Hi everyone,
So I am looking at the extracurricular section of the common app and am a little concerned about the time of commitment.
I work for an international translation company as a pro translator between English, Chinese and Japanese and my total working hour (they calculate it through an online system) is 3500+hours for about 15months… I am still a junior, so it might rise to something like 4500-5000 hours when I apply.
This sounds like a full time job, and it almost is. The actually working time is probably a little less (since I don’t have to work for every second within the time limit, but 2500-3000 working hours in total are for sure, which amounts to 40 hours/week (Sometimes I work for the entire weekend from Friday evening to midnight Sunday, so it’s not impossible.)
The admin at the company does write reference letters (though more in form of a job application resume), and I do keep a fairly good record in the company, but I am just really worried about how I should explain this to the adcoms.
I work so much like this because there is something I really want to do in the future (hard to explain), which I know my family won’t be willing and able to support. I also want to support my family and don’t want them to spend much in my education. It takes most of my time, so I don’t really have much other significant ECs (a few club participation, head of a not so important club and some other independent research stuff, no significant awards and no significant leadership positions). Also, it does impact my grade a little bit ( 2 A minus for this quarter with one of them potentially dropping to a b+).
I am looking at top-tier colleges, so what should I do now? Should I continue doing it since some people suggest me to stop working? How should I explain this to adcoms and how will they potentially view it? I’ve never met someone with a similar situation, so I will be grateful if any of u can offer some insights.