Escaping the college grindset
As a college student, it often feels like there is something I should be doing. If I’m not in class, I should be studying. If I’m not studying, I should be applying for internships. If I’m not applying to internships, I should be building my resume.
This is the college grindset: the belief that every moment should be optimized, every activity should serve some purpose and every bit of downtime should somehow be justified.
The way students often talk about workloads like battle scars, comparing all-nighters and caffeine consumption, isn’t normal. It’s no wonder that Bubbl’rs are the first items to disappear from campus vending machines. This toxic comparison isn’t just a habit: It’s how college students measure their worth.
This obsession with productivity is a hallmark of modern college life that emerges from centuries of religious and economic thought tying work to morality.
In the ancient world, Aristotle viewed leisure as a higher purpose. To him, leisure wasn’t kicking back, cracking open a beer and watching football to recover from a long week of work; it was openly engaging with pursuits like philosophy, art and conversation. It may seem like college is the perfect form of Aristotelian leisure, as students are constantly engaged in intellectual pursuits. However, there’s something fundamentally different about the college grindset. For Aristotle, leisure that involved learning about oneself and the world was valuable for its own sake. Within the modern college grindset, learning is simply a means to an end — classes and research build resumes, degrees lead to careers.
The underlying force behind the college grindset is not Aristotelian but Christian. In “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism,” German sociologist and political economist Max Weber argued that Protestantism helped create a culture that valued disciplined work, leading to the rise of capitalism.
In Catholicism, salvation was tied to the Roman Catholic Church. Receiving sacraments and participating in religious rituals provided reassurance of one’s salvation. But the Protestant Reformation changed that: Without the Church’s assurances, Protestants were left searching for proof that they were saved.
Theologian John Calvin’s theory of predestination only intensified this anxiety. Since God had already decided who was saved and who was damned, people looked for signs that they were among the elect, or God's favored. While Calvinists didn’t believe financial success earned salvation, it became one of the clearest indicators that one might be among the elect. Protestant reformer and priest Martin Luther reinforced this connection between work and morality with the idea of Beruf — German for “vocation.” Any job, not just religious ones, could serve God. To attain this sign of salvation, Protestants embraced their work, viewing productivity as a moral obligation.
Weber argued that Protestantism provided an ethical foundation that encouraged capitalism’s development. Over time, the religious foundations of the Protestant work ethic faded from public popularity, but its values remained. The emphasis on discipline, efficiency and constant productivity became ingrained in secular economic systems, reinforcing capitalism’s relentless pursuit of growth and individual success.
While a work ethic can create financial stability and thus the freedom to enjoy leisure, the college grindset warps this balance into a toxic relationship. It creates a sense of moral superiority in those who overwork as if burnout is a sign of virtue. Work ethic blames individuals for their struggles, rationalizing that they just must not be working hard enough.
Worst of all, it makes real rest feel impossible. Even when students do take breaks, they feel that their rest must be productive, which creates unhealthy expectations. A nap is only justified if it helps you study better. Hobbies are only worthwhile if they can be monetized. In this mindset, leisure doesn’t exist: It’s just work in disguise.
True rest should exist for its own sake, not just as fuel for more work. Leisure, as Aristotle defines it, has intrinsic value.
While a healthy work ethic has its place, the college grindset distorts it into an unhealthy obsession. To truly thrive, students must look beyond this distorted view and learn to balance meaningful work with rest and leisure.
