I am an incoming freshmen for the 2015-16 year. How easy is it to get an on-campus job? I will be studying engineering premed, and would like to attend most sporting events. I have worked at a grocery store for two years in my hometown. What would be some good jobs for me?
Do you need to work? Maybe it’s better to wait until your second year for an on campus job.
Agree it is best to not work if possible. Your STEM plans include plenty of class hours per credit for labs. Later you can always check out available jobs on or near campus. You will only have the freshman college experience once in your life- take advantage of it. There will be decades to earn money.
Are you living in the UW dorms? On campus students get first shot at working in dining hall – and get an early move in before the rest of the students to get trained for their job. It was an online application, through the res life site, and basically a guaranteed job.
The catch for my son was the assigned work shift. If I recall correctly, he had signed up for the job late so had a lowe priority in getting shift preferences, and wound up with a late night shift. He isn’t a great sleeper so knew that would disrupt his sleep even more and ultimately declined the job. He later picked up another UW affiliated job that involved a few hours a week, and worked better for his schedule.
You can search the UW site for student jobs, and it will get you to the student job board – it lists UW and non-UW affiliated jobs. Often, departments hire office assistants etc. I’m not sure if library jobs are listed there or you need to do a separate online search to turn up those jobs. Library jobs, often sitting at circulation desks at night, when you are doing your own work anyway, seemed ideal, but my kid never got one.
Be realistic about available hours – 5 hours a week is doable, 10 or more would be a real challenge, especially for a STEM student as a freshman.
The student job board is worth checking out, there are many different jobs posted. Dining or custodial is guaranteed and not terribly hard to do, but you might work odd shifts at night or right away in the morning (my roommate had a shift at 6:30 am). Grocery stores would probably have openings if you would rather do that. Library jobs are generally in high demand but you could probably get one if you kept trying, and you can do homework at those jobs. Another easy one is being an ID checker at the Nat or SERF, you just have to swipe IDs so if it’s not busy you can do homework. If you know a lot about computers, DoIT hires students to fix their network (pays well) and to work in their stores (probably less).
One job that pays decent to very well depending on the department is a student grader. In my department there is an application sent out every semester, and the people that sign up first get the job. To grade a class you usually have to have taken it and got a good grade, so it’s not an option right away.
If you don’t need a job, you might want to not get one right away and see how classes are. If you do need one, or just want to have some spending money, 10 hours a week is a good amount to start with. Don’t start with a lot of hours and ruin your GPA your first semester.
Research usually doesn’t pay, but it’s a good thing to get involved with if you might want grad school. Being pre-med you probably aren’t interested in it, but you might be.
Since you’re an engineer, try to get internships or a co-op. It’s rare for freshmen, but doable as a sophomore and common for juniors and seniors. These pay much higher, the average two years ago was about $19 an hour (https://ecs.engr.wisc.edu/public/student/offers.php).