If you are reading this then chances are, financially, you can’t relate to 50% or more of college students. You have a nice salary, time off, a retirement plan, and benefits.
1 in 2 college students are broke. They come from low-income households; many have other responsibilities that, in the short-term, might even be more important than school such as making enough money for living necessities.
I know about this story very well because I worked full time--not part-time--while I was in college. If not, how would I have enough money to make it?
So, how do students benefit from online studying? You have to freeze your existing reality and enter the world and problems of a college student today.
My name is Gerald, so let’s say "Jerry" is one of the roughly 50% of federal Pell-eligible students (low-income students) in college. Jerry doesn’t have the luxury going to class for 15 to 20 hours a week and then studying for 30 to 40 hours a week. Like me when I was in college, and you reading this, Jerry has to work.
He doesn’t have time to make the right friends, to get invited into the right study groups, to meet up with classmates in the dorm room or in the library. Jerry can’t make it to the TA’s extra session or the limited office hours. Jerry won’t make it to a success center on campus. Jerry has to go make money, and he is missing out on all of the traditional offline support that if he was networked into, he can be a part of.
How do students benefit from online studying? Simple. Think of Jerry, and ask yourself, “What if Jerry could deeply study with his classmates, and be networked with them online?” Right now he can’t participate in the offline experiences, but that beautiful thing we call The Internet where students already live, can be used to deeply benefit Jerry and all of his peers. They can ask questions, put their heads together, tackle difficult problems, see through a different set of eyes, and do all of this without being bound by location or time via an online studying platform.
It’s not just Jerry or the 50% (or more) students in a similar situation, there are students from a wide variety of demographics and backgrounds who could benefit from an online studying platform that meets students where they are.
At CircleIn, we’re here to bring students closer together and don’t be shy to ask about our grant funding. We’re partnering with 13 more higher ed institutions to improve student success and shrink D’s, F’s and W’s with our easy to use studying app.