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I have never ever seen a Harvard student working in any of the dining halls (probably because the hours would conflict with classes). I don’t know for how long this has been true.</p>
<p>I have, however, witnessed students working in the Lamont Library Cafe or Cafe Gato Rojo, which I think fall under the jurisdiction of Harvard University Dining Services. But working in the dining hall and the Cafe are very, very, different things.</p>
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<p>What I think is true is that (as has always been the case) dining halls are less attractive than catering receptions, serving at Faculty Club, or a very small number of low-intensity jobs such as the grad student coffee shop, and (as financial aid has improved in recent years) menial dining hall jobs have become less popular. If dining hall jobs have gone extinct, Harvard Dining Services doesn’t seem to know about it:</p>
<p>"Students employed by Dining Services work in specific dining halls for designated 2 1/2-3 hour shifts, depending on their schedules. The work involves dishwashing, bussing, and serving. To learn more about working with Dining Services and to sign up for specific shifts, come to the Dining Hall booth at the Activities Fair on Monday morning of Freshman Week. You will have a chance to meet dining hall managers and find out about this high paying job.</p>
<p>The payrate is one of the highest: $9.15-9.70/hr."</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.seo.harvard.edu/students/overview.html[/url]”>http://www.seo.harvard.edu/students/overview.html</a></p>
<p>The web site also states that over a hundred students work cleaning bathrooms and hallways in the dormitories (“Dorm Crew”).</p>
<p>In general, easy do-your-homework jobs exist but are hardly the norm for work-study. After all, if these time efficient pseudo jobs are so easy to get, why would anyone work cleaning bathrooms?</p>
<p>(Edit: informative article with some breakdown of student jobs at Harvard, Princeton and Brown at</p>
<p><a href=“http://media.www.browndailyherald.com/media/storage/paper472/news/2005/10/05/Focus/Across.The.Ivies.Pay.Conditions.Vary.For.Student.Workers-1009724.shtml[/url]”>http://media.www.browndailyherald.com/media/storage/paper472/news/2005/10/05/Focus/Across.The.Ivies.Pay.Conditions.Vary.For.Student.Workers-1009724.shtml</a></p>
<p>They say that at Harvard as of 2005, some students were working in the dining halls but none of those were on work-study. Some food service jobs discussed above may or may not be counted as “dining hall” or Dining Services work.)</p>
<p>Like I said, I have never seen a student working in the dining hall before. The option may be available, but I have yet to see anyone take it.</p>
<p>As for Dorm Crew and the like, I know a lot of people who choose to do it simply because it pays well. There are a ton of work study and non-work study jobs available. Practically anyone can do Crimson Callers, so choosing a time consuming or manual labor job versus an administrative or phonathon job is completely up to the student. </p>
<p>The point is, siserune, while Harvard may be expensive, it is not the most expensive school in the country, which I think is Georgetown at around $58K and if you really need financial aid and are concerned about Harvard being really expensive, then there is a chance that you would probably not pay full freight anyway because you would be getting financial aid. </p>
<p>I personally pay full freight at Harvard. $45K every year comes from my parents pockets. I don’t get work study at all. So, I think I have a pretty good handle on how expensive the school is.</p>
<p>“After all, if these time efficient pseudo jobs are so easy to get, why would anyone work cleaning bathrooms?”</p>
<p>A lot of reasons. In addition to the higher pay at Dorm Crew, there are leadership opportunities that you can’t find in the library. Becoming a Captain or Head Captain is a big deal. In fact, I know someone several years ago who started at HBS the fall after graduation (which basically never happens) because he already had three years of management experience as an undergraduate. Dorm Crew at the beginning and end of the year can also be a social experience. One of my best friends met her now-husband and the father of her two daughters when he was the Dorm Crew captain assigned to teach her how to clean toilets her freshman fall.</p>
<p>Lots of people not on financial aid take the same jobs work-study students do, just for the experience and the extra cash. My family was paying full price, but I worked in the admissions office and for Unofficial Guides because I wanted to.</p>
<p>I’m told that the Faculty Club pays is waiters $16/hr (there’s no tipping). Not all who work there are Harvard students.</p>
<p>Yeah, Faculy club does pay $16/hour. You have to commit to 8 hours a week though.</p>
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<p>I do not believe that CAs are paid through Work Study which is a federal program whereby the federal government pays part of the student’s compensation and the university (whether a department or an individual professor) pays the rest. CAs are supposedly chosen on the basis of qualification rather than need (and wouldn’t the students whose homework they grade want the CAs to be fully qualified?)</p>
<p>As for showing off… what can I say? There may have been one or at most two female undergrads in the sections my S led.</p>
<p>The zero sum game is for the plum jobs themselves, not for the work-study funding that might or might not be attached. Wealthy job takers reduce the supply of positions, not work-study money (for which they are ineligible). They can just as well be called “job squatters” if you wish to avoid associating them with FCWSP, the point is the same either way.</p>
<p>You son may not (yet) have maximized his payoff from teaching, but more than a few others have… male and female alike. Or not quite alike: the female TAs have better odds, as you pointed out.</p>
<p>For departments and profs, it is always tricky balancing the best interests of the undergraduates in their courses and the financial needs of some students.
