Impact on Free Time Due to College Enrollment

Group B3: Devyn Carmen, Zetta Kennedy, Mayra Saldana

EDT180B
Gary Lewallen
December 1, 2016

Group B3
Impact on Free Time Due to College Enrollment

For this research project, our group decided to research how being enrolled in a college of
the students choosing influences the amount of free time they have on their hands. It is a
common theme in university lifestyle to not spend as much time as you normally would on
friends, family, or other effects because of the large amounts of homework involved. However,
what had not been inquired into before was if certain colleges entailed a heftier devotion of time
than others. Our group felt that we could connect personally with this research question as none
of us have any free time now, and it would be of interest to find out how students in other
colleges spend their free time. The group created a Google Form to effectively interview students
in other classes, and hopefully other colleges. The form was administered via Gary Lewallen to
the many pupils in his classes, including the online course. This was the easiest way to gain
access to hundreds of students experiences in Arizona State University swiftly. In the survey, a
diverse group of questions were asked. For example, we questioned which college they were
enrolled in, how many credit hours they were taking, and the ways that they spent their free time
throughout the week. After receiving 99 responses, we feel that we have collected an ample
amount of data to analyze for our purposes.
Our results showed that as students began to take a heftier credit-load, the amount of free
time that they had remained the around the same. It is of utmost importance that a college student
take a course load that is effective for them and that they know how to balance their school life
with their personal time. Although, as exemplified by the graph below, it seems that even as
students take more credit hours, they are still capable of achieving a balance in their personal
1

Group B3
Impact on Free Time Due to College Enrollment

life. Surprisingly, the amount of credit hours did not have as big of an impact on a pupils free
time as we initially thought that it would.

In this next graph, we analyze which colleges were the most prominent in our results. We
realize that because of the large number

Group B3
Impact on Free Time Due to College Enrollment

of students attending the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Mary Lou Fulton
Teachers College, some of our results may be skewed. However, we maintained alertness of
other colleges in our results by noticing how many students from each college participated in the
form.

In this last graph, we analyze our results in a different format that tells a more detailed
story from a new perspective. One can tell how the amount of free time a student have fluctuates
with relation to how many credit hours they are currently taking. Although, most likely due to
our sample size, the results are erratic and do not display a definite pattern.

Group B3
Impact on Free Time Due to College Enrollment

Group B3
Impact on Free Time Due to College Enrollment

Looking at these graphs, it appears that the various forms of college enrollment,
specifically credit hours, do not have a noticeable impact on the amount of free time one has. It
appears that there may be other factors at work here. If we were to do this research project again,
I would add two more questions: do you commute to school, if so how long, and if they work,
and if so how long. This would allow for many layers of analysis and would better direct the
project. I would also change the answers that included ranges to individual numbers. This made
the Excel Analysis very difficult and interpreting the data much more strenuous than it needed to
be. Though with the data we have now, it can be noted that there seems to be no correlation
between credit hours or which college the student goes to and the amount of free time they have.
Perhaps there will be another time to research this more thoroughly.