and that’s it, do the
readings, do the homework, and whatever I have to do, that’s it like, review, I do not
really study study. I don’t do index cards, I never knew to do that, I don’t know how to,
I’ve never done that its just that “Oh ok, cool it’s down” I just, my elementary school
was very disciplined but also focused a lot on memorization, with the knowledge,
which is not as good as it sounds, but it really taught me how to memorize stuff and
throughout college it has helped me to memorize stuff but I don’t really have a study
habit, its just like, studying in my bed, fall asleep, study, food, fall asleep, I guess like
reading more maybe?
Researcher: How do you distribute your time like with all the activities that you do
and then for studying, would you say that separate them like “ok, I have this time to go
to my theatre rehearsal, and then this time to study, or is it based on whatever free
time you get? Like you choose to study or you just choose to not do anything?
Student 2: Oh yeah, I plan out my days ahead of time, like I do reminders on my notes
or calendar and I go to sleep like “ok so I have this time tomorrow, I have this I have
that, like I’m going to get food at this time, I’m going to catch up on some readings,
sleep, I mean of course everything’s flexible but that’s how I try to go on about my
day…
Researcher: Ok do you ever feel stressed or overwhelmed by school activities?
Student 2: Oh yeah, all the time
Researcher: How do you, all the time? And how do you usually alleviate or try to make
everything less stressful?
Student 2: I try to chill, take a deep breath, motivate myself, listen to some music,
definitely I have to get myself in the mindset of “ok, chill you’re doing your best and if
you’re not, what can you do better?” And just try to do it cause it’s not always that
easy, but I’m definitely stressing out all the time. The other thing is that I get bored
really easily so, like I have an interview on Friday for Malinet’s movies, so that kind of
movie club and that’s going ot be another extracurricular if I get it, but that’s just
because I’m bored with work right now, so…
Researcher: Ok so like it’s not enough, who do you say…
Student 2: It’s not like, I need another challenge.
Researcher: You want to be doing more?
Student 2: Yes more because it’s interesting for me and because one of the plays that
I’m in is going to end in 3 weeks so I want to do something else…
Researcher: Ok I see, so like you want to fill up the time that that’s going to…
Student 2:Yes! Because if I have too much free time, I’m not going to, I’m going to just
sleep like it’s not, I need to keep myself busy to motivate myself, inspire myself and,
just to do something.
Researcher: So would you say that when you’re like, when… you like to keep yourself
busy to be more productive cause otherwise you know that you’re not like going to do
anything? Is that what you’re saying?
Student 2: Yeah!
Researcher: Ok, do you ever give yourself a break though? Time to just be like “this
day or this time I’m not going to do anything and I’m just going to relax”?
Student 2: Yes, but sometimes it’s bad because I… It really depends on how I’m feeling
so if I wake up and I feel like I just want to sleep and not really think about anything or
I’m, like I like to take a long shower, that kind of really basic thought that’s what didn’t
wake me up for school today! So it’s like ok yes I can have some me time but I
shouldn’t leave my prior commitments to fall, like I should commit and do it if that
makes sense, and sometimes I don’t do that and I’m like “I’m going to sleep and I’m
not going to answer any e-mails today” and that’s very bad.
Researcher: so sometimes you’re like “ok I’m going to treat myself” and based on how
you’re feeling you could completely ignore your responsibilities…
Student 2: Everything! Yes, yes. I just had a conversation with my bosses yesterday
actually.
Researcher: Ok, and how are you like, how do you plan to deal with this? How will you
control yourself from giving yourself just enough time to rest but not going over the
boundaries where you have to neglect your responsibilities?
Student 2: I mean in a perfect world, I’d just have to get organized but the thing is I do
get organized but, if I’m not feeling like it, I’m going to neglect my schedule so even
though I said “I’m going to study four hours from 2-4” I’ll be like “nah man, I’m hungry
right now, I want to sleep I’m just going to do that” like sometimes I don’t respect my
own schedules so definitely get more organized and just chill because I’m a very
anxious person so whenever I’m anxious and in a bad mood or place I’ll just totally
neglect everything and that’s not good…
Researcher: You say you procrastinate a lot, but whenever you do procrastinate or
have free time or whatever…
Student 2: I schedule my procrastinations I don’t know if that makes sense. I have a
presentation tomorrow but I knew that I was going to be so overwhelmed these past 2
weeks that I was like “ok, it’s fine I’m just going to do it the day before” but at least I
scheduled it so I’m in the mindset of, I’m prepared mentally to go ahead and do it even
though I’m doing it the night before, it’s not like “oh my god I forgot!” It’s like I know it
is there, I know I have to do it, but I don’t have time right now, so I’m just going to do it
the night before.
