<p>Just curious....</p>
<p>If you have a freshman who is working while away at college, what kind of job are they working at, how many hours a week and is it work study or not??</p>
<p>My freshman D is working 10 hours per week through work study in the Admissions Office. She was able to choose from several jobs based on availability around her class schedule.</p>
<p>My son did not qualify for work study and we have opted to have him work full time summers and use those funds to "carry" him during the school year. He uses that money for his own expenses. It has worked out well for our family and enabled him to keep his grades up and thus keep his merit scholarship intact.</p>
<p>My son isn't working now, but does work summers. I know though that when I worked 10 hours a week in college I got better grades than I had before. I shelved library books. I'd like my kid to have at least a semester gaging how hard the work is and getting used to being on his own before committing to working. We are lucky that he has that luxury.</p>
<p>My son worked 10 hours per week (work study) in the mail room during his freshman year. He worked fulltime over the summer as a hospitality clerk (work study).</p>
<p>It's been a very good experience for him.</p>
<p>Work study, all of 6 hours a week. Putting dishes away in the kitchen, washing dishes. The lowest of the low, though she knows to keep checking for other jobs to open, esp 2nd semester. She is busy with sports and orchestra in addition to study. This provides a little spending money. I like work study, for the diversity of experience.</p>
<p>I didn't have a steady job freshman year. I worked for two weeks at home over Winter Break and in the spring worked a couple hours a week running the scoreboard for the local adult men's basketball leagues. $10/game, not a bad gig for a college kid. Over the summer I started work at the campus rec center, and worked about 40 hours/wk all summer in addition to working the scoreboard for summer adult softball. Now as a sophomore I'm working 3 hrs/wk at the rec center and as a football equipment manager, which requires 4-10 hours/day M-F, all home and road games and practices, plus travel time to road games. </p>
<p>Freshman year it's good to start off small and get used to the college life/schedule before really jumping into a time consuming job. If I would've been an equipment manager freshman year my grades would've been horrible because I struggled w/ time management as it was. A year later I've got everything balanced--school, work, and social life.</p>
<p>I didn't have a job until my junior year, when I began working 20 hrs/week for a research fellowship.</p>
<p>AS a freshman, my son worked as a photographer for his college's yearbook, where he was paid hourly. His hours varied, depending on what assignments he chose. I don't know how many hours he averaged.
He also created 2 films for one of the college's disciplinary programs last year, to be shown at freshman orientation and to students in the program. This was pretty time consuming, especially second semester as the deadline approached, but he managed to keep up with his course work. The fact that both jobs were school related, and took place at school, helped a lot.</p>
<p>Over the summer, and continuing this year, he has been creating a new website for his department along with a senior. Again, I don't know how many hours a week, but probably a considerable number. This has involved working with the faculty to get their input, as well as teaching them the nuances of the new site as they build it. Because this work involves the academic department of his major, I see it as a double bonus for him.
His school pays hourly - apparently he just bills his hours as he goes. He also worked nearly full time for a consulting firm over the summer, which gave him enough money to meet all of his non-tuition expenses this year.</p>
<p>The University of Chicago limits students to working 15 hours a week. Most students tend to work 10-12 hours a week. The U of C is on a quarter system, so everything is pretty fast-paced, which may limit the number of hours students can easily work.</p>
<p>Corranged,
Is that 15 hours a week of work-study? Do they monitor time worked off-campus? Just curious -- I think 10 hours is a good number for a freshman/soph -- enough $$ to cover one's expenses, enough hours to promote good time management.</p>
<p>I'm not sure, CountingDown. I'm not work-study, and I don't hold a job during the school year, so I'm not familiar with the specifics.</p>
<p>I think my daughter worked about 7 hours a week work study for her first semester, then about 10-12 hours in the spring. She has a job with one of the departments that she loves. She also works a 2nd job through a campus-run catering agency, with jobs available on evenings and weekends - that pays much more than work study and she can take individual jobs when they come up. I think she was probably averaging about 20 hours a week of work last spring. She earned straight A's that semester. </p>
<p>She'll probably be working less this coming semester because of time constraints. She just can't fit in the hours for her work study job around her class schedule. </p>
<p>You know that phrase, "if you want something done, ask a busy person"- ? I find that the busier I get, the more I accomplish and that seems to be true of my kids, too. Plus the work experience and connections they get from their various jobs have definitely paid off over time.</p>
<p>My daughter worked 10 hours a week. Her college does not accept federal funds so does not have work study per se, but they had a similar program. She worked in the College's guest house at the front desk for 5 hours a week and for the other five hours she did a couple of different jobs. For the first two years she worked the faculty dining room clearing tables and the last two she worked in the college pub doing whatever needed to be done.</p>
<p>My son worked 10 hours a week his freshman year at the student union setting up/tearing down for events and general errand running. This semester he is not working but had enough in savings from summer jobs and he'll just use that for spending money. He's going to see what his schedule is like to decide whether to look for a campus job or not. Last year was work study but since his sister graduated in June, he is not eligible for that now. </p>
<p>I think working the ten hours a week is a nice amount of time and earns just enough for spending money. My daughter is one of those people that is happy being busy and I think more productive. My sons, otoh, sometimes get stressed if they don't feel they have enough time and may end up doing a half-good job on everything and then feeling anxious about time constraints. For my oldest son, it might be better to just work in the summer.</p>
<p>My S began second term in the coffee shop, then moved onto computer & writing work. He had contract jobs, so could work at his own pace & was paid well.</p>
<p>My D just started a job as a lifeguard at the university's pools. She works only in the mornings, since her classes are late mornings and afternoons. She has regular hours of 6 hours a week, and she can pick up extra hours as a sub. Right now, she's rushing so she's not doing any sub work but she plans on picking up more hours second semester. She is not a work study student.</p>
<p>I think it's important to consider how long it will take you to travel to your job. Since my D's dorm is right across the street from one of the indoor pools, she volunteered for early morning hours (7 a.m.) this year. Next year, she will most likely be further away, so early morning hours may not work out best.</p>
<p>Nice to see all the responses! My D is considering a job (and they will have to consider her also...!) where she would work 8 hours a week - it's a job she thinks she would really like so while she'd ideally like about 5 hours a week, she is thinking this might be doable. Her school is on quarters so yes, schedules change more often and things are fast paced. But this job might be flexible, so we'll see...</p>
<p>So far she is spending very little $$ weekly - not much to spend money on in her college town! But she'd like to live in the new honors housing next year and it's a bit more pricey so she thought she could try and earn the difference. </p>
<p>Plus, I think she just likes the idea of working a bit and having some $$ to show for her effort...</p>
<p>Has she looked into being an RA or working the desk at the honors dorm? I believe they get discounted housing rates. And how nice to be able to work out of your own dorm.</p>
<p>I work in the Student Rec Center at the front desk. I make minimum wage (which in MO is less than IL :() and I work 4 hours a week standard and then I can pick up some extra shifts here and there. The work is extremely boring, but I get paid to work on my homework:) so there's definitely a benefit there I guess. It's nice because it gives me a few hours to get out of my room.</p>
<p>My daughter doesn't qualify for work study, but I insist on her getting a job on campus. I told her college education is more than just classrooms. She applied to a few office jobs before she showed up campus. She is working at a campus office for 10 hours a week. She said her schedule is tight, but it's manageable. She also does ballet outside of school. I am hoping she'll be too busy to do too much partying.</p>