Job as Major Extracurricular?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Stanford University
1

<p>Hi All, </p>

<p>In reading your posts, I"m feeling less hopeful about my son's chances at Stanford (which I realize are a @$^&shoot even with the most qualified students). </p>

<p>My question is this: Assuming all other stats are competitive (valedictorian, 6 AP courses, 4 honors courses, many academic awards and high ACT score) would Stanford give any weight to long term employment vs extracurriculars? Without giving too many details away, my son competed for, and managed to get, a pretty high level job for a kid when he was a sophomore. His official title, with a branch of a very well known national company is Production Manager (he actually does hire, train and schedule temp employees as needed), and the focus of his job is software and advertising related. This job is only 12-13 hours a week during the school year (20 hours during the summers)and he is currently earning $13/hr--which is a lot more than many adults in our area make. </p>

<p>The only other major EC he has is athletics--4 years of soccer: 2 teams/year (plays 8 months/year) with 2 years as team captain. Other than that, he's had 2 leadership roles in clubs at school but the time requirement was minimal for both of those (maybe 100 hours total in junior/senior years). </p>

<p>Because of his demanding academic, sports and job schedule, he has almost no other EC's (limited community service). </p>

<p>He loves his job because of the challenge, wonderful employees and the money, but he has learned that this is a field that he absolutely wants nothing do with as an adult, so he can't really tie it to any future career plans, other than it helped him figure out what one thing he doesn't want to do with his life. </p>

<p>His boss--one of the top employees in this company--will write him a stellar recommendation since she is FREAKING out about him graduating and leaving. </p>

<p>So, under the circumstances, do you think the lack of meaningful community service will be held against him? When I look at all of the stats on this board and others, the people who were admitted always have great community service accomplishments. </p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>I would say it wouldn’t rule him out. It’s interesting and he has learned some very valuable skills. At this point, it’s almost better to know what you don’t want to do than have decided on what you think you want to do. Stanford doesn’t make you declare a major until end of sophomore year. Our D didn’t have 100’s of hours of community service either. Based on my D’s friends, there is no one Stanford type. As you said, it’s a ****shoot anyway. As our D said before hitting the submit button “It’s like the Lottery. You can’t win if you don’t buy a ticket!!” Best wishes for his Stanford dream.</p>

3

<p>Honestly, I think having a long-term job is a huge boost. Very few students can fill in that “employment” box on applications, and it does set you apart. I’m applying Stanford SCEA and I have a similar situation. I’ve been working at Disneyland for about a year now, during school and during the summer. During the summer I work about 40 hours a week (basically a full-time job!) and during the schoolyear about 20. So as you can see, this takes up A LOT of my time, but I’ve learned so much from my job and I think the things I’ve learned more than make up for the perhaps slight lack of other extracurriculars (though I definitely do have other EC’s).</p>

4

<p>Thanks! I am hoping that admissions officers will see that lack of community service accomplishments/awards is due to the fact that he simply has not had any time. All of the lists of amazing ec’s I see here are so intimidating! </p>

<p>By the time he goes off to college he will have 3 years and 2 months of experience with substantial responsibility with the same employer. I REALLY want that to count for something with admissions, but to me it looks like they are looking for students who’ve performed some major humanitarian service project/volunteer time. Uggghhh…maybe we shouldn’t have let him take that dang job! </p>

<p>Having said that, I got out his apps and looked again–and my 100 hour estimate was way low–he’s done quite a bit of volunteering with elementary parks and rec soccer, served in student government (1 year only), worked as a mentor for incoming freshmen (only 12 total weeks) and done a pretty substantial internship/volunteer project with the local newspaper. It looks like all total he will have about 325 hours of community service during 10-12th grades.</p>

5

<p>I know what you mean. I’m hoping for the best, as a big portion of my application is related to my job. Adcoms always emphasize “quality over quantity!” but sometimes I wonder how true that is…I guess we shall see!</p>

<p>Honestly, I think you could argue that having a job is better for the economy than volunteering. hehehe ;)</p>

6

<p>You don’t have anything to worry about.</p>

<p>My son’s main “EC” was his job. He wrote his main essay about it and alluded to it in several other sections. He got in early action.</p>

7

<p>He’s fine, stop freaking out.
It doesn’t matter what we say anyway.</p>

<p>Just forget about his application and move on to other things.
Life is too short to waste worrying.
As an EA applicant who has been dreaming of Stanford since I was 11, I’m very guilty of this, but don’t stress. He will get in somewhere great.</p>

8

<p>Not freaking out…just wondering if I didn’t mislead him about his qualifications. </p>

<p>He hasn’t submitted the app yet–still working on his essays.</p>

9

<p>It’d technically be under “work experience,” but he could discuss it in an essay (even the one on an extracurricular).</p>