My daughter also performs occasionally in a musical group for gigs. That and some babysitting. She has 5 APs this year and had 4 the past 2 years. Spent the summer studying for SAT and spending time with family. Stellar grades + high test scores = merit aid. We consider that to be her job. She takes it seriously-can’t ask for more than that.
My younger daughter is a senior this year, has 2 AP classes, and buses tables 3 nights a week at a local restaurant.
I was not in favor of her working (our mantra was, and is, school is your job), but she’s balancing it well so far, and that’s on top of having two surgeries on her sinuses/tonsils last month.
She likes her job, likes the responsibility, likes the cash, and is making it work, so I’m ok with it. We did just get her a tutor for AP Stats, but I think that would have been regardless of working. Older daughter (freshman in college this year) has 17.5 hours of classes and we asked her not to get a job on top of that (she was considering it) because sometimes she doesn’t prioritize correctly and college is a big transition.
I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer wrt working with a hard schedule-it’s just what works for your kid.
Up until senior year my D did not work except for occasional babysitting.
She started working in spring of senior year, when she got out of high school early.
She worked a few days a week. And the nice thing was that she already had this job set up for summer as well.
Both of my kids work. One is in hs taking five AP’s and the other one in college taking greater than 15 credit hours. I guess it depends on the kid and how much time they need to study. My child does not find Ap’s difficult. My eldest who has fantastic coop in college, her job in hs helped her get that position.
Mine worked all 4 years. Mostly on the weekends (and Friday nights) during freshman through junior years with occasional weeknights. 4-5 days a week senior year. It can be done.
My kid is working two plays and taking 3 AP courses. The teachers give out some homework, but the kid seems to manage to get everything done while waiting for his scene to rehearse.
I think different teachers and different schools give different amounts of AP homework. There is one notorious English teacher at our school who’s a really strict grader and loads them up with essays, but my kid got the other AP English teacher this year. So far the nicer AP English teacher has only given out homework once a week or so.
Mine works in the church on Sunday. I don’t let him work during the week. His classes and martial arts consume most of his time.
Mine never took more than two AP classes junior and senior year because not too many are offered and the high school’s most rigorous classes were not AP branded. That said they did not work during their “sport” season but did generally work during the off seasons. Somehow they managed to get everything done they wanted to but none of my kids would be classified as obsessive about grades etc so I know they had some tough times in high school where they had to dig deep!
All three of my girls took AP classses and none worked a paying job during the school year because of extracurriculars. However, my current senior volunteers for our first aid squad 4 hours a week on a school day afternoon and one 12 hour weekend shift per month.
It’s definitely a balancing act and different kids have different needs. There’s no right or wrong answer.
Agree it depends on the child. My son started working his sophomore year with two AP’s. Junior year he had four AP’s and this year three AP’s with two dual-enrollment. Summer he works 35-40 hours but during the school year it’s 10-15 with most hours on weekends. The job has definitely given him a different set of skills that he didn’t get through school. It’s been good for him and he likes having some spending money.
My daughter found ways to be employed when school was out of session. Summer internships and seasonal employment over Thanksgiving weekend and winter break. Lots of retail place hire extra help around Xmas. She thought this was a great arrangement, because if she didn’t like the job, there was a natural end without being a quitter.
My sophomore son is talking about getting a job this year. Somehow, his homework load is far less this year, even though on paper, his schedule looks more rigorous. Last year his homework load was ridiculous! This year, I think he could manage a very part-time job just fine.
Family finances make a huge difference in the decision to allow a HS student to work. Ideally a student does not need a job- the primary focus is that full time job of school. HS includes after class work in the form of EC’s as well as homework. My gifted kid had plenty of time (needed less to do the school work) so he was able to have free time and fuel his passion for running.
I could have used the money but school was the primary job- it translated into scholarship money for me. Hard to find summer jobs as well, especially with transportation lacking and rules for girls back then (12 year old boys could have paper routes but girls had to be 16, argh). No AP’s in my era. A medical school classmate was local and worked management level at McDonald’s through school.
Kids who do well academically in HS are learning life skills. One does not need grunge jobs to build character or other things. Those kids who need to spend hours on homework have no time for a job. Great idea mom who paid D and she discovered she had no time for a formal job. Also agree with that it depends on the child. Our son was atypical because he was ahead and didn’t turn 16 until he was a HS senior- not eligible for many jobs (and fast food work that might have taken him not worth while as we had money, and kid did not spend much).
Parents need to decide what works best. Not all students taking few or many AP’s require the homework time while some need all the time they can have. Spending more time on school work could translate into a scholarship et al while having money for little things that I did not could make HS more enjoyable. The responsibilities of a job may help some students focus. So many variables.