Researcher: Ok, I see, do you, you say at the end of the day you’re confident that you
always get good grades, so if you had to choose in between so you’re like the least
stressed and you could choose between giving yourself a break or doing something
that you really enjoy like your theatre clubs or whatever, but then you also have an
assignment due what would you usually do? Or like a test! Let’s say, would you choose
to study, or would you clear your mind first, or try to go to a club meeting?
Student 2: I would first do what I enjoy, which would be. No ok, let’s see today for
example, I went to sleep, so instead of going to class I slept, I took a long shower, I
took a long breakfast/lunch time, and then I had a meeting for the theatre production
that I’m in, and then I had rehearsal. And tomorrow I have my final group
presentation which is almost my final grade but, I mean, I guess first resting then
doing something I enjoy then at the very very end just doing what I have to do for the
test. But like I said, I schedule it so it’s fine.
Researcher: Do you feel like the abilities that you have acquired with your extra-
curriculars and with school, would you say they have contributed significantly with
the abilities that you’re going to need for your professional career?
Student 2: Can you repeat the question?

Interview 3
Researcher: Ok, so what’s your year and your major?
Student 3: I am a fourth year, senior, graduating this quarter and I’m a
business/economics major.
Researcher: Ok, how many extracurricular activities are you involved in and include
work, do you have a job?
Student 3: I work on campus at CLICC, which is, goodness I should know this, it is the
college library instructional computing commons, so we lend out laptops, we take care
of the printing lab at Powell and in YRL, and I work 19 hours a week and then other
than that, I’m not really involved in any on-campus organizations, I’m a member of
like an honors society, a co-ed service fraternity, but I’m not active in either and I
don’t really take part in those activities, I used to do choir it was kind of like a, I got
units for doing it but it wasn’t like a requirement in any of my major or minor things…
Researcher: It was just for fun?
Student 3: yeah, kind of for fun and a bonus to get 2 units
Researcher: Ok, oh so you got academic credit?
Student 3: Yeah it was a class, you can get 2 units of A’s just for attending.
Researcher: So you say you’re not currently active in your fraternity and other
organization, but where you ever and how much time would you usually spend doing
club-related activities?
Student 3: I was never active in the honors society thing, it was like a, my mom
wanted me to be a member of it so I paid and joined but I never actually did anything
with them. I was active in my fraternity for about a year, maybe two years, it was a
pretty big time commitment we had weekly meetings on Wednesday, which were 2-3
hours and then on top of that, we did service, bonding activities, and then I was on
board for one termn, so we had to do meetings every Monday, for like an hour or two
on top of that, it was a pretty big time commitment and it was kind of like scattered
everywhere, so the meetings were scheduled every week but we did things with other
schools, or hanging out with your brothers, it would be like when people are free so
it’s not really scheduled, so I would say it was like 10 hours per week, on top of the
meetings because you had to interview people as well, so that’s one of the reasons
why I dropped because it was kind of a big time commitment and I wasn’t reallyD
getting anything out of it and I was, I didn’t really like the people that were in it.
Researcher: Do you feel like you got something out of it?
Student 3: yeah I definitely feel like when I was pledging it was fun, when I, I met a lot
of people through it, and I still talk to a lot of people from it, but the fraternity kind of
does the exact same thing every year like the recruitment process is the same every
year so it was different for me when I was being recruited and when I recruited other
people but then when it came to more random recruitment it just got like tedious, so I
stopped. But I definitely made friends and it was interesting to be a part of it.
Researcher: How did you, why did you decide to join originally?
Student 3: Well I joined during the spring quarter of my freshman year, so I saw a
friend who was in it and it seemed like he had a lot of fun with people like they went
to a lot of places in LA and I’m not from LA so it was like to me “Oh I get to see what’s
going on in LA, that’d be kind of fun” so I did meet people and I mean the pledging
experience was fun, my friends were in it, and I had fun, so that’s kind of joined to
maybe to meet people and explore LA.
Researcher: So prior to college, were you involved in extracurricular activities in high
school and if you were involved at all, how involved would you say you’ve been like, I
guess throughout all your life before college?
