<p>Marite: By not stating that he was paid, implies that he volunteered his time. It’s an untruth by omission. </p>
<p>Of course, participating on the school’s Academic Team is an EC. It’s the same as participating on any other school related team. </p>
<p>Pizzagirl, your daughter babysat for pay–the same as the majority of girls around the country. It’s not going to influence her application decision in the least. It was a paid job so it should be included under employment/work experience.</p>
<p>The OP asked for opinions on whether or not babysitting in an EC. The majority agree that if she was paid for her services, it’s the same as being paid at any other job. It should be included in the Work/Employment section. </p>
<p>Hey, we’ve given our opinion on the original post. Most agree that it’s Employment experience and not an EC. The option is hers to take the advice of the majority or hold on to her original idea.</p>
<p>There is a difference between someone who volunteers her time to teach under privileged kids ballet during her free time vs someone who gets paid to teach ballet classes at an upper middle class studio. When someone is not getting paid for doing something, he/she is doing it because he/she truly believes in its cause. </p>
<p>I am in no ways saying paid employment is not valuable or necessary for some people, but I know I wouldn’t do something for free unless I absolutely love it. D1 taught dance as a volunteer and as a paid job, and she listed each in different sections.</p>
<p>S listed everything he did in a single section: Extra-Curricular Activities. He used the term in its actual meaning. It did not mention whether he was paid or unpaid. Any inference is up to the reader. S would never have considered getting up early and spending his Sunday mornings teaching if he had not believed in what he was doing. Being paid for it was not a consideration.</p>
<p>What oldfort suggests about paid employment vs. volunteering is exactly what worries me about kids who either have to work and worry about not having “ECs” and conversely, kids who have such time-consuming activities that they have nothing to list under work experience.</p>
<p>Anyway, it’s all water under the bridge. The adcoms were able to figure whether S was someone who would contribute to the community.</p>
<p>I do believe adcom could figure it out. If someone’s circumstance is such that he must work to help out or has to babysit younger siblings at home, therefore not able to have a lot of ECs, I don’t think adcom would hold it against him. At the same time, if someone is a dedicated swimmer who needs to train/compete 20+ hrs/week, also has very valid reason not to have a job. But I think one would need to be able to write a very compelling essay to convince adcom that because one did paid babysitting on weekends, it some how meant she loved working with children.</p>
<p>oldfort, I agree totally with your post#42. Our oldest son did something similar to your daughter. He played soccer from the age of 5 which led to him to play Varsity Soccer in high school. He included Varsity Soccer (Captain) in his EC’s. He also volunteered assistance in helping to coach an under 12 youth soccer team–listed this under Community Service. He also got paid to ref youth soccer games during the weekend–listed this under Employment. </p>
<p>There is a difference between volunteering your time/services and getting paid for your services.</p>
<p>“Any inference is up to the reader”
^this is where the untruth by omission comes into play.</p>
<p>Sometimes, the consequences can be felt much later. S1 looked back on his volunteer experiences in high school and they helped him make a decision as to career path and grad program. It involves working with children.</p>
<p>Regarding how to list different types of ECs. If I were an adcom, I would prefer to read about all the related activities in one chunk of text rather than divided up into sections.</p>
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<p>I would have put all this information in the same section, adding (paid) after ref youth soccer games. So the adcom would see that he was involved in both coaching and refereeing. I don’t think adcoms are interested in whether applicants were paid or not. But the soccer captaincy, coaching and referring would be of interest.</p>
<p>The current version of the Common Application makes the distinction between employment and ECs. So I think babysitting should be listed under babysitting. That said you could have in addition to the boxes you fill out on the application a thematic resume. My son for example grouped all his music activities - which included both summer community service music and playing in the orchestra at school and would have included paid gigs if anyone had ever paid him.</p>
<p>I agree that Marite’s son should have said that paid tutoring was a job, but I don’t think it’s a big deal. He probably looked a little more altruistic that he really was.</p>
<p>Hmmm… I was thinking of resumes rather than the Common Application. I can’t remember how S filled out his Common Application. I can’t recall whether there was a different section for paid and unpaid work. Anyway, this was about his resume. Actually, he was tutoring as a volunteer besides the teaching. If I remember correctly, he listed science tutoring (9th-12th graders) without specifying that he tutored as a volunteer. Under teaching, he described the topics he covered and the target students.
S is a night owl so getting up at 7am was quite a sacrifice. Given his heavy schedule, teaching plus preparing his lessons for three different classes and commuting took a significant bite out of his free time. He did not need the money, but that was the practice.<br>
Having been on CC for a while, I’ve realized that far too many students do community service mostly to lay claim to altruism and leadership–then go on to exaggerate their hours and their responsibilities.
I am obviously in the minority, but I still think that adcoms are not interested in whether an activity is undertaken for pay or not, but what it consists of, what it says about the applicant’s interests and experiences.</p>
LOL, my kids would have felt the same way. They don’t care much about money anyway. And I do agree that ECs (and employment) are important for what they say about the applicant’s interests and experiences and sometime hardships in cases where they are forced to babysit for family.</p>
<p>BTW meant to say babysitting should be included under employment.</p>
<p>There is something to be said that someone was willing to pay your son to tutor. </p>
<p>I do remember when D1 was filling out her application there were few activities we weren’t sure where they fell under, so I don’t think it’s really straight forward.</p>
<p>But he was not tutoring (he tutored in school as well). He was teaching actual courses, exactly as a college prof would: he had a topic and worked out 10 lectures. Considering what he actually did, the pay was minimal, and to him, not important.</p>