My son had held down two jobs where he works 15 hours a week at each - for the past 2 years. One is an internship and the other at a restaurant. Because of this he doesn’t have extracurriculars. Do you think this will hurt his college applications?
Jobs are extra curricular, in my opinion.
But did he do these instead of doing any activities at his school? Just wondering why?
2 Likes
He did them because he wanted to work and experience in the real world. He goes to a huge public school in Los Angeles and the pickings are slim, but he’s also always wanted to work.
1 Like
Yes, admissions officers at several top schools made a point of saying to include jobs during high school. All other stats being similar, Brown’s said she would take a kid with a job at Panda Express over a paid experience like traveling somewhere to volunteer a few days or over high school activities. She was more focused on a child who may be working to support their family or financial needs than the scenario presented, but I do think there is at least an equal value placed on working and the maturity that comes with that.
1 Like
Jobs are great in my opinion. My daughter worked over the summer between junior and senior year and when she was imputing this information on her UC app it asked about how she spent or is planning to spend the money she made. I thought it was an interesting question (and I’m not sure how she answered it). Good luck on your son’s applications!
I agree with other comments. A job is a very good extracurricular activity.
I do not see any problem here, as long as your son has enough time to get to relax and also keep up with his school work.
1 Like
Every school talk I have ever heard has said that working highly considered especially with one being an internship… Plus the amount of time working and pulling decent grades etc shows a lot to a college.
1 Like
Piling on - yes, work experience is certainly valued as an extracurricular (i.e. “outside”-“school”) activity by admissions officers.
1 Like
Nope!
What do colleges want? They want students who can succeed and be a part of the community.
If he can do well at school and work 30 hours a week (or even 15) then he will do well in college.
1 Like
Agree – a job or an internship is considered the equivalent of an EC.
1 Like
I think that if the story is “spun” that he held a job in order to help out with family finances (and your family’s finances support that), then absolutely, that job is worth as much, or more, than any EC. If he held a job that had value for him, for example, he interned in a real estate office because he wants to go into real estate development, then yes, I think that would have as much or more value than being an officer of the school’s future business leaders of America club. If your family is financially in great shape, and he worked a fast food job because he wanted/needed to earn pocket money, he can still spin it as being tremendously worthwhile. For example, I have a relative whose first job at McDonald’s in high school sparked an interest in organizational behavior, which led to a PhD from a tippy-top school in that field.
It’s all how he presents it. Unless an EC is in an area where one is winning at least state-wide recognition, I’d say that working two steady jobs for the past two years is very impressive, and possibly worth more than high school level ECs. But he should consider the best way to present how those jobs meant something to him, and to his future, and get that across either in his Common App essay, or in a supplemental essay.
My older son and I attended a “College Admissions 101” weekend seminar at my Alma Mater (Vassar) a few years ago which was intended for children of alumni to help them in the college application process. It was run by the Admissions officers and in addition to various seminars we participated in mock application reviews where we would assess 3 different college applications (not real ones) and decide who to admit, who to defer and who to waitlist. Having a job was considered very important.
while I agree that a job - especially if related to desired major - is a great EC, ECs play a varied role in admissions depending on the target school (many schools don’t consider them at all) and almost never substitute for high GPA.
What are a few of your kid’s target schools ?
1 Like
I dont agree at all about the job having to align with the major. My daughter worked at a sports bar prior to undergrad and during UG. She was asked about her employment during med school interviews, almost at all of them. I hardly think wings and beer pertained to her med school apps, but showed them that she worked 20-30 hours a week AND kept up with all other things for her application
4 Likes
Depends on several factors. For most colleges, ECs do not really make much of a dent. Test score + GPA + $$ come first, no matter what they say on the brochure.
Now if you look at highly selective schools, ECs matter more. There it is put in context of your overall circumstances. Let’s assume you make $200K++, then does your son really need to work fast food? Or, could he have spent his time doing something more worthwhile to help society? On the other hand, if he chose to work because it is aligned with his career choice or to help the family finances then it is looked upon extremely favorably.
It is virtually impossible to make conclusions without having a full picture of the candidate in question.
I think some families believe work experience is important, all of my 5 got their first part time job around 14, or at least babysat (I started babysitting for spending money around the age of 12, and had summer jobs throughout high school, my parents lived very comfortably. My sister lives a VERY comfortable life (and never needs to work again), her teens have part time jobs (childcare and caddy at one of the country clubs, retail). I don’t think work experience is ever negative.