So for about a month now I’ve been making $15 a week. I’m teaching fiddle privately to the son of a friend of my dad’s, just half an hour a week.
I’ve been putting this on college apps, though I haven’t submitted any yet. (I did put it on my NMSC OSA though and I submitted that last night.) I’ve heard about kids’ financial aid being treated differently because they had a summer job and stuff like that.
Should I include this in my applications? Do the possible benefits of including this non-school-related activity (showing maturity, dedication, whatever) outweigh possible losses in financial aid?
A college admissions app is not a financial aid app. That being said, if you do apply for financial aid, you will need to list the income you receive for the fiddle lessons. If you are being honest (and you do want to be honest), there is no question about this.
Leave the fiddle instructor job on your college apps, for all the good reasons you mentioned.
Including it in the application for admission has no impact on the financial aid. Depending on whether you complete the Fafsa, the CSS, or a university’s own application for financial aid, this job will have little to no impact because it is self-reported and has a very minor impact on 2016 taxes. The student contribution generally assumes minimum wage summer employment, and a school may offer you work-study as part of its financial aid package, but neither of those are related to disclosing this teaching job.
I’d also like to add that the fact that you fiddle at a high enough level to teach it is more interesting than the fact that you have a job. Make the most of your fiddling skill and interest in your app.
I’d put the job on the application, but not the amount earned. If you were working at McDonald’s you wouldn’t put down that you make $8.15/hr and make $80/wk, you’d just say you work at McD’s.