Effect of alcohol on GPA

Obviously alcohol is very prevalent in college, and a majority of students consume alcohol. However, students are still very concerned with their, so I wanted to see how alcohol affects student’s grades. I don’t think there is anything wrong with going out a few times a week and having a few drinks. As long as you are still studying and getting your work done it should be no problem. However, I still wanted to know if there was a correlation between grades and alcohol consumption.

An article written by Kristina Dell talked about an experiment don’t by Todd Wyatt on this topic. He surveyed 13,900 freshman and his results concluded that students who consume alcohol on average have lower gpa’s than students who do not consume alcohol. Also he states that alcohol consumption is the second biggest factor in predicting a student’s gpa, the first is time studying. This is a little bit alarming because there are a lot of other factors that I would assume to be higher such as time spent in class. This is a big shock, because I assumed there would be some sort of correlation that grades are lower, but I didn’t think it would be as big. Although student’s can drink alcohol and do very well, they may not be reaching their full potential, and this is intriguing based on the amount of students that do consume alcohol. Despite this study, I still think that consuming alcohol is fine as long as you are not getting blackout drunk, and as long as you still study a lot.

Source: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/03/31/drinking-and-grades-how-student-alcohol-consumption-affects-gpa.html

6 thoughts on “Effect of alcohol on GPA

  1. Ryan Eric Freeman

    Do not get me wrong I really enjoy drinking ( in moderation of course) ! But alcohol can cause both short and long term effects on your body that play as a variable in your studies. This article http://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/alcohol/short-term-long-term-effects.html shows a large list of both short term and long term negative effects caused by alcohol. Some of these effects can directly interfere with your studies, resulting in a lower GPA. From Being drowsy, to impairing your judgment and even major health problems. Should we quit drinking all together and find an alternative? Would stopping help increase our overall GPA?

  2. Randall Stansbury

    It’s really scary/shocking to me that the main predictor of your GPA after studying is how much you drink. I think that I learned very quickly that college is all about time management and prioritizing. There is always something other than school work to do if you want it, whether that includes drinking or not, and it is important to assess whether it is worth going out or succeeding in school. Here is an interesting study that examines the correlation between alcohol consumption and poor academic achievement https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3843305/

  3. Anna Josephine Wisniewski

    This is an interesting post. I think that alcohol plays a huge role in academic performance, but I did not think it would directly affect GPA as much as that study found. I think it is also important to take in confounding variables when discussing this topic. I think more studies need to be done before any concrete conclusions are made.

  4. Jen Malespina

    This blog caught my eye because I definitely think that students need to find a balance between going out and studying. There will always be other parties but there are not always opportunities to retake a test. Obviously getting drunk can take away from studying and focusing, however I am still curious. Through your research, you discovered that there is a correlation between the two, however we have to remember that correlation does not equal causation. Perhaps you can find a study proving that an abundance of alcohol consumption can directly impact one’s GPA, rather than just saying that there is a correlation.

  5. Daniel William Snyder

    I thought this article was interesting because being a college student, you’re around alcohol quite a lot. It seems as if everyone has a drink here or there and some more than others. It is definitely something worth testing with the large number of college students who partake in it. I agree however with your statement that it isn’t so bad as long as you’re being responsible.

  6. Madelyn Erin Peikin

    Thanks for sharing! I always knew alcohol had a bad effect on the brain and after reading this post, it just confirms it even more. I also know that weed is extremely harmful to the brain as well. Some people go out almost every night at Penn State and I always wondered how they focus the next day in school. Here is another link on what alcohol does to your brain.
    http://sciencenetlinks.com/student-teacher-sheets/alcohol-and-your-brain/ Thanks for sharing!

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