<p>Is work experience necessary? How much do you think Adcoms value it really?</p>
<p>It will definitely benefit you during the admissions process. However, it is not required.</p>
<p>no. It will NOT DEFINITELY benefit you. It’s like any other EC.</p>
<p>selective college admissions value students who do worthwhile things. Work, sport, babysitting siblings. all the same. Just something.</p>
<p>And again. only a very few colleges bother with ECs in general. 80% of colleges don’t give a flip if you worked, played varsity tennis or were addicted to video games.</p>
<p>An excerpt from the book Acing the College Application by Michelle Henandez, former assistant director of admissions at Dartmouth</p>
<p>“Although admissions personnel don’t like to admit it, they do harbor a prejudice against privileged students who have had many things handed to them…whether you like it or not, you have to do all that you can to fight this prejudice. One of the best ways to do this is to hold a steady job…Often in committee when we sat around the table with the onerous task of accepting only one out of six or seven students, there would be a moment of silence and then someone would ask, ‘Well, has he ever worked?’…Avoid the glamorous jobs that are the result of a parent pulling strings for you.”</p>
<p>The above excerpt is the source of my aforementioned claim. Could you provide us with the source of your advice?</p>
<p>“80% of colleges don’t give a flip if you worked, played varsity tennis or were addicted to video games.”</p>
<p>This is entirely true. Many public universities, and even a fair number of lower tier private colleges and universities, are entirely numbers based for admissions. If you have this GPA in these kinds of classes and this kind of ACT/SAT score you are in. Open admission institutions don’t even care about those numbers. A HS diploma or GED is good enough.</p>
<p>The 20% (or so) of colleges and universities that DO care about ECs will take into consideration the kind of work experience you have had. How did you get the job? What did you do? How many hours did you work each week/month/year? How much of your individual and/or family expenses did you pay for with your income? Etc. </p>
<p>But please don’t forget that working is not just about getting into college. It also is about developing work habits and specific job skills that will help you find work in the future when you need to pay for college and when you need to get a job after you graduate from college.</p>
<p>It will not make or break your app. :)</p>
<p>If you have done something remarkable with your employment – working 30 hours a week during the school year in order to help support your family; starting on your own a highly successful business – AND you are applying to one of the relatively few colleges that consider ECs, work, and similar factors in admission (and these are colleges like Ivies), then working a job may help you. Otherwise, it won’t matter in terms of college apps, but may matter a great deal in terms of how your experience and skills developed through work affect your future options.</p>
<p>@rOadTo3b that author is the same one who prompted me to ask this question! (A is for Admissions) It’s strange because not many people my age get summer jobs… but important to look into nonetheless.</p>
<p>If the work experience I got into has a selectivity rate of about 5%, was ranked top 5 in the world for high school internships and is very well known in the US, admissions officers should see it as a huge benefit to my application, right?</p>
<p>There was an interview process which determined whether I was selected or not. I was a domestic applicant, and out of the 27 slots available for all applicants, only 5 are domestic. Almost all others are college students from top tier universities (Ivies + Stanford etc.).</p>
<p>“admissions officers should see it as a huge benefit to my application, right?”
As long as the aforementioned internship reflects consistency with your passion/core interest demonstrated by your application, yes.</p>
<p>^^ Is it perhaps RSI that you are speaking of?</p>
<p>don’t know how admissions see it, but IMO, working sure beats many of the ECs. If a kid doesn’t work, how does he earn money???..Mommy and Daddy hands it to them? How does that look?</p>