Student 3: Well before college I, I played piano, that was like a pretty big commitment
I practiced more than an hour every day, and then I used to teach English to kids on
weekends, and we had to plan our own lessons so that was time during the week as
well. We were required, I took IB, so the International Baccalaureate program, so it
was, we were required to do a sport. So I was on the basketball team for a year, and
then, I did, trying to think what else, there was this other program that I did where we
supported kids from Uganda, so we did this walk on the great wall every year, we did
like bake sales, we had to take registrations and it was kind of like a year-long process
of organizing and I did that a couple of times, so, I would say I was pretty involved
consistently all through high school, but studying probably did take up most of time.
Researcher: Would you say that all your involvement including now, would you say
that it’s mostly because you wanted to try something new or because it’s required in
some area of your career or school or whatever or half and half what would you say?
Student 3: I feel like before college definitely a lot of what I did was required, so for
the IB program you had to do a sport so that;s why I did basketball, you had to do
some kind of service component, so I enjoyed doing the tutoring part, but I probably
wouldn’t have, the program would not have been available if there wasn’t a required
service component. Whereas in college it was a lot more what Im interested in so I
tried out things that I was interested in so idid choir before so I tried choir, and I
didn’t really like the program here so that’s why I stopped. As for a job, I enjoymy job
and I also feel like it’s, I should be responsible for some of my own spendings since I
am an adult now, but definitely my parents have never required me to get a job, like
they have encouraged me and said “if you could get a job and see what it feelslike to
have job” but they never said like “hey, ok you have to get a job or else it’s like, we
won’t give you money”
Researcher: So it’s like mostly you who feels the responsibility to…
Student 3: Yeah it’s mostly me.
Researcher: Ok, so do you feel like your involvement in high school better prepared
you for college?
Student 3: You mean like the extracurriculars?
Researcher: Yeah.
Student 3: I guess maybe in a way I joined a service fraternity because I’m not oppsed
to the idea of doing service because I’ve done it before, but I wouldn’t say it really
prepared me like the extracurricular activities I do, it’s not something that you had to
prepare your whole life for, I mean I don’t do sports, so I suppose if someone else was
on the soccer team, maybe if they’ve done soccer before it would prepare them, but
there’s nothing that I do that really requires like preparation maybe apart from choir,
no I wouldn’t say it’s highly correlated.
Researcher: How about your, everything that you do now, your job and your
fraternity, do you feel like it has enhanced your overall college experience? And if so,
how?
Student 3: Yeah, I definitely think so, I think doing stuff on campus, lets you see more
of the people and more of the school because as a bus/econ major I am pretty much
limited to the same people in all my classes, so you definitely see a lot more of the
student population you kind of se people from different backgrounds like in my
fraternity there is a lot of low-income family children so I probably would have never
known about their struggles unless I was in the fraternity, and also, my job, has, I feel
like it has informed a lot about what’s available on campus that people, I think a lot of
the school like doesn’t know, for example, I’m really aware of the eduroam wifi and
how to use it, and why we should be using it but I feel like, I’d confidently say more
than 50% of the population doesn’t use it and doesn’t know that they’re paying for it.
Researcher: Ok, where and when do you find the most motivation for school? Where
are you like “oh I need to do my work right now”?
Student 3: Well I, grew up, kind of being pressured by my mom to do well in school, to
get A’s, so definitely grades do motivate me like the fact that I want to get a good
grade, so for example if I’m writing an essay I know that if I just hand it in I know I’ll
get like passing grade, but, I push myself even to do really well on first-drafts, so
definitely grades is one, and second of all it’s interest so I’m taking this English
composition class for business majors right now and I feel like this class might be one
of the most useful classes I’ve taken at school and it’s about writing in the real world,
and I think it’s like this is actually something that will help me in real life so I’m
actually interest in learning and I guess to some extent my future job, because I have a
job offer already, but there’s kind of like a GPA requirement, somewhere in the back of
my head I am aware that I have to do well in school or else I will like lose my job so…
Researcher: How happy are you with your grades and would you mind telling me
what your GPA is?
