Neither of my kids had jobs in HS. Coursework including AP courses or equivalent (for ShawD’s private school, which proudly didn’t have courses labeled AP but offered advanced courses instead) plus extra-curriculars took up too much time. Highly selective colleges are looking for any reason to weed out otherwise identical candidates so it is important not to do badly in anything. From my standpoint, working during the school year would have been a bad time allocation for both of them given their strengths and weaknesses.
Both kids had jobs for much or all of college. We were fortunate in that we had saved fully and didn’t need them to make any kind of financial contribution but they did so anyway. In ShawD’s case, these were related to her field of study. She was very responsible financially. In ShawSon’s case, he got research assistantships to cement relationships with professors and develop deeper expertise and also to have good recs in case he applied for things like a Rhodes. In his senior year, he also started a tech company in addition to his research assistantship. The hardest thing for him was remembering to cash the checks.
@trubruin, my thinking was a bit different for each kid, but in both cases, in HS, we parents were paying for everything. The kids had to consult with us on major expenditures, but one thing that contributed to this decision was that both kids had LDs and to get superior academic performance in HS, they had to do less and have fewer distractions. In particular, my son combined very high-end intellectual gifts with severe deficits. To succeed, he needed to set goals and figure out how to optimize given the resources available. ShawWife sometimes wanted to put kids on a budget. With respect to ShawSon, I said, “Look. He’ll just see this as one more constrained in a constrained optimization problem. I don’t think he will have any difficulty managing his expenses when he knows what his constraints are, but let’s make things easy for him by not having the constraints.” With respect to ShawD, she was in a well-to-do to rich crowd at a fancy private school. We had to discuss with her what we could do and what we were going to have to say no to.
The good news. Both did very well in college (roughly 3.95 GPA, summa cum laude, phi beta kappa, etc.) while having jobs. Both appear to be succeeding in their work and both ask me for advice on what to do with money. ShawD is actually saving $2000 per month as a 24 year old.
Yup. Both kids took multiple AP classes every semester and both had part time jobs. Mostly weekend hours. Both played varsity sports too, actually, though one dropped his sport junior year, the other stayed with 1-2 different ones all the way through.
Made the time management transition to college a lot easier I suppose.
Definitely depends on the child and the volume of AP’s, the type of student they are and their organizational skills.
S11 worked like crazy but didn’t have any AP’s so that’s a bit irrelevant
D14 did not have a job at 3AP’s and a very heavy EC load for the same reason, there really was no free time during the school year. This has hurt her to be honest. I truly believe having at least 1 job in HS, even if over the summer, is critical. She did not and as a result had a hard time finding that first minimum wage type job as she had zero experience.
S17 had a job (2 actually) while taking 2 AP’s and honors classes and a very heavy EC load. He does best when really busy.
S19 does not have a job with 5 AP’s and a very heavy EC load. S19’s homework load is quite a bit more substantial than S17’s was and combined with the EC’s there is very little time available for a job. He does not do as well when overscheduled, needs down and alone time. He would like one and we will let him but it likely won’t be until after winter break that he starts looking.
My son never had a school-year job until after he was out of college! In HS took plenty of AP’s but never, to our knowledge, had HOMEwork. He did almost all of his homework in school (math during his Spanish class, Spanish during his government class, etc.). He had some major EC’s the last two years – policy debate team, and opinion editor of the school paper. So these were things he spent extra time on. He also had some hobbies. I’d say he had things well in balance! But had we forced him to have a job? That probably wouldn’t have worked well. He was busy enough, and we didn’t need the money. Now, in real life, he makes a lot more than I ever did.
My daughter also never had a school-year job. She was favoring a career as an artist. We thought it better for her to devote time to art, and specifically to creating a portfolio for her college applications.
I had one thought going into this thread and now a different one having read the answers. My new answer: depends on the kid and their time commitments. At my kids’ school, any AP class is going to have a minimum of 1 of homework a night. Some (e.g., AP Bio, AP Chem) is notorious for having a solid two hours of homework every night. My oldest (who took three APs Jr. and Sr. years) always had 5-6 hours of homework each night…MUCH more on weekends. As a three sport athlete, a job was not in the cards…other than the occasional babysitting.
