<p>So I just got my license and I was thinking about applying to work part-time. My best friend thinks I need work experience, and I agree with her (although I came up with this idea myself... she didn't force me), but my parents don't want me to work.</p>
<p>I'm an honors student at my CC and am taking 17 units this semester, including two honors classes (stats, British lit, geology with lab, honors theatre appreciation, honors history, ballroom). I'm also attempting to transfer this year, so I will need to finish my common app as well as take retake SAT at the end of this month and work on my ECs.</p>
<p>Still, I know that the colleges I'm looking into are expensive and I feel bad that my stepdad is paying for my college education and that my mom has to pay for everything else. I feel it will take a load off of them if I at least could pay for some things myself... but they're both worried that I'll overload myself with school, ECs, SAT, college apps, and work. And frankly, I can understand why... I pretty much need to keep my 4.0 if I want any chance to get into the colleges I'm interested in this semester.</p>
<p>Any advice? I thought maybe I could try to work full time this summer instead, but I assume that trying to get a job in the summer is much more difficult to do...</p>
<p>Research has shown that college students who work 8-12 hours a week do better on average than students who do not work, so the idea that work will definitely affect your grades is really dependent on your ability to manage your time wisely. If you are already college age, and have never had a job, first of all, you should have a 4.0, and secondly, work experience is just as important as EC’s. Work experience gives you skills and shows maturity, time management skills, leadership skills, ability to follow direction from others, commitment, etc. If you hope to get internships, etc, later during your college studies, you want to get work experience to strengthen your resume so an internship site will know you have some sort of useful experience, knowledge of how to act in a business setting, etc. Think of a job as an “EC” - colleges value jobs on applications.</p>
<p>Will it be possible to only work about 10 hours a week, though? I thought that working about 10-15 hours a week would be possible, but my friend says that they’ll only hire you if you can work 20-40 hours a week…</p>
<p>Not true. Especially if it’s an on-campus job- generally those are 10-20 hours. I have one job where I only work one 8 hour shift a week (I have other jobs too, but that’s the one with the least hours). </p>
<p>Work experience is extremely important. People don’t want to hire someone full time (post-graduation) when they haven’t had a job before.</p>