Like many Americans caught up in the economic downturn, college students are worried about money. Now research indicates that financial worries may affect their academic performance. The author presents the results of this year's National Survey of Student Engagement. The survey reveals that more than a third of seniors and more than a quarter of freshmen did not purchase required academic materials because of the cost. Roughly equal shares, around 60 percent, said they worried about having enough money for day-to-day expenses. And 36 percent of freshmen and 32 percent of seniors reported that financial concerns had interfered with their academic performance. Other research has found that working up to 20 hours a week can increase students' engagement and improve their academic performance, but that a greater time commitment can be detrimental. In this year's survey, more than half of full-time seniors who worked 21 or more hours a week said their work schedule interfered with their studies. Yet 60 percent of those students said they had investigated working even more hours to help cover the cost of college. Alexander C. McCormick, director of the survey, says institutions should consider such findings an opportunity to get a better sense of the financial stressors that shape students' academic experiences. Most colleges, he points out, know which students have on-campus jobs. But administrators could do more to figure out how much time students spend working off-campus, and whether those commitments threaten their academic success.