<p>I’ve been looking at people’s stats. Not everyone gets a job. I know I always planned on my son’s job being school and only working during the summer. He ended up working during the school year while doing his ECs and running start. </p>
<p>So what say you? Does employment make a difference to UW?</p>
<p>Minimal, I would say. Maybe if it was a toss-up between two people who both had identical scores and quality essays. Maybe then they would look at EC’s such as employment, but other than that, I doubt it plays a huge role.</p>
<p>My take on employment:</p>
<p>I think UW wants to look at how you use your time in high school. Everyone’s situation is different and by strictly saying you must join a sport or school club would be terrible. </p>
<p>Employment is a way people choose to spend their time. I say choose even with some family situations because you can DECIDE slack off and get fired. Or you can tell your parents that you don’t owe them anything and just run off and do something else while your parents struggle to pay bills. Of course, lay offs would spin a different situation.</p>
<p>Employment probably makes the most difference in an application when the student has to work to support his/her family. I know some people who managed to pull of 2 or 3 jobs during the school year, culminating to over 40 hours a week, to support their family (parents either job searching or had minimum wage jobs). Obviously, they’re very tired after work and still need to study to keep their grades up. They’re probably doing minimum wage work like bagging groceries or doing manual work. They’re most likely not going to be the manager of a store just kicking it in the back room. The money they make won’t even be going towards the next shopping spree, but to pay for the water bill. </p>
<p>If the student strongly conveys the time commitment of the job(s) as to why they aren’t on a sports team or an active member of a club or a volunteer somewhere, I think the job will “make up” for the lack of extra curricular activities. In fact, the student can talk about it in more detail in their essays about their at home situation.</p>
<p>Studying 24/7 with 16 APs (Yep, I know people who took 15-16 AP exams) and getting a 4.0UW GPA is not what UW is looking for. Seeing how you’re using your time before and after school is what UW wants to learn about you.</p>
<p>Ah, interesting. Thanks, speedsolver. My son has been put in supervisory roles quickly in his jobs. He also mentioned that he quit his sport due to working to save up for college yet maintained a high gpa in RS. </p>
<p>I think UW just likes a variety of different students, too. Not the very same cookie cutter student. That is where the essays come in. :)</p>
<p>Congrats to your son; that means that the employer has seen responsibility, discipline, and leadership in your son. :)</p>
<p>I second speedsolver. Not everybody has a chance to do many ECs if any at all. Sometimes you just have to give them up and work… If work is something that you have to do in order to survive and help your family it should be considered as a very important factor by UW. I think that what UW wants to see through the ECs is what kind of person you are. ECs can demonstrate how hardworking you are, what kind of leader you are and how goal-oriented you are. All those qualities should help you to get through college, and UW is very interested in it since every dropout or somebody who doesn’t go beyond 3.0 GPA affects their stats. Work is just another way to demonstrate what kind of person you are. If you are working 40 hours/week and going to school at the same time… you are definitely a hardworking and goal-oriented person. If you have a job that requires a lot of responsibility from you, well, I guess you have good leadership skills.</p>
<p>I would say no. I have never had a job and I was accepted to the UW. The UW has a very great approach about looking at every aspect of the student before deciding to accept them or not. So long as they have good EC’s and a reasonable SAT/ACT score the work experience should not matter.</p>