I don’t understand the either/or aspect of this. Many kids work and have stellar scores, GPAs and academic enrichment. Some have all those things and music or athletics. Working over the summer doesn’t preclude any of those things, and not working in the summer doesn’t magically increase test scores and GPA. If the worker and non-worker are both diligent about academics all year long, the job won’t make much difference. Of course, it is up to each family to decide for the benefit of each individual child, but it is beyond silly to think that the summer job of a high school student would be so onerous as to prevent studying or academic enrichment. As far as elite admissions go, I bet a lot of the kids accepted do all of these things in various combinations throughout their high school years.
If all student did a summer academic program and all students got a bump in their scores, wouldn’t that just inflate the scale for everyone? Since many of the elite schools don’t give merit scholarships, there is no ‘little bump’ for those schools that would result in more money
Your theory is good IF the little scholarship was a sure thing of $2000 or so, but working IS a sure thing, so overall it is better for most students to work and get the sure money.
You and your parents worked it out. Why do you care if other kids work? (Based on your title question.) One of my kids took a third option which was to play her sport for the summer, and that resulted in a scholarship.
There are a lot of other possibilities for summer besides just working a fast food job or attending a very expensive academic program. Some teens are required to visit a non custodial parent, some visit other relatives, some travel, some go to the camps (religious or other) they’ve been going to since they were young. Many jobs are not menial. My friends were all nurse’s aids when I was in high school earning ‘real’ money (much more than me) and of course were learning a lot of nursing too, my brother was a farmer and did irrigation (again $$), a friend’s daughter worked in a lab (unpaid). Mine was very busy traveling with her sports team. Other brothers also concentrated on sports camps and tournament with the hope of being recruited.
We are just giving you another perspective, that work experience can be as valuable as academic programs in the long run. Some admissions officers like to see experience, some want nothing but stats, others look heavily at the essays.
My kids worked during summers. My oldest waited on tables as a HS junior and senior. He then got summer jobs with his engineering department during the next couple of summers and got an internship in a field not closely related to his major. He is now working as an essential employee of a consulting engineering firm. My middle child worked as a life guard over summers, often working the early morning adult lap swim. He got a great summer internship/coop that paid an excellent salary, and other subsequent summer jobs that enabled him to essentially pay for his room and board the last couple of years in college. He is now in grad school.
My youngest started networking early, and through one of his scoutmasters, managed to get a HS summer job at the local college with a professor who taught in the department of interest to my son. He spent the next couple of summers working as a camp counselor at the Philmont Boy Scout Ranch in NM. In his junior summer, he got a summer internship at the company where his scoutmaster worked. He is now in grad school, too.
The money that was made during the summer was available to them for personal spending during the rest of the year. They may have started out with “pointless” jobs, but the expectation that they work made them work harder to find jobs and internships that would be useful to them for their future careers. BTW, they went to top 20 LACs or a flagship public university, so they didn’t seem to miss out by not getting extra summer academic experiences.
My niece, as well, was a summer ocean lifeguard. A few years ago a French tourist went into the water off beach (unguarded) and drowned. The other people at the beach tried to help him by throwing him a boogie board, but no one was qualified to save him. My niece was the first guard to respond on the quad, but by then it was a recovery, as there was no sign of the swimmer. She, and other guards, had to swim cris-cros along the shore hoping to find the body. A grim task for a 17 yo. She later wrote about this her freshman year in college, parelleling it with her younger brothers near drowning as a toddler. This caught the attention not the only her writing prof, but her advisor as well. She was recommended and accepted to the prestigious Watson Fellowship. Not only does this give her 3 years paid internship in NYC and abroad, but access to many cultural happenings, free of charge, in NYC.
So you never know where your summer job will take you!
Because not every kid is as cluelessly economically privileged as you, where parents have the means to write a check for the entire EFC.
Teens working is about more than just how it looks for colleges or even saving for college.
I recently had a discussion online with a know it all who was going on and on about how poor people just don’t work hard enough. I’ve worked with people who make minimum wage, at tough jobs (often more than one) and are searching their couch cushions for change to get gas for their next shift. He said they aren’t working hard enough, I said in many of my jobs, the hardest workers were those minimum wage earners. I asked him if he didn’t notice that as well. He said he’s never worked for minimum wage, he’s only ever had minimum wage workers working for him. There is so much he doesn’t really understand about the people working for him since he’s never been in their shoes or truly worked alongside them.
I don’t want my kids to skip that step. I want them to see how hard work isn’t always reflected in pay checks. I want them to truly understand why not everyone can get ahead. I want them to appreciate their own opportunities and have empathy those who will never have the same opportunities.
"I don’t think classes are always inferior. My kids did various camps and programs in their summers until senior year, and worked after that. But almost every student will eventually have a boss and a job (even that star quarterback or great musician). "
Ding. Ding. Ding. We have a winner! Thank you @Intparent. Also, your avatar always makes me laugh.
Well, hopefully DD1 has not been ruined for life by her boring classes. She got her first job during freshman year of college working as a research assistant to a Wharton professor. This sophomore summer she is getting paid $20,000 for 10 weeks of work by a very large tech company. That was not the best monetary offer she received, just the one that interested her the most (Internet of Things).
Clearly, work skills are beneficial, and kids can learn a wide range of things from the experience, but when and how it is best for that to begin really depends on the individual kid. I am always surprised at the number of people who think that whatever they did must be the best solution for everyone.
