College 101
Six Reasons Why A Part-Time Job Can Help You Get Into Your Dream School Article Type: Quick and Dirty
If financial circumstances require you to work a part-time job during high school instead of heading to France for the summer to practice the lingo and eat lots of bread, then don't worry: you can use your work experience to your advantage.
1. College is all about juggling responsibilities, like homework and lab work and ultimate frisbee practice and laundry. If you can work a job while doing well in high school, then admissions officers will know you have the mad skillz to stay afloat in college.
2. College costs money...and that is the understatement of the year. Your bachelor's degree is going run you tens of thousands of dollars, and the fact is, if you've had experience earning a paycheck, you're more likely to be more responsible with your spending and saving and less likely to drop out of college due to money trouble.
3. Work shows a level of maturity that may not be reflected in a “typical” high-school application. If you’ve held a job, it shows you're responsible and can follow through. (Or at least that you didn't get caught texting while restocking shelves at your local Wal-Mart.)
4. If, by chance or by plan, your job relates to your potential major – you work at a museum because you want to go into art; you help draw blood at the hospital because you want to go into law – then this is a good way to show how passionate and committed you are to a particular field of study.
5. Work experience can provide great material for college application essays. Remember that time a customer smeared poop on the bathroom wall, and you swore you'd go to college so you'd never have to clean up someone else's feces again? That, friend, is essay gold.
6. Unless your summer job is lifeguard, swimming and suntanning are not good extracurricular activities to include on a resume. Employment during the summer – any employment – looks good, because working a summer job shows that you are willing and able to remain engaged.
Our Favorite Top 10 Part-time Summer Jobs
- Theme Park Employee
- Rangeboy
- Vampire Slayer
- Mathlete
- Babysitter
- Assassin’s Assistant
- Dance Instructor
- Superhero
- Reporter
- Camp Counselor…On second thought, forget that one.