Question Regarding Employment History

Graduate School
1

<p>I'm currently in the process of applying to UCLA MPP, USC MPA, and the London School of Economics. All the applications have inquiries about my employment, but I technically have none. I'm a 4th year undergraduate at a large UC currently and am serving as the Associated Students President (and have been heavily entrenched within the organization since my first year). The responsibilities of the position include managing internal operations of an organization with around 500 employees and 500 stipended student leaders (with a 10.5 million dollar budget), overseeing our lobbying efforts to local/state/federal government, and work on a wide variety of initiatives from capital planning to social justice.</p>

<p>Does this count as a something to put down for employment? Our student government is a 501c3 non-profit and therefore I'm not listed as a university employee at all or even an Associated Students employee.</p>

<p>I also see no other place to list this experience besides the statement of purpose, where I can't elaborate too much about it before it takes over the actual point of the statement.</p>

<p>Any thoughts? Thank you!</p>

2

<p>I would certainly list that as employment. Just because you aren’t paid doesn’t mean you aren’t gaining significant work experience through major responsibilities.</p>

3

<p>I doubt you’re the only student that hasn’t had a paid full time job before. You can list things like internships, community service, TA/RA positions and highlight the skills you’ve developed. The one you mention sounds like it’d be of interest to adcoms.</p>