Student 3: I think it’s, my current GPA is 3.6 I want to say 65, I think, I’m not quite sure
I haven’t looked at, really calculated recently. I’ve gotten I think most of my grades fall
in the range of like A-, B+, but I definitely have gotten like B- before and I did take a
class that was even lower than that so I retook it and I got a B+ last quarter, I would
say for the most part, I think my grades are reflective of the amount of effort that I put
in but there are a couple of econ classes that I took that I wasn’t very happy, I think in
particular there was a class I took last spring I want to say, I think it was econ160 or
something, and my friend and I we put a lot of effort into the class, we did all the
questions and we both ended up I think with B? I think we both got a B in the class
and I know a lot of people think that’s a good grade but it was kind of unproportional
to the amount of work I put in, and there wasn’t really an explanation that the
professor could give or I could give myself, I feel like the class wasn’t really clear on
grading and what students did wrong, I think one thing that UCLA really doesn’t
clarify to students is like when you take a final, after you take a final and you go to
your teacher, sometimes you never even know what grade you got, you never know
what you got wrong, I had a case where I took a class and the final wasn’t even
calculated into my grade and I didn’t even know, like this quarter I talked to someone
else who was also in the class and he said “oh did you know that the final wasn’t even
calculated into our grade” like the professor never told us, he never wrote to us, the
department never wrote to us, so…
Researcher: So like the final just didn’t count and you didn’t know?
Student 3: Yeah, like I know that I got a bad grade for the class, but I also thought it
was because I also did bad on my final, but I didn’t know until this quarter it was
because the final never counted.
Researcher: Oh wow ok that’s useful information so
Student 3: Like I could have gotten 100% on my final and it wouldn’t have mattered
because it never counted so I feel like there is no clarification at all on what happens
after final exams, it’s up in the air, if you go look for it you might find it, if you don’t, if
you go too late it might already be destroyed…
Researcher: Oh wow, and what, would you, you say your grades a reflection of how
much you study and would you say you spend most of your time either at work or
studying and if you had let’s say, if you didn’t work do you think you could be doing
better at school because you would have that time to study?
Student 3: No I’ve never had to prioritize studying.
Interview 4

Researcher: Ok can you start by telling us what your year and your major is?
Student 4: Sure, I’m a third year neuroscience major.
Researcher: How many extracurricular activities are you currently involved in,
including if you have a job.
Student 4: I’m in three organizations on-campus, I’m in a fraternity and I work in a
research lab.
Researcher: Ok, why did you join these activities?
Student 4: I joined Greek life, I wasn’t planning to when I first came in, but freshman
year I figured it couldn’t hurt to rush, so I looked at a bunch of houses and ended up
coming to the house I’m in right now and I just really loved the people and so I ended
up joining and here I am three years later, and what else? Research, it’s, I don’t know
how in depth you want me to go…
Researcher: As much as you want.
Student 4: Ok, research I got into because I wanted to be involved with like research
just in general, but I was able to find a lab that combined diabetes research with
neuroscience research which is exactly what like, it’s the perfect combination for me
because I have diabetes too and I’m a neuroscience major, so that was really what got
me into research lab specifically that I’m in right now, and then as far as the
organization on-campus that I’m in FISH which stands for fellowship for international
service and home, I got into that because I heard about it through friend and it’s a
basically it’s a volunteer organization combined with sort of a medical undertone and
so I liked the kind of synthesis of those two things because they are two things that I
am interested in so applied and got in and I’ve been there since my second year, and
then another organization Interaction basically what we do, is we teach neuroscience
to grade-schoolers, high-schoolers, sometimes adults but less often, and that was I
really like to teach and then neuroscience again, so that was a big reason why I got in
that organization so then, NUS which is the neuroscience undergraduate society which
you know, that’s pretty self-explanatory, and then I was in philosophy club previously
but, I kind of stopped going after midway through my second year, just because the
vibe of the club kind of changed and people became a little bit more focused on their
own opinions and kind of egos more than philosophy and like the truth so I, kind of
dipped out of that one, so that’s most of the extent of my involvement, other than just
IM sports and…
Researcher: What kind of IM sports are you involved in?
Student 4: I played, so in total I’ve played, IM basketball, spikeball, flag football,
dodgeball, and softball, I think I’ve yeah, I think that’s all.
Researcher: So, plenty of sports…
Student 4: Yeah a lot of them, yeah,
Researcher: Were you always that involved like ever since high school?
Student 4: Yeah, in high school I was really involved with a similar mix of, categories I
guess of organizations for instance like I was involved in a lot of volunteer
organizations, involved in tutoring which would be like teaching again, and then
athletic programs so that, you know, I played tennis for the varsity team in high school
and then just, I like to play basketball and soccer on the side, so I would say yeah, I
was pretty involved in high school, as I am in college.
Researcher: Ok, do you feel like all of that involvement helped you be better prepared
for college?
