Every weekend, Kennady Reading, a sophomore studying criminology, is on her feet hustling to serve the long queue of customers lined up inside the In-N-Out at Desert Ridge Marketplace. The constant yelling of food orders, the volume of the crowd's conversations and the smell of musky grease become what she describes as a "busy beehive."
For six hours a day — sometimes more — Reading pours fries into an oil bin, drains it, coats the fries with salt, portions them and places the finished product into individual fry boats. This constant cycle typically ends around 2:30 a.m. after the restaurant closes, but sometimes, she won't get home until 3 a.m.
When she finally settles in, she is often so exhausted at the end of her shifts that she avoids her academic responsibilities. Other times, rather than taking the time to thoroughly learn material from her classes — like reading an assigned text — she'll briefly skim through it instead.
"It's frustrating, especially because I love my academics," Reading said. "I love what I'm majoring in and I love school but that love has kind of shifted into something else because I've had to work and have to sustain myself."
As of the 2026-2027 school year, in-state ASU undergraduate students living on the Tempe campus are expected to pay $12,177 for base tuition, while non-residents and international students pay over $35,000. However, this does not include other costs like housing or food.
Although ASU offers financial resources like scholarships, they aren't the easiest to acquire, as some hold distinct requirements. And even if a scholarship is obtained, not many offer full reimbursement opportunities.
As a result, students like Reading have pursued jobs to support their academic endeavors. Although she works off campus, ASU does offer on-campus employment like federal work-study programs to help students who cannot obtain those opportunities. While these jobs seem accessible, students still experience obstacles in securing these positions.
Finding employment
Rahma Alifia, an international graduate student studying biomedical informatics and data science, is a Fulbright Scholar and receives some financial support from the program. Because the scholarship does not cover all costs, Alifia needed a job to offset some of her expenses, which led to her applying for roughly 20 to 30 on-campus opportunities. However, her applications were either pending for long periods of time — up to 2 months — or were rejected entirely.
"It's better to disclose what's the problem, what's the reason behind the rejections, especially when it comes to international students because (we) keep asking why," Alifia said.
After working unpaid for six months at 10 hours per week for ASU's Substance use HeAlth REcord Sharing research program (SHARES), they were able to pay her. Through this role, Alifia is currently working with faculty members to conduct research on a substance use disorder-related project. Her work consists of literature reviews, data analysis and collection, programming and writing manuscripts for journal or paper publications.
"My professor told me that if she was satisfied with my work, she would try to find funding support," Alifia said. "So the reason why she didn't pay me at first was because she didn't know me and she wouldn't put any money first."
Although balancing voluntary work while managing academics can be taxing, Alifia said she did not feel overworked due to the job. Instead, the multiple failed attempts at finding a job with a sustainable wage left her more anxious.
Despite eventually receiving compensation, Alifia said it was initially strenuous because the amount of hours she worked increased to 20 per week. She also took 13 credits each semester of her first year rather than the minimum of nine for full-time international graduate students.
"My class schedule was pretty dense, with the courses also (being) pretty hard," Rahma said. "I needed to work on weekends and I don't think I had enough time for social events."
Student workers under ASU are only permitted to work a certain number of hours per week. International students are prohibited from working more than 20 hours per week, while U.S. citizens or eligible non-citizens are able to work up to 25 hours per week. This is also the maximum amount for multiple jobs combined.
Since Alifia took more credits during the first year of her master's program, her tuition cost was reduced during the 2025-2026 school year. Even so, Alifia continued working at SHARES because she wanted to keep developing her career skills.
"The job is pretty aligned with my studies," Rahma said. "I want to apply what I learned in the class to the job. I also find that I love the research job, so I just continue working."
Natanael Payan, a sophomore studying criminology, also experienced frequent application pending — two pending for about four months — or rejected job applications. After five attempts, Payan shifted his focus to off-campus employment and worked at McDonald's to save up for a car, eventually starting work at an Amazon warehouse in October 2025.
"I was getting tired of it," Payan said. "I was thinking of dropping everything, just going to work and then build myself from there, maybe go to school later on. But at the same time, I'm already here, so might as well endure it."
Payan said that while he received scholarships, they only covered tuition and housing, so he began working to pay for additional expenses such as groceries and textbooks. At $19.35 an hour, along with receiving benefits like health insurance, it sustained his college endeavors, but his lack of sleep became the cost of that compensation, as he works Sunday through Wednesday from 6:30 p.m. to 5 a.m.
"It took me about a month to be able to know when to wake up, when to sleep," Payan said. "We'd clock out at five a.m., I'd get back to the dorm and because of traffic, sometimes around 6 (a.m.) and I wasn't able to go to sleep until eight."
