CHS students like to live by the motto “work hard, play hard.” Most of us know the importance of striking a balance between our academic, social and extracurricular endeavors. But once we leave the sheltered and structured environment of Communications High School and enter the world as college students, striking that delicate balance becomes much more tricky. And an unproportional scale of work and play could cost you a pretty penny.

With high school comes parental supervision and only the slightest taste of independence and freedom. Living under your parents’ roof might come with a curfew and some ground rules. But these small tastes of autonomy become full doses self-sufficiency the minute you move into your college dorm.

In college, nobody imposes restrictions on how late you go to sleep or how often you spend time with your friends. In college, you  pay good money for your ability to attend class and use any amenities at your school. Basically, someone is making a risky and hefty investment in your future, and your behavior determines the payoff. You would be doing them, whoever they may be, an enormous disservice, if you wasted their investment.

With all this new freedom comes a choice: to work hard and play hard, or to simply party hard? Social media has popularized the prominence of partying in college. After all, whole Instagram accounts are dedicated to showing off beautiful people having the time of their lives, and the pictures don’t exactly show them studying for exams.

I’m Shmacked, a brand devoted to posting pictures and videos from college parties, has over  half a million followers on their Instagram, @imshmacked. Almost all of their 8,714 and counting posts boast illegal substances, scantily-clad women or all of the above. Business Insider wrote an article about I’m Shmacked, and the headline speaks for itself: “I’m Shmacked: Inside the Brand the Glorifies the Worst Parts of College Partying.”

Partying hard on the weekend can easily bleed into your life during the week. Maybe you just can’t bring yourself to make your 8 a.m. lecture after a game day. Maybe that happens a few times too many. USA Today College did a study that found skipping class can cost a student upwards of $24,960 over the course of four years, if they attend a private university. That student would be wasting about $104 per class skipped. The same study found that 25 percent of students miss an entire year’s worth of classes by skipping here and there. Your money, money that could have taken years of careful saving, is being tossed aside with the ease of pressing the snooze button.

Nobody will be holding your hand out there in adult life. Making class, finishing homework on time, taking care of yourself both physically and mentally are responsibilities all your own. The prevalence of party culture blasted throughout social media from peers and brands like I’m Shmacked paint an unhealthy and inefficient picture for young students taking their first breaths of adulthood at college.

When you graduate from CHS, don’t be afraid to work and play hard. But, with today’s exorbitant college tuitions, you’d waste a lot of money by letting the play outweigh the work. So treat your college career like an investment. Work hard to learn and gain all the experience you can.  After you graduate, you want to make money on the investment you made in yourself, not be stuck lost and in debt. Though it may seem important in the short term, your success won’t be measured by how many frat parties you get into, or if you end up posing for I’m Shmacked.