Work and school

[kevingrnsee]

I am currently a sophomore in high school and working on average 30 hours a week. I do both of these with 5 AP classes, i had a 3.85 unweighted and 4.714 weighted. What will colleges such as Stanford and Harvard look at the work and school?

[gibby]

This from Harvard: http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/harvarddean-part3/

The term “extracurricular activities” covers an enormous amount of ground. We are interested in whatever a student does: in addition to school extracurricular activities and athletics, students can tell us of significant community, employment, or family commitments. **There are many who spend a great deal of time **helping to run their household, preparing meals and caring for siblings or making money with a part-time job to help the household meet expenses.

Unfortunately many schools have had to curtail or eliminate extracurricular activities and athletics, or they charge fees for participation. In addition, many students cannot afford expensive musical instruments or athletic equipment — or have families without the resources to pay for lessons, summer programs and the transportation networks necessary to support such activities.

Admissions Committees keep these factors in mind as they review applications, and are concerned most of all to know how well students used the resources available to them. Extracurricular activities need not be exotic — most are not — and substance is far more important. A student who has made the most of opportunities day-to-day during secondary school is much more likely to do so during college and beyond. This applies to academic life as well as extracurricular activities.

I imagine Stanford, and all selective colleges, look upon it the same way.

[PolyglotGal]

First of all, you’re a sophomore in 5 AP classes and you’re doing well in them, which is amazing in itself. Second, if you are working nearly full-time and maintaining that GPA, that is exceptional. If this is what you have to do, support your family, this will NOT be held against you in college admissions. In fact, it shows great character.

[TomSrOfBoston]

If you work out of necessity it would be a plus. If you work instead of doing EC’s etc., say your family does not qualify for need based aid, it would be a negative.

[compmom]

Why are you working so many hours and what kind of work? Are you helping your family or making money for a new car, for instance?

I think that selective colleges have gotten much better with the issue of student employment versus other seemingly impressive extracurriculars. This is part of a focus in recent years on socioeconomic diversity. It that context fits you, it may help.

That said, I have to say, I have seen kids work long hours at the local drug store for consumer goods, cars, that kind of thing and sometimes these very same kids had some wonderful talent, say, singing or dance, or art, that they are no longer pursuing because making money is more important. I just feel sad that the talent is not explored more. I am thinking of kids whose families are lower middle class. Though not wealthy, the choice to work seems more a matter of family values than actual need.

If the money is truly needed, that is an entirely different story…

We felt that the investment in talent or extracurriculars during the last two years of high school might pay off in scholarships worth far more than the kids could ever earn at the drug store. It was a gamble we were willing to take.