work at swarthmore?

<p>Do any of teh students actually work for money? When I visited what I heard from most students is that they could care less about money and for much of the year don't even see it. Actually I didn't see any students pulling out their wallets with any money in them, mostly they just used their swat IDs. I am really concerned about the so-called "swat bubble" because it seems like students are disconnected from their immediate surroundings and only immerse themselves in books.</p>

<p>A considerable amount of students work for money, though the vast majority hold on campus jobs, rather than working off campus. I definitly would not say that students are not concerned about money, many I know are, including myself. As for the Swat bubble, if students are pretty dissconnected from their immediate surroundings it's because there isn't that much to do around the college, and pretty much everything you need is right there. That said I go out to eat fairly frequently, but only several times a month, compared to several times a week as some of my friends do. I've also gone to a couple of movies this last semester as well as going shopping and various other similar outings.</p>

<p>meestasi:</p>

<p>I'm sure there must be some Swatties who don't work, but I am personally not aware of any. All of my daughter's friends have campus jobs -- the admissions office, giving campus tours, the library, WA'ing, yadda, yadda, yadda.</p>

<p>You don't see people pulling out their wallets because virtually everything on campus is "free" - most of the parties, all of the movies, all of the performances, etc. It's a Quaker school tradition, intended to not make students without a lot of money feel left out. If I recall, my daughter put $50 on her student card to cover the snack bar and coffee at Kohlberg. I think she had money left over at the end of the semester.</p>

<p>As I understand it, there is an ethos of not putting on airs. I know that when my daughter and her friends have gone to NYC for the weekend, they have taken the Chinatown bus because it's cheaper than the train. Wealthy kids, poor kids: they all take the $10 Chinatown bus. </p>

<p>She spends money on the occasional dinner with friends: usually at some cheapo ethnic place downtown (or even better, when somebody's parents pick up the tab!).</p>

<p>I am sort of conerned with the idea that everything is "free." That seems to foster ideas of indifference and lack of concern for the work or money, and the importance of money in the real world. What I am concerned with is that when I come out of college from SWarthmore that I will lack skills necessary to function in the real-world. </p>

<p>I may be totally off-base here, but all the input I've been getting from this forum and from the college itself seems to subtly hint at the detechment from the outside world.</p>

<p>Just because you don’t have to pay to go to a party doesn’t mean that people don’t care about money. For a lot of the students money has been a huge concern for most of their lives, and it is a luxury to be able to focus more on their work. That almost all my friends have some sort of campus job and as far as I know they have all held jobs out side of school too. If you think that just because students can use a meal card instead of cash to buy a snack then they are becoming divorced from reality, then I think you are pretty misguided. That said there are certainly individuals who choose to isolate themselves within the Swat bubble, and may not have conventional goals in terms of what they want to do with their lives, but the pretty much everyone I know goes to Swarthmore so they can get a good education and get into a good grad. school or a good job. At the end of the day pretty much everyone is very well aware of the fact that college is a means to an end.</p>

<p>On this subject, does anyone know what the criteria for applying for a work-study job are? I applied for financial aid and was denied (I wasn't expecting much, so I'm setting up the loans and such) and the brochure sent with my financial aid letter mentioned on-campus type jobs, but I wasn't sure if the fact that I will not be recieving aid from the college meant that I am not eligible for these jobs.</p>

<p>You don't need to be on financial aid to work a campus job. I think that some jobs might be easier to get if you get aid, but there are definitely enough jobs going around, with a wide variety of hours and commitment. The most popular irregular job for people who want to make a couple of bucks here and there is working as a PA, where you make seven-odd bucks an hour for supervising a party or event (usually about 4 hours long). PAs volunteer for parties, and are not assigned them, so you only work when you want to. Other than that they are a wide range of jobs offered by the various Deans Offices, Libraries, the arboretum, Computer services and others like working in the Paces and Qub Student cafes, DJing parties and van driving (though that may be discontinued).</p>