From what I understand, the department sent out emails asking for CAs. In fact, S was inspired by one such SOS email. So it was not a matter of his reducing the supply of positions. There were more CA positions than students willing to fill them. This was one department, one year. Things may be quite different in other departments.</p>
<p>siserune, there are specific jobs that only work-study students can get…so CAs aren’t taking away work-study jobs. From the friends I know who are on work study, their jobs actually pay more than non-work study jobs…</p>
<p>The words “work-study offenders” have caused confusion. Sorry. Again, “job squatters” conveys the intended idea more correctly: students who don’t need to work taking coveted positions from those who do. </p>
<p>I don’t know whether every job that takes FCWSP subsidies can ONLY be awarded to work-study students, or if for some of the positions an unsubsidized worker can also be hired. </p>
<p>As for teaching assistant jobs for undergrads, those pay very well, work-study or not.</p>
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<p>My understanding is that a prof wanting to get some work done can hire anyone. If the student is on work study, the prof will need only pay 40% of the student’s remuneration, and the Fed. Govt pays 60%. If the student is not eligible for work study, the prof pays the whole amount out of his or her research funds.</p>
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<p>Yes, they do; but not any better than a Faculty Club job.</p>
<p>My understanding was similar (with some differences of detail that don’t matter here), which is why I am curious to hear more about those “jobs that only work-study students can get”.</p>
<p>TA jobs are paid based on a nominal number of hours that is usually much higher than the true amount of labor required. The hours are flexible other than showing up to teach the sections. The customer interaction involves more deference from the clients than toward them. All of this makes it EXTREMELY desirable compared to Faculty Club table service.</p>
<p>Siserune:</p>
<p>You are right about TF jobs which are for graduate students. TFS are paid by the section. For CAs, the remuneration is based on the putative number of hours spent. A CA in an introductory course probably spends about 10 hours a week (attending lectures, holding office hours, leading a section, meeting with the instructor on a weekly basis, and grading problem sets). And this is what the rate of pay is based on. A CA with previous experience earns more; but a starting CA earns the same hourly wage as a waiter at the Faculty Club.<br>
I’m not suggesting that being a waiter is more or less difficult than being a CA. It takes different skills and personalities. But it is not much more of a “plum job.” There may be other types of jobs on campus that pay just as well and require different skills.</p>
<p>(Referring back to someone’s post on the first page)</p>
<p>GW is the most expensive college in the country, not Sarah Lawrence (though it does make the top ten, according to Forbes).</p>
<p>Would having a father or mother on the faculty matter in admissions?</p>
<p>^^Probably. Being a facbrat is significant boost at most schools</p>
<p>One of the 10,000 med school faculty members? Seems unlikely. Does anyone know anything about the Engineering School at Harvard? My son is looking for engineering in a more traditional college setting than the tech schools, wants to do research, perhaps get a Ph.D. and stay in the NE/NY area…Harvard has come up out of sheer frustration with finding this kind of school in the NE area, recognizing that it is an uberreach. I called to see about a tour of engineering and they don’t offer one - that’s very unusual from all the other schools we’ve visited.</p>
<p>Rileydog:</p>
<p>The Division of Applied Science and Engineering has just been renamed the School of Applied Science and Engineering (SEAS) in a bid to make it more visible. It is expanding and has added new faculty at a rapid clip. Check it out on the Harvard website. I do not believe it provides separate tours.</p>
<p>Other schools he could check out would be Cornell and Lafayette.</p>