Whether it’s a late night to hit the books or the party scene, freshmen have seniors beat.

First-year students both party and study more than seniors, according to a Web-based study of 284 students by the Division of Student Affairs at New York University.

First-year students spend more time studying and socializing compared to upperclassmen, who spend the majority of their time on internships and jobs, according to the report.

The survey also showed that first-year students spend typically 45.5 hours a week on coursework, while their upperclassmen counterparts only spend 36 hours a week.

But first-years also socialize an average of 18 hours per week, while upperclassmen spend only 15.4 hours, according to the survey.

‘If the survey is in fact valid, my take is that juniors and seniors see the light at the end of the tunnel and realize that soon they’ll have to be employed,’ said Tibor Palfai, Syracuse University professor of drugs and human behavior.

Upperclassmen logged more hours than freshmen when it came to real-world work experience or internships, working an average of 10.5 hours per week to the first-year students’ 6.3 hours per week.

The study, conducted by Marc Wais, vice president of student affairs at NYU, tested the amount that college students sleep versus the amount of time devoted to academics during the course of a week.

‘We’re taking a much more holistic approach at timing this to see how many hours per week a student sleeps and how much time a student spends on academics,’ Wais said.

The first-of-its-kind survey was offered to all NYU students during the week from Feb. 26 to March 4.

‘There are schools who study how students use their time; however, the ones that do, they’ll ask it all at one snap moment,’ Wais said. ‘There is no school that nearly tracks students over a one-week period using the Web survey that we do.’

The participants were instructed to log in their eating, sleeping and academic preparation time, amongst 10 other categories.

‘We tried to make it really easy for the students, so they could come back a couple of times daily and log in their times,’ Wais said.

According to the NYU news release, the reason behind the survey was to find useful information regarding the lifestyles of NYU students, so that the ‘university can provide programs and services that best fit their lifestyles.’

This all leads to the question: Who do you think studies and parties harder – freshmen or seniors?

Do Freshmen study more than seniors?

‘I don’t think freshmen study more than seniors, since they are freshmen, and they think that they have three more years to study and make it up.’-Devan Miles, freshman retail management major

‘It depends on the major and classes that the student takes.’-Evan Cole, freshman entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises and marketing major

‘Study wise, I think it’s true … as seniors have ‘senioritis’ and are ready to move on.’-Brett Pahigiannis, senior accounting major

‘People really do study more their freshman year, as they are exposed to a wider variety of subjects. Once you get into your major, then it’s common material, so it makes more sense and you have to study a bit less.’-Dave Hayward, senior accounting and finance major

Do Freshmen party more than seniors?

‘No, I don’t think freshmen party more than seniors, as seniors know the place better. They have more house parties, bars and usually have cars, which means they can go out and aren’t restricted on campus. And to top it off, they are over 21 years old.’-Yanelly Santos, undecided freshman in the College of Arts and Science

‘Freshmen party more because they just got to college, and that’s the thing to do. Seniors are more focused, as they already went through the party phase.’-Jaclyn Dubois, freshman psychology major

‘I think that freshmen may party more than seniors, but seniors party better. It’s a quality over quantity thing.’-Bryce Renninger, senior television, radio and film, English and textual studies, and religion and society major

‘I partied much more my freshman year than any year, so I would believe it. Senior year, it’s not as exciting anymore.’-Lorraine Tristan, senior public relations and Spanish major

Published on April 22, 2007 at 12:00 pm