Student 4: Definitely, I think it helped me be better prepared because it’s hard
sometime to, you cant just all of a sudden be good at time management, you kind of
have to learn through being involved in some much stuff and kind of messing up
sometime and not managing your time well and that’s kind of how we learn. And so I
feel like being that involved with so many things in high school really kind of taught
me how to manage time into a bunch of different areas, rather than maybe just
focusing on one. So yeah I definitely feel like the level of involvement in high school
really prepared me for the level of involvement that I have now, in college.
Researcher: Do you feel like extracurricular involvement has enhanced your college
experience, you mentioned you’re involved in a lot of service organizations do you
want to talk a little bit more about that?
Student 4: Yeah sure. From a service perspective I think it’s definitely enhanced my
college experience simply because it’s always been something that I’ve enjoyed doing
and just realizing, for any activity really, just realizing that there’s other people out
there that really like to do the same things you do, whether it’s in college or anywhere,
it’s a really strong motivator to want to continue to do those things but also just,
makes you feel like there’s other people out there that you know, like to do the same
things you do, so I fell like for service that definitely was a really cool thing to
experience in a college setting and then as far as the other stuff I’m involved in I feel
like being in a Greek organization really just from the very beginning helped me
expand a friend group from the start, cause a big part of freshman year really is
coming in and not just being tossed altogether right, a random group and, it was really
a good way to solidify a group of people that I could, that I vibed with to start and then
from there it kind of functioned really well to help me branch out kind of into other
social settings, into groups, but also just within the organization itself…
Researcher: So like networking?
Student 4: Yeah exactly, it was really helpful for that because I started with a nice you
know solid base of you know, that I already knew. Yeah and then, what else? I would
say just as a whole, being in organizations as extra curriculars definitely enhances the
college experience, I think they just add a whole new like realm, a whole new side to
college because you could spend, you know everyone’s different, but you could spend
a lot of your time just studying but then, we always need a break, like psychologically
and so, extracurriculars are a really really good way to kind of let that stress go and
interact with other people, and then you know get back to everything else you want to
do. I think whatever it is trying as much different things as you can and being involved
in a lot of different areas of life, whether it’s social, like service-oriented, athletics-
oriented, I think being well-rounded in all of those, is, I think the most, I don’t know,
seems to make people the happiest, seems to be the one that’s the most beneficial for
the psychological health but, I don’t know.
Researcher: Ok so, speaking of studying, you’re in college, and it’s UCLA, how do you
manage your time? How much time do you spend studying compared to the time that
you spend doing other things? Do you have any free time and does that have like, I
know this is a heavy question, does it have evolved ever since you started school until
now?
Student 3: Yes, definitely. Ever since I started college, do you want me to start further
back or just mostly college?
Researcher: Mostly college, but however, if you feel something’s relevant, or like you
want to say something that you think is useful…
Student 3: Ok, I think over time, just, from high school to college on to now, I think,
time management is just, is that kind of what you’re wondering like how it
progresses? Like just…
Researcher: Yeah, like how much time do you spend doing other things as opposed to
studying like if you study more, also like talk about your grades, are you happy with
them, do you feel like if you spent more time studying you would, or do you do just
enough studying as you need to get the grades that you have?
Student 3: I think definitely coming just from getting, going through school to now,
you, you kind of learn how to mix them really well, cause even proportions of each one
I think is at least for me has been, when I feel the best, when I feel the most like happy,
when, because I feel like freshman year I was really coming into a school that I knew
was a good school but also hard school and I think that caused me to focus on
academics a lot, and maybe turn down other areas that might have actually enhanced
my ability to do good because I would have you know, come back with a fresh mind to
study or whatever but you know, I think I learned the hard way in terms of trying to
focus too much on studying and maybe sacrificing some of the other areas and tehn
sophomore year I feel like maybe I kind of went the opposite way. I started because of
freshman year I was like “oh just say yes to more invitations you know cause it’s the
only, you’re only in college once so I fell like I went that way and because of that I feel
like, my grades, they were still good, but they definitely dropped a little bit and then I
had to look at that kind of proportion to be like “oh man, I got to find a better
proportion cause I started one way, went the other and now as you might have
guessed, by junior year I just kind of found that middle between studying and, kind of
being social and being involved with stuff, cause over time my involvement in campus
at least cause I don’t really talk about that, has kind of just slowly gradually
progressed as I learn to manage the time that I had better, and then academically and
socially I feel like those were the two that were really kind of at war initially but I kind
of figured that out. I feel like each one cuts into the other no matter how you spend it,
if you study more you’re going to have less to do with you know social involvement
whatever it is, cause I know there’s that triangle, I don’t like sleep and social and like
food? I don’t know if that’s it, I might jus be hungry, it might not be food. But I feel like
whatever thing you choose to do you’re not doing the other so I feel like the best
advice was just try to find the middle between all three.