I will second what Marion said. In our school district, AP teacher assign tons of homework to ensure that the average student passes the test. Everyone has to complete the busy work- even if they get it with little effort. For that reason my highly gifted daughter decided to only take 4 APs per year since she was committed to doing approx. 20 - 30 hours of ECs year round.
Fast forward to college. My daughter is a sophomore in pre-med with a 4.0 that is on the dance team, in a sorority, and has a research job. She does not have to put in nearly as much time studying as some do.
Marian
"It really depends on the kid and class. In a class of thirty you will have a range from where one student does not need to study to the other end of the pendulum where they are studying nonstop. Results or should I say test grades do not necessarily coordinate with time spent. Some kids in certain subjects just get it. Hence, some students have plenty of free time on their hands while others are sleep deprived.
In some classes, this is true.
But in others, the teacher assigns a lot of work that requires the student to produce actual products that get turned in. These take a certain amount of time to produce, even for the student for whom the subject comes easily. "
I told my kids that school was their job during the school year. They could work over the summer. I also realize we are fortunate to be able to do this and give the kids a small allowance.
My oldest oldest did not work in high school, but she has some medical issues which made life hard and organization was a challenge for her. She did not have a phone, did not concern herself with fashion, and her friends were content with no-cost activities. Her interests were mostly musical. It worked for her even though she had no allowance because her wants were minimal. She is graduated from college now, her needs are still simple, and she manages independently.
D18 works and pays for everything that’s not a life necessity. She’s always worked summers but this is her first time working during the school year. She has a phone she pays for, friends who go out to places that cost money, and doesn’t like to wear hand-me-downs. Thankfully, she is highly organized because she has heavy EC commitments as well.
My son wanted to work as well just to get some experience and a little spending money but it was tough even though he only took a couple of APs junior year. He played a sport so with practice ending around 5:30 and homework later there was no way to get a part time job since they wanted people to work some weekdays as well. It wasn’t till summer senior year that he was able to get a part time job.
As a student answering this instead of parents (which appears to be the majority of the comments), I think I have a good insight to whether or not this will impact GPA and whatnot. I currently work in retail, and with holidays it’s been crazy busy. Some weeks I work five days in a row, and sometimes I’ll be scheduled for one day during the week. The best thing to do when considering getting a job is to outline a schedule that you know you’ll be able to follow. While not all employers will be able to follow through with this, stressing the importance of grades and success in school over working long hours or at all is something they’ll need to do to advocate for themselves. But, I don’t think they should drop ECs or sports for a job, especially if they hope for a selective school. If it begins to take a toll on their GPA, see if they can move to only work weekends. Otherwise, summer jobs are always an option.
Both of my kids started working the month they turned 14 and were legal to do so. They both earned money prior to that doing neighborhood things like babysitting, raking lawns, that sort of thing. Both worked full time (at least 40 hrs) during the summer months all through high school but only part-time during the school year. Son was not a great student (by choice) and had little homework and so worked year-round. D has had the same job for 5 years now, a seasonal restaurant that closes Oct-Apr and so only worked summers and weekends during the shoulder season before starting college. In the summer she always had a second job as well but managed to keep her schedule such at she had at least 2 days off each week, more often 3.
I disagree with a prior poster that academics teach the same life skills as being employed. I think its important to teach kids the value of the dollar, how to take instruction and be subordinate to a boss, how to manage your time to allow both school and work, the humility of washing dishes, cleaning toilets or such so you can buy that new pair of sneakers that you don’t really need…work experience IRL is invaluable.