^ Agree with Wis that it varies. Both of my kids took several AP classes and neither had a job at all in HS. Neither ever spent 4-5 hours every night on homework, it was more like about 2. Older child had an activity that took up a lot of time and younger child attended a magnet school with a 20mile (each way) commute. So not much time for jobs. FWIW neither had trouble getting jobs later on.
yes every single one of them has had jobs and took AP classes
Oldest took around 10 AP classes. She didn’t work during high school or her first year of college but did volunteer and has had a paid job most semesters since then, as well as summer internships.
Second D also finished with around 10 AP classes. She took five junior year along with a number of time consuming ECs and working then would have been insane. There’s only so many hours in a a Day! She found a part time job at a tutoring center senior year and managed that with no problem. She generally worked 10 hours/wk or fewer, and the shifts were short. She found a job almost as soon as she got to colllege and currently is working two jobs by her own choice— she wants spending money for study abroad. Her grades have never suffered.
Third kid would like to have a job, theoretically, but time management is a challenge and a source of stress now and we are not pushing him to get one.
It certainly is possible to work and perform at a high level academically for some kids.
The “no work” is nice in theory, but kids need money for homecoming, prom, gas for their vehicles if they don’t live in an urban area with transportation. They want to go out to eat or to a movie now and then. It takes $$ for 17 or 18 year old social lives. Plus learning to manage money,I could argue, is more important then 10 more hours a week studying or forgoing a sport because of time. Not all parents relish being the Bank of Parents much past driving age in my neck of the woods no matter how much money and assets are IN the Bank of Parents.
My son had a P/T job both his junior and senior year. He worked about 15-20/hr per week. He took 4 APs in senior year and, while not a straight A student, maintained a very good GPA.
I am curious for the parents that say “your job is school”, do you pay for all incidentals? Gas (if they have a car), Movies, Prom? We had an arrangement with our son. We paid for his car insurance, he paid the gas. (The car was paid for.) Although we gave him a small allowance, it would not have been nearly enough for him to have a social life. He earned money so he could enjoy his life. He also learned to save money for something he wanted. (He had a camp that he went to each year, that he paid half for.)
My eldest pays for virtually all incidentals and food. Has learned to budget, coupon and be thrifty all while growing credit. She has thanked me for this. Admittedly my kids have had far less volunteer time but have learned valuable skills and life lessons.
My son had jobs starting in freshman year of high school (the public library in our community hires kids to shelve books at 14). This was his choice. He took two APs as a junior and two as a senior. At 16, he left the library job (where kids worked 2- or 3-hour shifts) and got a job in a retail store, where there was a requirement that shifts must be at least 6 hours. We told him that during the school year, he would not be allowed to work any shifts on Monday through Thursday because there would be no time for homework. Strangely, his boss had no problem with this. He simply assigned my son to Friday, Saturday, or Sunday shifts (usually two of the three days). This worked out fine.
My daughter was in an IB diploma program. The students were advised before coming in to the program that it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to work during the school year (yes, I know this is elitist, and it excludes some students who must work to help support their families, but it’s also realistic in light of the heavy workload). She never worked for pay until the summer after high school.
We paid for all the incidentals for both kids even though our son could have paid for many of them himself. This was in the interest of fairness. By the time he went to work in the retail store and was earning significant money, we knew that his sister would not be able to work during high school. So we paid for things like driver ed, prom, movies, summer school enrichment courses, SAT prep, and basic computer equipment for both of them. We could not justify paying for these things for her and not for him… He spent most of the money he earned on computer hardware and software, mostly to support his interest in online gaming. This is a frill that didn’t interest his sister.
Were we too lax? Perhaps. But if we had required the kids to work – or refused to pay for certain things if they didn’t work – our daughter would not have chosen the IB program, which turned out to be a very good experience for her. Sometimes, you have to set priorities.
We consider school & school related activities their work, as they have very little time for anything else. Between the classwork, sports, EC’s and social lives, my S19 & D20 (both take AP/Honors classes) have very little time for anything else. Also, their sports & orchestra & band (zero period) take up class periods in addition to all the time after/before school/Saturdays. So their summers are busy with taking classes they need for graduation, conditioning for their sports, sport or diabetes camps, volunteering, and maybe a short vacay.
ETA: My oldest daughter did have to work while taking AP’s, but it was a result of her accruing a ridiculous cell bill. We paid it, but she needed to pay us back. Luckily the employer was flexible with her hours and she was able to pay us back.