Researcher: I see so like speaking of your grades how happy are with your grades and
do you feel like there’s something you could do in the way you manage your time and
like the things that you do with your time, would you change your grades or are you
happy with them, or do you feel like it’s equally important to be well-rounded as you
mentioned before?
Student 3: I would say to start I’m pretty hard on myself like when it comes to school I
always have been not going to like but I, I feel like I’m never sully satisfied with my
grades…
Researcher: So you feel like you’ve always, you’ve don really good in school grade
wise
Student 3: Right, I’ve always done very well and I think always kind of, thinking I’m
not doing well, isn’t exactly the best motivation system but it’s kind of like how I’ve
functioned a little bit
Researcher: Like be hard on yourself?
Student 3: Right, I think deep down I’m happy with what I’m doing but it definitely, I
feel like it affects me a little bit more compared with other people, if a grade is maybe
less than I though it was going to be, if I understand, there’s a difference for me
between feeling what I should have gotten and did versus what I know was going to
happen. I guess a better way to say that is like, I have a pretty good awareness of how
I’m going to do in something and if it’s lower than what I honestly feel like it should
have been for whatever reason it is, it could be my fault, it could be someone, maybe
the teacher did something weird whatever3 it is, that’s usually what upsets me the
most, the difference between reality and what I feel like, it should have been the truth,
whatever the cause if that’s my fault or not and so, I think at the end of the day I guess
I’m happy with grades, but again just having the pressure of you know med school
coming, cause I am planning on going you know that definitely affects how much I
focus on not doing the best.
Researcher: So this pressure that you put on yourself…
Student 3: Right
Researcher: To get good grades how, has it changed has any outside factors like in
college, during your time here or maybe even before have changed this pressure that
you put on yourself, do you feel like it’s getting worse or do you feel like it’s just
learning to… handle it better or?
Student 3: I feel like, college especially UCLA probably has just taught me that you’re
not always going to do the best, like you can’t always be the best, you know that is
possible, and that’s just the result of, it’s kind of cliché but just, life, stuff doesn’t
always work out like you want it to, sometimes it’s luck sometimes it’s something
actually went wrong whatever it is, and I think UCLA really taught me to, just live with
it, but not live with it in the sense that I’m always pushing it away, but accepting that
that’s; sometimes how things go, and it’s more detrimental to focus in a past failure for
whatever reason it is than to focus on how well you can do later on.

Interview 5
Researcher: Ok, can you start by telling me what your year and your major is?
Student 5: I am a sophomore English major with a theatre minor.
Researcher: Ok, how many extracurricular activities are you involved in, including
your job, can you list them?
Student 5: That’s going to depend on how we’re defining extracurricular activities so
like, I help run a non-profit organization, which would probably be considered
extracurricular activity, I’m in Hooligan which is an extracurricular activity, I write
novels which would probably be considered an extracurricular activity, I’d say those
are probably the main ones.
Researcher: Ok, can you, expand a little more on what you do in each of the other ones,
I know you say you write novels so that’s pretty self-explanatory but about the other,
two was it two? Yeah
Student 5: Yes
Researcher: So as a member of the Hooligan theatre company I work on most
productions generally as an actor and performer and for the non-profit organization I
help with strategy and publicity for the non-profit, the women’s coalition which aims
to try and subdue corruption in the family court system, around family court systems,
specifically as it pertains to gender bias against women in cases of custody.
Student 5: Ok, and any other activities that you do during your free time consistently?
Researcher: All sorts, but I don’t know if I would categorize any of them as
extracurriculars…
Student 5: Ok we will talk about that later, were you always involved in
extracurricular activities ever since high school and how would involved do you
consider yourself to be overall in school?
Researcher: In school or extracurricular activities?
Student 5: Throughout all your school history but, everything…
Researcher: Ok but we are talking about…
Student 5: extracurricular
Researcher: Yeah yeah yeah, aside from going to class, studying and everything else
that’s mandatory.
