It is that time of year again. Thanksgiving break is over and the academic hammer is slamming down. This is the time of year when students have a hard time tackling their academic overloads while still reserving down time for themselves with friends.

Students who are searching for the happy medium between studies and social life are not alone. Raymond Plaza, Coordinator of Special Projects and College Success Strategies course lecturer at Virginia Tech, thinks that the post-Thanksgiving break academic demands are a result of the time constraints of courses.

“The academic demands directly following Thanksgiving break are typically high because there is not much time left in the semester before finals, and there may be quite a bit of work left in some classes,” Plaza said.

According to Plaza, nearly 50 percent of many students’ grades will be earned during the last six weeks of class.

Academic demands are not the only things fighting for students’ time, however. After a week off from the college life, your social circle is ready to get back in action.

“As good as it is to go home, nothing beats coming back to Ames and kicking it with my friends,” said Nicholas McEachron, sophomore in supply chain management.

And as if decisions were not complicated enough, how about the fact that psychology is working against students also? According to the psychological theory of discounting, humans in the decision making process will commonly place a higher value on activities that are in the present versus those in the future.The importance of each activities plays a smaller role in the decision making process than the immediacy of the activity.

“Humans place psychological values on all activities such as going to a party or studying for an exam,” said Karen Scheel, senior lecturer in psychology. “The immediacy of the activity is what influences the decision making process.”

In college student terms, this means that the party you are invited to on Saturday will most likely take precedence over the study session you had planned for Monday’s exam.

Every student has been guilty of it, but the real question is, how do you overcome the challenge of school-life balance?

Jill Kramer, program coordinator for Academic Intervention and Coaching at the ISU Academic Success Center, thinks it all starts with a detailed plan.

“A big part of finishing out the semester successfully is knowing what you need to accomplish,” Kramer said. “When I talk to students, I help them set up a 40 hour work week schedule for academics because school is similar to a job. It helps students put their workloads into perspective and allows them to see what it should take to be successful.”

Kramer works with thousands of students throughout the semester and sees students struggle for several different reasons.

“A lot of times, when students experience a bump in the road, they go from putting in the effort to wanting to give up,” Kramer said. “They struggle to get back into it and rather than dealing with it, they start to avoid it.”

Kramer has seen students struggle with almost every challenge imaginable ranging from roommate or relationship issues, to overloaded schedules to physical and mental health.

Plaza thinks that external activities have the power to relieve these challenges and influence students’ academic performance.

“Exercise, adequate sleep, a healthy diet, and budgeted downtime all help students stay focused during times of academic stress,” Plaza said. “Each student has an activity that will help him or her unwind in his or her own way.”

Although these activities are important, Kramer warns that it is also easy to get carried away.

“ISU does have over 500 clubs and organizations so you have to expect that they sometimes serve as distractions,” Kramer said.

Plaza and Kramer agree that in order to succeed, each student must find the right fit for all of the important things in his or her life.

“The critical thing is finding a balance with all the activities,” Plaza said.

“A lot of it will depend on the student and how he or she manages time. I think it helps to think about how you can make everything fit, rather than how to balance everything,” said Kramer. “I think ISU has a great number of resources to help with that.”

ISU offers several services to help students who are struggling with any issue.

Kramer, who works in the Academic Success Center, helps primarily with academic coaching which is a part of the program’s skills-based support.

“Skills-based support includes the full and half semester study skills courses and academic coaching support,” Kramer said. “With coaching, we get to sit down, listen to the student’s story and offer one on one support.”

The ASC also offers course based support which provides students with tutoring services, supplemental instruction and a writing and media center.

Kramer thinks that many students do not realize the extensive amount of academic assistance services that ISU has to offer.

“I think that ISU has a lot of positive services that can help when students become overwhelmed with what they need to do,” Kramer said. “And the university does a great job of engaging students with peer mentors, academic advisers and helping to build the environment to allow students to reach out to their own academic contacts.

Kramer says that although she may not always have all the answers, she is willing to do whatever it takes to help students improve their academics.

“I don’t care if I have to make 750 phone calls to get to the bottom of things, I’ll do everything I can to help a student succeed,” Kramer said.