For many low-income students, earning a business degree is not just an academic pursuit, it is a careful balancing act. In contrast to the perception of college being a residential experience with limited responsibilities, most college students in the United States commute to campus while juggling jobs, family responsibilities and coursework while struggling to pay rising term bills.
At Rutgers Business School-Newark, we serve a large population of first-generation college students, where over half are Pell-eligible. While we have a history of programmatic success and career outcomes, which Poets & Quants ranked #17 nationally for five-year return on investment in 2024, one of the consistent challenges we and other institutions like ours face is the competing demands that students have on their time.
Although Rutgers University does not formally track student employment, a recent internal survey of nearly 400 Rutgers Business School-Newark undergraduates revealed that 56 percent are employed while enrolled, working an average of more than 20 hours per week, and 11.5 percent of our students are working 40 or more hours per week while pursuing their degrees.
Decades of national research show that this kind of workload can undermine academic performance. Large-scale studies consistently demonstrate a negative relationship between the number of hours students work and key outcomes such as GPA, persistence and time to degree. Simply put, every hour spent earning wages is often an hour taken away from studying, meeting with faculty or fully engaging in campus life.
In summer 2024, our school, under the leadership of Dean Lei Lei, began to focus on the challenge of supporting working students as a key strategic priority. After discussions with alumni supporters, many of whom worked part- and full-time jobs while in college themselves, a targeted scholarship initiative called On-Time Graduation was launched. The basis for the initiative was a simple but powerful idea: reduce the need for students to work excessive hours so they can focus on learning. Even a modest grant can have an outsized impact. For example, a scholarship of approximately $1,500–$1,800 per semester can offset close to 100 hours of work at a typical part-time wage, freeing up nearly seven hours per week during the semester for academic pursuits.
Early results suggest the approach is working.
While data is still incoming, and we hope to scale and test effects further over time, we are seeing recent cohorts of On-Time Graduation scholarship recipients show consistent GPA improvements in the semesters following receipt of aid. Students who received scholarships not only maintained strong academic standing but on average saw their performance improve in subsequent terms—an encouraging signal that financial relief translates directly into academic momentum. For example, 15 of 18 students in the first On-Time Graduation cohort saw improvements in their GPA after one semester, and an average cumulative GPA increase of 6%.
These findings mirror national research showing that grant aid improves student persistence and degree completion. Just as importantly, students report less stress, greater ability to plan their schedules around classes rather than work shifts and a stronger sense of belonging within the business school community. Importantly, we have structured grant payments independent of financial aid disbursements, meaning they are issued as the equivalent of taxable earnings, which has the benefit of allowing students to spend the funds on costs not related to tuition and preventing impact on scholarships that are “last dollar” in their financial aid package.
The implications extend well beyond individual classrooms. We currently post a four-year graduation rate of just over 52 percent, while nearly 78 percent of students graduate within six years. Financial pressures, often requiring students to reduce course loads or to repeat classes, are among the most common reasons degrees take longer to complete. Improving on-time graduation by even five to ten percentage points would significantly enhance outcomes for students and further elevate the program’s already strong return on investment.
Now entering its second year, the scholarship program represents a strategic investment in both academic excellence and social mobility. Currently supporting 20 students each semester with targeted awards, and with the goal of eventually reaching 100 students a semester, Rutgers Business School-Newark is not only helping students succeed today. It is cultivating future alumni who understand the transformative power of opportunity and are poised to give back.
At its core, the program affirms a simple truth: When students are given time to learn, they rise to the occasion.