Student 5: I would say that I’ve been significantly to very involved, I was in 12
different theatre productions back in high school which would often take many hours
out of my day, I was also in varsity tennis, and I was holding down a job at the same
time so often my day would look like we’d get out of school at like 2:30 or we would
rehearse for 3 hours, get in your car, change in your car into your work uniform, go to
work and then work until 10:30, go home and sleep, so, pretty much for a time I was
about as involved as I could be, in extracurricular activities in high school. In college,
I’d say I’m not as involved just because I’m not working and that was a big time
commitment and now that I don’t have that I would say I’m decently involved right
now but now overly involved in extracurriculars…
Researcher: ok, speaking of your job, you’re saying it took up a lot of your time, and, in
high school, were you happy with your grades in high school?
Student 5: Yeah, I’ve never been much of a perfectionist about my own grades so, I had
like a 4.2 or something like that and it was fine.
Researcher: Ok did you work because you wanted to or out of necessity?
Student 5: I worked because my mom could not pay our rent so it was definitely out of
necessity.
Researcher: Ok, thank you for being so direct, so I wanted to know, if you would not
have had to work, what do you think that you would have spent your time, that free
time that you would have gotten on, would you have been involved more? Would you
have…
Student 5: Absolutely you know, I would have been playing video games and likes
some…
Researcher: ok so you do you think it’s good that you were working, it helped you
stay…
Student 5: It was a very rewarding experience, it also happened, it just happened to be
a really good job, waiting tables, a good life experience, always a good fallback job that
makes it, a decent living wage even for adults and so, I would definitely say that it was
a good thing that I was working even if at the end of the day sometimes I would like…
Researcher: Yeah that’s good
Student 5: I’ve contested that.
Researcher: So, do you feel like all of this that you were doing helped you be better
prepared for college or do you feel like there is something that you could have done to
be better prepared?
Student 5: It all made college look very easy, just because I had significantly more free
time ever since coming to college, I don’t know if my extracurriculars really prepared
me academically though, it was my academics that prepared me academically, but
extracurriculars are a solid way of feeling like you’re more on top of things rather than
things are on top of you, and that’s an important piece of succeeding in all areas of life
which includes academics…
Researcher: So you don’t work right now right? So where do you…
Student 5: No, at least I don’t get paid for my non-profit work so I do not consider it
work…
Researcher: Right, where and when do you find the most motivation for school? Like
for what you’re doing academically like, for the career that you hope…
Student 5: I honestly find the most motivation when the deadline is very close…
Researcher: Fair enough! Out of all...
Student 5: Or specifically because one of my career paths is creative writing so when I
feel artistically inspired, so if I see a piece of art that moves me then that’s inspiring as
well, but that’s very specific to me in my field. If I was a pre-med that would not be the
case I would not look at a piece of art and be like “man! I’m really motivated to do
chemistry right now!”
Researcher: Ok, out of everything that you do what activity do you enjoy the most and
why? And which one do you devote your time the most to?
Student 5: I enjoy socializing the most probably, and I devote most of my time to
socializing I’m just an unadulterated, unambiguous, unapologetic extrovert so…
Researcher: ok, and what about, for the activities that you do, like your profit
organization, your theatre company and what was the other thing, there were like 3
things?
Student 5: Writing novels?
Researcher: Oh yeah! Ok out of those 3 things which one do you spend the most time
on?
Student 5: Theatre.
Researcher: Theatre?
Student 5: Yes.
Researcher: And how do you feel like whenever you’re doing theatre like how does
that, does it help…
Student 5: It’s a social outlet for me…
Researcher: Ok I see…
Student 5: Anyway you can finish your question though, cause, no yeah like I was just
going to ask does it make you, just like a social outlet, that basically answers the
question, to make you feel like less, to make you think less about school, to be more,
you know, you like being in contact with human beings…Yeah I would say that I think
about school at a bare minimum level anyway but…
Researcher: Ok! That leads to my other question…
Student 5: But I’m good at writing so I still get all the A’s so it’s all good
Researcher: Do you ever feel overwhelmed by school? Or like stresses out because of…
Student 5: No, no…
Researcher: No?
Student 5: Not since coming to college back in high school, I would be like, yeah 4 AP’s,
and working 25 hours a week sure, college? I write like a paper a week and it’s like a
4-page paper, takes me like 2 hours, that’s what I did for the week, it’s like, I;m not
doing anything
Researcher: How happy are you with your grades, like do you have good grades can
you…
Student 5: I’m very happy! I have a
Researcher: Do you mind sharing your GPA?
Student 5: I have about a 3.85 GPA or so, and I’m very happy with that…
Researcher: Yeah I would be very happy with that too! Um ok, I see…
Student 5: because apparently that’s good enough to get me into the best graduate
schools yay!
