Pace Academy takes pride in its academic excellence and its student’s achievements, but all of these impressive titles and awards come with unavoidable hours of hard work behind the scenes. Is the workload that goes into these feats worth it? To better understand the different workloads and effects on students at private schools in the area, The Knightly News surveyed one Pace student, one Lovett student and one Westminster student on whether or not they believe the amount of time and effort they spent on their studies was worth it.
Tyler Ebbert is a sophomore at Lovett who takes an impressive course load including classes such as Spanish 3, Algebra 2, Chemistry, World History, and English. “I usually take about two hours per day on my homework on a normal day,” Ebbert said. When asked about the stress that this causes, he said that it was “about a six out of ten”, and he felt very stressed on some days but on others, it was pretty minimal. Tyler also finds that he has some free time on his hands, so he is able to participate in the extracurriculars he cares about on top of his classwork. Even though the work is stressful for Tyler, he says despite all of it, his happiness is an 8 out of 10. Tyler believes that even though he doesn’t quite like the workload, extracurriculars like running keep his spirits up when the work is dragging them down.“At the end of the day, I don’t think the amount of work I have is worth it, especially with my extracurriculars,” Tyler concluded.
Meanwhile, Gabby Poline is a Pace Academy sophomore who is taking AP Euro, Honors Chemistry, Honors English, Algebra 2, and Honors Spanish 2. Gabby said that she spends about three hours per day on her homework on an average day, but it’s made easier due to her free periods. “I feel like I’m not that stressed from my work, my stress level is probably at a five out of ten most days,” said Poline. She followed this by adding that even though she has a lot of work she feels like she has enough time to participate in extracurriculars like sports, but maybe not participate in all the things she wishes to do. Gabby shared that she’s overall pretty content with her course load because, even if it’s a lot some days, it’s fine others and she thinks it will all be worth it in the end.
The third student interview was with Izzy Winarsky, a sophomore at Westminster. Izzy is taking Algebra 2, Chemistry, AP Lang, English, Graphic Design, and World History this school year. Izzy had the most time spent on her work per night when she shared that she receives about four hours of homework every night, but can work for less time if she plans her work out in advance. “I feel like my free time depends on the workload for the night, because some nights I have lots of free time, but other nights I barely have enough time to finish the work I’ve been assigned,” said Winarsky. Izzy also shared that this amount of work can be very stressful and her stress level is about seven out of ten, but she still understands the importance of the work and is okay with the fact that it can be intense at points.
Even though this is a very small sample size, surveying three scholarly students, it truly highlights the amount of hard work students are putting into their studies. The majority of this work is put in with the hopes of getting into a good college. When examining the college acceptances of students at Pace, Westminster, and Lovett based on their respective class college acceptance Instagrams, it is evidently clear that these well-respected schools have pretty varying college acceptance rates. At Lovett, only 1% of students of the 2024 senior class attend the “Top 25 Universities”. While at Pace and Westminster, 15% of the students from the 2024 senior classes were accepted and chose to attend a Top 25 University.
Pace Academy’s goal is to prepare highly educated well-rounded students who are prepared to take on the world. The hours put into the work may be stressful and tiresome, but they often result in acceptances into top colleges, opening the doors to many opportunities following their studies. The strategies that difficult workloads teach students can be used in day to day life, and thats what Pace hopes to accomplish with these challenging courses.
Pace students study in the Kam Memar Reading Room (paceacademy.org)