Finding balance
Consequently, while Payan's academic performance was not affected by the long work nights, he said he still felt that he was falling behind because he was often too exhausted to participate or build connections with his professors. Later, due to being overwhelmed with his class schedule and working 60 hours a week during the holiday season, he took a break from Amazon in early January.
"I was pretty much not having any sleep, I barely managed to do anything," Payan said. "It was just work, come home, maybe take a nap for like an hour, and then wake up, get ready for classes, have lunch and then go back to work."
During that break, Payan temporarily worked at Chocolate Bash, located in the Arizona Center. While the shifts weren't overnight and the expectations were simpler compared to Amazon, the wage wasn't sustainable due to an insufficient amount of hours. After two months, Payan continued working at Amazon again in early March.
After unsuccessful attempts seeking employment through ASU, if the opportunity arose, Payan said he would immediately take it, as an on-campus job would be more manageable alongside his classes. In addition, some positions offer benefits like paid housing, and even with ASU's 20-25 hour maximum, this would still relieve some financial burdens.
"Compared to an off-campus (job), where you have a firm schedule, it doesn't matter whether you have school or not; you have to show up to work," Payan said. "It's also like the distance, traffic, gas and all those little things you have to spend just to go to work."
Elise Quan, a second year masters' graduate student studying biomimicry, said she enjoys her role as a library aid at Naturespace — located in the Hayden Library — as it allows her to apply knowledge from her major. Quan said that this space allows students to have a hands-on learning experience.
Having had this position for two years, Quan said she prefers this environment over her past waitressing jobs. At approximately $15.62 an hour at 21 hours a week, Quan said she's able to earn the same amount in a relaxed, yet professional work setting.
"It (her previous jobs) was a lot more stressful and I would have to deal with unpleasant people sometimes," Quan said. "At Naturespace, I get to help students and all the staff members that come in, people who tour, they're all very respectful."
Even though Briana Alfaro also looked for jobs at ASU before her current position at the Arizona Center's BoSa Donuts, she said that if an on-campus working opportunity arose, she is unsure if she'd take it.
The junior studying animation said she would prefer to find an internship to gain industry experience instead. She revealed that this opportunity did occur; however, she was forced to reject it due to it being unpaid, as she is self-supported
"It was literally perfect," Alfaro said. "But it was just a rough time in my life where I knew I couldn't give up the financial stability to go and pursue that internship."
Alfaro described declining this internship due to maintaining financial stability as demoralizing. However, she's also had moments of wanting to resign from her job for reasons such as needing industry experience, focusing on classes and simply wanting to take a break. Alfaro currently works 31 hours a week while attending three days of class, but she has previously worked 28 hours alongside only two days of class, giving her a day off from both her job and school.
"I miss it because I could sleep in for once," Alfaro said. "I just had the whole entire day of not worrying or stressing about being late for something."
Similar to Alfaro, Reading auditioned for the Pre-Law Society at ASU club, but she said that due to her long hours at In-N-Out, it affected her preparation and she failed to receive a spot.
"I think I had a week to (prepare), so I was pulling out my hair and I was so stressed," Reading said. "Even while I was at work, all my managers were like, 'What's going on? You're so out of it right now.'"
Despite Reading's plan to re-audition for the club her junior year, she's still concerned about whether she'll be able to receive a spot since the Pre-Law Society prefers freshmen and sophomores, according to her. In addition, the minimum requirement to be in this organization is to attend its meetings. But due to her night shifts and the club being located in Tempe, it demands both money and time.
"That means I have to go home, work for two days, come back to Tempe to do the meeting and go back on Sunday to work and then come back downtown," Reading said.
Although Reading's part-time job is purely to finance her education and other expenses, she said she's encountered instances where she becomes too dedicated. She explained she became so preoccupied with achieving perfection during the spring semester of her freshman year that it left her burnt out. To ensure this did not repeat while balancing her financial and academic obligations, Reading said she learned to refuse additional work, such as being asked to cover a shift.
"This job is not for me to excel at my work or to become manager eventually, it's for me to literally come in, get my money (and) leave," Reading said. "As transactional as that sounds, that's how it has to be."
Similar to Reading, Payan also developed a schedule to manage a demanding job and classes after two months of rushing assignments and being late to work. Despite now being able to balance both responsibilities, he said it's still often frustrating to see students who don't have to be concerned with bills while maintaining an adequate academic performance.
"I had to force myself to be able to stay up, manage my time so I didn't have to rush anymore, because the bills have to be paid," Payan said. "I have to do everything and I have to manage it one way or another, so I peer-pressure myself to be able to handle everything and be okay with it."
Edited by Leah Mesquita, Natalia Jarrett and Abigail Wilt. This story is part of The Culture Issue, which was released on March 25, 2026. See the entire publication here.
Reach the reporter at akpaulic@asu.edu and follow @akp.reports on Instagram.
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