Researcher: Yeah I mean, of course…
Student 5: Well that wouldn’t have gotten you in to the best colleges that’s like, I had a
3.85 coming out of high school so…
Researcher: Well yeah because of AP’s and honors and stuff…What is the busiest that
you have ever been, well you already mentioned that time in high school…
Student 5: Yeah, senior year in high school was the busiest I’ve ever been in my entire
life.
Researcher: What about college?
Student 5: Doesn’t compare, it’s not even close I have so much free time I’m going to
finish this interview and go back and play videogames and then think about “maybe
I’ll go to class tomorrow”. Actually that is currently a conversation I am having with
myself, it’s like “am I going to wake up for my 9:30 am or am I just going to play video
games and then not do it but then still turn in the extra credit and I got an A on my
essay so I’m fine”…
Researcher: Ok so how do you, so your major is english right?
Student 5: Yes.
Researcher: So do you think you get like these good grades, why do you think you
have these good grades, because you’re just like, you love what you’re doing or you’re
more like, is there something like outside source that motivates you or like…
Student 5: Oh it has nothing to do with motivation, I get good grades because I’m
particularly good at what I am doing and other people are not, it’s not that I’m
motivated or I put more work in, it’s just that I am naturally better than the other
people…
Researcher: And do you enjoy it?
Student 5: I do enjoy it, like, give me a poem, tell me to write an essay on it, I’ll like
smile and be like “sure! I’ll have that ready for you in an hour” like I love writing I
guess…
Researcher: Do you feel like what you are doing on the side somehow has an impact
on what you’re doing academically or do you feel like what you’re doing academically
is completely separate and has just come from yourself or do you think there is an
external influence, that comes…
Student 5: I mean there is an enormous overlap difference, like you would not ask a
pre-med student like “what is your”… who was interning at a hospital, whether that
affects their academics, of course it does! Cause they are academically trying to be a
doctor and they are working essentially as a doctor in the same way my academics,
I’m going to be getting a creative writing concentration in English, I’m doing creative
writing workshops and then what’s my hobby on the side? Creative writing! It’s the
same thing! I’m just essentially doing more of my major as a hobby as a an
extracurricular but it’s essentially just me doing more academics as an extracurricular
so there’s, it’s not just overlap they’re the same thing, they are just the same sort of
circle…
Researcher: Yeah , I see…
Student 5: Same with theatre right? Cause I’m a theatre minor and then what I’m
doing, I’m in theatre I actually am in shows what am I going to be doing for a theatre
minor, I’m acting in shows!
Researcher: You’re basically expanding your like curriculum, that’ s required by your
major and your minor into your like, social independent not school life?
Student 5: Exactly!
Researcher: ok
Student 5: Because I just happened to love my cademics so then I do them even when I
don’t have to do them
Researcher: Right, so how about compared to when you say you were in varsity tennis
right? Like, were you ever stressed like? Ok so, would you ever, you’re definitely not
stressed right now in college but like, let’s talk about high school like when you were
doing all these other things that were not related to school…
Student 5: Yeah
Researcher: Do you, were you ever stressed?
Student 5: No, just because I didn’t care about school…
Researcher: I see, you still were doing well in school anyway so…
Student 5: I still don’t care about school, that much, I never have and that’s, when
people get stressed about academics it’s because they care, I’ve never cared so it’s like
I never get stressed…
Researcher: Well I guess you’re lucky I guess cause you still do well…
Student 5: Yeah!
Researcher: ok I was going to ask you to describe your overall college experience how
satisfied are you with your overall college experience, ok we’ve talked about your
academics, and your extracurriculars, and you seem to be pretty satisfies on that…
Student 5: I am…
Researcher: But you can talk about everything else like try to include, I don’t know
like…
Student 5: Like 8,5 out of 10 I’m very satisfied.
Researcher: Ok, very satisfied! Ok how about just your overall college experience or
just about any experiences you’ve had with friends or like relationships or like, I don’t
know like, anything else that’s like your personal life you know, maybe even your diet
or like everything in general… Or just being alone for the like, by yourself like would
that….
Student 5: Ok,
Researcher: Just describe everything yeah….
Student 5: Ok so, that’s a lot of things so, what’s my focus on these things, cause I could
just tell you like “Oh ok! So my romantically things started with this and this and then
this happened and I wish I could just…
Researcher: Just something that you feel like wow it has an impact on how you feel
and like your drive towards like your finishing
Student 5: Pretty much my college experience has been a lot of things that distract me
from doing well and the, I don’t know well l…