<p>Could someone comment on how easy/hard it is to get/hold a job at MIT? And how much would that 20 or so hours a week impact your academic career?</p>
<p>My financial aid package came yesterday and it's looking pretty grim. I've contacted the fin aid office at MIT but I haven't gotten a response yet. </p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>It's easy to get a job, but you're not going to want to be working 20 hours a week freshman year. </p>
<p>I ended up working 20 hours a week (at a UROP) by the end of senior year, but freshman year I stayed under 10 hours a week. High school to college is a tough adjustment, and I think anybody trying to work more than 12ish hours a week as a freshman is probably going to be in for a rude awakening.</p>
<p>MIT minimum wage is $9 per hour, and students work in a variety of jobs. Some I can think of off the top of my head are dorm front desk, desk postitions at the libraries, lifeguarding at the pool, grading papers or tutoring, and of course UROP. I worked at the front desk of the foreign language library freshman year and was able to get paid mostly for doing homework, which was nice.</p>
<p>Thank you! The foreign language library job sounds great; I'm starting to get a bit more optimistic :]</p>
<p>My daughter worked in the Athletic Dept. staffing the hockey equipment desk the first semester of her freshman year, for about $9 per hour. This semester she has a UROP paying $12 per hour. She said that the hockey equipment job was so lowkey that she usually completed her 18.02 psets during that shift, at least until the intramural hockey playoffs (when things got more hectic). Both positions comprise about 9-10 hrs. per week.</p>
<p>She's currently looking for a summer UROP at MIT, and it's possible to do that either for credit or for pay.</p>
<p>Because she lives in Burton-Conner and cooks her own meals, her cost of living is also quite a bit lower than the figure MIT provided our family.</p>
<p>Also, I'd like to point out that while Mollie managed to work 20 hours per week by then end of her undergraduate career, she is a time management ninja, so keep that in mind. =)</p>
<p>Jobs are pretty easy to come by, UROPs especially. It might take some time, you might have to email quite a few professors before something works out, but in general, if you want a UROP, you WILL get one eventually. Not necessarily with your favorite professor or anything, but you will get one.</p>
<p>I work at the Computing Help Desk. I get paid 12.50 an hour to be the poor soul that answers the phone when someone calls for computing help because they forgot to plug their monitor into their CPU. (This has actually happened.) In spite of this, I do love my job, my coworkers, my supervisors, my working environment- it's all awesome. I work about 8 hours per week.</p>
<p>For current/past MIT students - what are some jobs you've had or your friends have told you about with certain perks? (the above examples are great) or what are some jobs that you or your friends thought would be ok but ended up having downsides?</p>
<p>I get the sense that it is easier to get a job at MIT (even without work-study) than at other campuses. Does anyone know if that is the case? What percentage of students at MIT work? </p>
<p>This is relevant to us, as it seems like S's ability to reliably get a job (and the odds of an interesting one, to boot) on campus for 10 hours/week is better than it would be at other schools. That helps to make up for the lower FA package.</p>
<p>^^anyone who wants it can get a UROP for pay. There are other non-research jobs that you can get fairly easily I imagine.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I get the sense that it is easier to get a job at MIT (even without work-study) than at other campuses. Does anyone know if that is the case? What percentage of students at MIT work?
[/quote]
I have basically never heard of someone who wanted a job who wasn't able to find one. Since about 80% of students do UROP, I would venture to guess that close to 100% of MIT students work for pay on campus at some point during their MIT years. I would further venture to guess that this is so because MIT is composed of more middle-class students than its peer institutions, and so students feel like they should work to offset the cost of their educations. </p>
<p>Personally speaking, I worked every semester, IAP, and summer at MIT, and I paid for all of my food and books, a new computer, and all of my friviolity money (clothes, dinners out, movies) and managed to graduate with a nice chunk of money in the bank. I really appreciated my ability not to have to ask my parents for spending money on top of tuition.</p>
<p>For post #6, dorm front desk is usually considered a pretty plum job, since you can generally do homework at desk and you don't even have to leave the dorm to go to work. :)</p>
<p>ooh a desk job sounds like fun, i was reading past blog entries! how easy/hard is it to get a dorm desk job? i think i really want to live in baker.. do they offer the desk jobs or is it only burton conner because everything i've read about these jobs pertains to BC.</p>
<p>No, every dorm has a front desk and hence front desk jobs.</p>
<p>The ease of getting a front desk job probably varies from dorm to dorm and term to term, but I doubt it's particuarly difficult anywhere.</p>
<p>Sorry for the double-post, but Snively just posted a blog</a> entry on different jobs at MIT that looks pretty relevant to this discussion. Enjoy!</p>
<p>Also, Sam</a> on front desk jobs and me</a> on money in general.</p>
<p>Funny, I didn't even know this thread existed when I wrote my entry. It's kind of reassuring that the jobs I listed align with the jobs here, all good opportunities.</p>
<p>Thanks -- this is great info.</p>
<p>I love how you bloggers visit CC. You guys are great.</p>