Yes and No

If students are social and like to be with ("hang out") and/or help friends, they can have a lot of their time consumed by those activities. As a consequence, there may be less time to dedicate to their studies.

By all means, achieving a balance of studies and friends/social life is important. If you aren't sure if your time is balanced, track it for a day or two by keeping an account or calendar of how you are spending your time. You may be surprised at how much time is spent on your social life.

Simply put (and I heard this from a student the other day), too much social time is essentially saying "yes" to your friends and "no" to yourself.

You can flip that by 1) reminding yourself of your academic priorities and goals and 2) saying "no" to your friends. While that may seem anti-social and not fun, what you are saying is: by saying "no" to others you are saying "yes" to yourself.

Again, it's a matter of balance. An active social life is a very important part of your college and learning (learning from your peers) experience, but too much time spent with friends may negatively impact your academic learning and performance.