Yes, my kid who night stocked at Walmart worked with a lot of adults who were not going off to college in the fall. It was eye opening for her. I still really clearly remember my co-workers from a summer spent at a resort as a hotel maid – most were not college students, they were young adults from a disadvantaged economic are who took whatever seasonal work they could get. I kept in touch with a couple of them for several years, and their lives were a lot harder than mine.
I think boring went to the read of the student profile, not the class.
Brown University does actually explicitly encourage kids who want to attend their summer pre-college/college for h.s. student programs to fund raise. I think it, broadly, tells kids to dig deep when it comes to ideas, reaching out to both family and local businesses and organizations in the fundraising efforts.
Don’t know that’s what this kid did, though.
Well, sorry, but you are missing my point if you think I agree with you. Working for a prof on campus isn’t “real world work” (my kids have done that, too).
I still think at some point before going to college, it is best if kids work for money in a non-academic environment, whether for a summer or part time job. Partly for exposure to the types of people you won’t get later in internships or work, but also partly to learn some of the basic “having a job” skills before waking in the door at that internship so they aren’t trying to figure some of that stuff out while also trying to impress a company they hope will hire them long term.
@gigibee , YOU are the winner of this thread! Yes, work should be exactly what you described: using life experiences to build upon and take you to the next level. The people who can master that are the people who will go far, but unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out as it should. Some people do get stuck in dead end jobs for decades, often because they can’t go to college or children or family problems come along.
No doubt the OP has left the building, (and not ever needing to work, this won’t be relevant to him anyway,) but I can reiterate that what happened to your niece is not dissimilar to what happened to me, though in my case it has been far more mundane and hasn’t lead to any life-changing events. Once my kids became more self-sufficient, I started volunteering. Eventually the volunteering came in handy, as I was able to use the coordinator as a job reference. I got the job (in a school, and only because I have a degree), and also began volunteering at a local community college, (again, they wanted me to volunteer because I have a degree and worked with students.) I decided it was time to retrain and get a job with something more relevant to my college degree, from way back in dinosaur times. I now had two long-term volunteering references, and a reference from my employer. I got hired to train (paid) for my new career, and meanwhile, I was also offered a paid job at the first place I continued to volunteer at. In the space of 16 months, I went from no jobs to three. And this was all because I have a degree, began volunteering, and took on a low-level job. Job skills and education go hand in hand.
Okay, here are three reasons why I think the high school summer job mandate is out of date and most frequently counter productive:
- Only about half of all college students will end up graduating.
- 5 and 6 years to graduate has become the new normal.
- Global competition has made slots at even state schools increasingly difficult to obtain — especially in more selective engineering and business departments.
Using summers to shore up academics confronts all three.
The “only half of students wind up graduating” and to a lesser extent the point below is due to FINANCES, not flunking out. I think you are very out of town with the average American - who can’t just blithely go off to school for 8 uninterrupted semesters, but may have to stop, work and save up $ and restart - or may have to just work and give up the idea of completion. This is the real world.
Why are parents, with lots of experience and knowledge, arguing with a 17 yr old hs kid? He clearly knows it all.
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Turn up your sarcasm detectors.
Due to finances? It was just reported in the Washington Post that lack of success is due to remedial coursework and students not being prepared. If you’re poor why would you spend 50% more on tuition? Wouldn’t a poor student be more likely to graduate as fast as they could — even early? I know I plan to. I’d love to spend my 4th year taking grad level courses.
I’m 18. And I don’t know it all. But I know I got into my dream college because I pushed back against a brainless summer job. And I know my friends rejected from colleges they wanted to attend wish they spent their summer more wisely.
Hogwash. There is a lot more to the admissions process than academic summer grinding. The naive and myopic perception is kinda cute, though.
Oh please. You make it sound like the ONLY way to become a better writer, prep for the SAT, or take intro courses of interest is to do some expensive summer program…and not work. That is simply poppycock.
The vast majority of students do not go to summer programs. Most work. Some for very low wages (like camp counselors or babysitters).
It’s fine that you went to a summer program and you found it valuable…but even at your prestigious college, you will find many students who…worked during the summers. Just like you, they got accepted there.
Those students who aren’t graduating from college probably can’t afford a summer program to start with. So what are you suggesting – government funded summer school for every high school student so they all get an academic boost? Your logic is… assailable.
Me neither.
I worked summers and part-time during the school year as a cashier clerk at a stationary store from late elementary school until sometime after the first semester of HS when scheduling conflicts due to a long commute and overwhelming academics forced me to drop the job. Let’s just say that in addition to losing the ability to chip in for family finances was also the psychological blow that I really fell short in the intellect department by the standards of my HS peers.
The common thinking among many classmates growing up, especially at my public magnet HS when I attended was if one can’t excel in academics, juggle co-curriculars/ECs, work a part-time job, AND IDEALLY take academic enrichment classes to advance one’s knowledge academically(i.e. Taking pre-calc in the summer so one can start straight on Calc BC after finishing trig), you weren’t really anything special in the intelligence/academic achievement department and I’m using the most diplomatic paraphrasing of adjectives some would actually use.
Regarding the last, taking summer classes for the purpose of increasing one’s chances of admission, learning how to write a college essay, or improve one’s SAT score would have been viewed in the same light as if one was taking a remedial course because he/she failed it during the school year. Not very impressive when viewed from that perspective.
- And adcoms who probably have seen plenty of applicants who didn't seem to need to take summer academic programs for such "remedial" purposes.