My daughter took 3 Ap’s Junior year, Ap Cal, AP Chem, and Ap Lit, along with 4 honors courses. Senior year 4 Ap’s. She could have worked 10 hours a week, she was a competitive dancer, and we let her do that instead or working. She could not have worked on top of that, she was up to 2:30 most nights doing homework. Remember, the end of Junior year is busy, with SAT and AP subject test, and picking a prom dress ( don’t laugh, it took a good amount of time)
She now works in the summer and vacations and work study at school. (Freshman in college) It worked for us that she got her work experience, that I agree is important, in the Summer after Senior year, and at school now. When she didn’t work during the high school years we let her know we expected her to get a job once high school was over and at college. As part of receiving financial aid, she works in the dinning hall at school. which we think is great. Her extra school work in high school could have saved her a year of college, but she chose not to go that route.
My son is a Freshman in high school and we expect his journey to be a little different, since he doesn’t apply himself academically like his sister did he will most likely work at a younger age.
I think it’s good for kids to have jobs in the summer starting around end of sophomore year - I’m surprised how many kids I know that don’t really work in the summer. During the school year however, it should be up to the kid/family. Some kids need more time put into studies or extracurricular/volunteer activities and there really isn’t time for work. Sometimes there are opportunities for minimal work (tutoring) and it can be worked around the school schedule. My D did theater all through h.s. and the rehearsals were so time consuming and lasted the whole school year, so there really was no time to work in addition to homework time.
My son is a junior and works 1-2 hours/week doing tennis coaching during the school year, but works a lot in the summer. Even though he takes 6 IB classes plus AP physics, I do think he could handle a little more work when he is off season (plays two varsity sports) but I guess I’m ok with extra Instagram time. So much depends on the kid.
Our experience was much like Akqj10 and elena13. My daughter was a competitive dancer at a very, very competitive studio (prob ranks in the top 10 in the nation for technique) and the commitment was year-round. High school did not allow AP classes for any freshmen. Starting her sophomore year, she took 3-4 AP/ dual credit classes each year and the rest were all honors classes. She was also in the dance performing arts program at school and had rehearsals after school at times. Studio dance was 4-7 days a week, 25-35 hours/ week. She would study during trips to/ from dance (one hour each way) and start studying when she got home at 10:30 PM and stay up until 2-4 AM. There was no time for a job and I did not think it was bad idea that she did not work summers as I think she needed some down time. Also, she took some of the requirements over the summer like Health, PE, Driver’s Ed.
She ended up with a full ride academic scholarship at a Big 10 university. She is a pre-med student in her sophomore/ junior year (depending on how you count years/ credit hours) and has a 4.0 GPA. She is crazy busy with a paid research job (12 hours/ week), fill-in job at library (5 hours/ week), college dance team (10-15 hours/ week), and rushed a sorority this year. I do see that she is lacking in some life skills that other kids have that worked early on in high school. However, I don’t think that will have a large adverse effect for her since she will likely be a high income earner. She hasn’t ever and probably will never work at a restaurant job/ retail job like most kids. She is doing volunteer work during breaks. She is enrolled to do a study abroad and volunteer at a clinic in a foreign country over spring break. Through class at college, she is certified in First Aid and wants to get phlebotomy training this summer so she can assist in a more medical way at the clinics.
Unless the family really needs that income, a job in high school is like any other good activities. It is beneficial. But the benefit could be gained from many other activities.
Unless a college bound kid can still mostly pull A’s and have some decent EC while taking AP courses, a job probably is not best activity during school years because it takes so much time.
My son is currently taking 3 AP classes (Calc AB, US Gov, AP Stats). He does not have a job, but is on the Varsity Hockey team. He leaves school at 2:30 and does not get home from practice until 5:30. He has no problem handling the AP workload (with plenty of time for PC gaming) with this schedule. I have found that when my kids had part time jobs during the school year, they usually had one weekday shift, max two, then a couple of shifts on the weekend. If not for the sports, if he wanted to get a job, I would allow it. He would have to manage his time.
My son was taking AP and dual enrolled at a local CC for multivariable calc. He held a job year round except during his sport season. He was able to get the days to work that worked best into his schedule so he usually worked Monday and Friday afternoons so he could do the necessary homework over the weekend. Graduated HS with 24 college credits and a ROTH ira
