@itsgettingreal17 That is a tough question and I really think you have to keep an open mind at least the first year, assuming DC can stay in school without the extra income. We found with DD14 that she can earn enough for spending money plus some rent/food/utilities during the school year, but as she is on an academic scholarship that requires a 3.5 GPA to keep it, school is her primary job. Working a few hours a week wouldn’t make up for the loss of the scholarship. Any part-time work she picks up has to allow her to keep her grades up. During the summer, however, she focuses on combining a lot of waitressing with jobs more in line with her major, which covers her summer rent and, last year at least, her books for the upcoming year.
DS17 will also be (fingers crossed) on a merit scholarship, so his ability to work will depend on his ability to keep up his grades with an engineering curriculum while working a few hours. The good news is he is a certified soccer referee, and it should be fairly easy to work a lot of hours in a short time at tournaments wherever in the country he ends up (again fingers crossed).
One thing to remember is that full-time college students, in general, do better academically if they work, but work less than 20 hours per week, at least according to some studies. The theory is the additional commitment forces them to better manage their studies/schedule. Of course, every kid is different, and I think the kids who are motivated to work may also be motivated to do well in school (either because they have “skin in the game,” value the cost of the education more or are just intrinsically motivated kids), so YMMV.
@itsgettingreal17 – I will not require my S to work in college - other than on his academics and any ECs he pursues. He might though do an internship or Co-op program. I want him to strongly consider the engineering programs at schools with co-ops - e.g. Northeastern and/or strong internship programs. He says he wants to do EE & CS but he does not have a good sense what those actual jobs would be in real life - of course they could be many different things. He is very smart but not so well organized nor an excellent time manager. The lack of structure in college and the emphasize on long-term assignments, fewer assessments, etc. will be a challenge. He loves learning though and truly has an affinity, skills and talent for his areas of interest. So getting some exposure to what a future job in a career field of interest would be helpful so he can refine his areas of interest over time (knows he prefers software engineering & practical CS apps to theoretical CS already) and also hopefully help him grow in many ways – being timely, having to respond to employer’s expectations and learning how to interact with different types of people. He also really likes IT & computer networks & security so he at least he has a few alternatives that are appealing to him and for which he would completely be in his comfort zone.
Count me in as horrified at the fire drill during AP testing. How does something like this happen? I’d be furious and I feel for those poor kids.
Before becoming a top spy for Control I worked in the news gathering business. Ds is a news junkie like his mom so he reads BBC, NYT, financial news and local stuff. He has alerts sent to his phone and he watches John Oliver, the Daily Show, anything Vice does. We don’t watch local news unless there’s a chance for a snow day. I have a ton of news outlets on my Facebook feed.
I expect the Spykids to work some. But it really depends on how much your dc can handle. Our oldest works on campus. She’s also an R.A., which is considered a job, is an officer in her sorority, is involved in student government and a ton of other things. But she doesn’t like downtime. We expect ds to get a job but the other stuff is up to him.
@itsgettingreal17 For us it really depends on what school she ends up at and how much we are expected to pay. She hasn’t yet had a job, other than babysitting, as I was allowing her to focus on getting good grades and her ECs. She does want to work the summer before she goes to college and I have no objection if she does a work study or part time job while she’s in school if she can manage it. If she gets a scholarship that requires her to keep a minimum GPA and we don’t need the money I’d like her to focus on her grades.
I think this is especially true in college, but I am old school. I think earning some of her own spending money will be good for her self confidence and help her to feel a little more independent.
D wants to to go to graduate school and will need experience in a research lab. If she gets a paid position, great. If she has to start in an unpaid position, I would consider that to be work.
No TV news here (we love TV, just don’t care for the 24 hour news channels… we watch a lot of news satire like John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight and similar, though). Like others have mentioned, my kids get some vicarious NPR exposure in the car (though DS usually drives himself lately and doesn’t listen to the radio per our suggestion to limit distractions). I introduced him to theSkimm a few months ago and I think he reads it at least sometimes (but not sure how often). He also reads the 538 blog (our family loves data) and gets a lot of information (news and otherwise) from Reddit and other internet sources.
Not sure about working in college. If he ends up attending an expensive/no merit school he will probably have to get a job (we’ll encourage him to think about that when weighing his options, since we can afford to send him to state flagship with little financial strain). His top choice schools—though frighteningly expensive—seem to have a lot of paid research opportunities for undergrads, so perhaps he’ll get to do a job with educational/career relevance if he ends up at one of those schools.
None of my kids have had jobs for pay during academic semesters. That doesn’t mean they don’t have “jobs,” though. Ds, for example, spent about 18 hrs per week working on a research project with a professor. She told him she treated him like a grad student. It lead to him being offered 3 REUs to choose from this summer.
Older ds also did research on campus with his professors. It lead to multiple co-op choices which in turn lead to multiple job offers.
I would much rather them working with professors for relevant experiences than being paid for unrelated work. It has really benefitted my kids when it has come to applying for paid positions. (REUs and co-ops are paid.)
News, for my son? HA! That would interfere with his games and his clueless “huh?” when I ask about something.
@itsgettingreal17, we didn’t ask D15 work her freshman year while at college (she worked when she was home during winter and February breaks - her choice though) because I wanted school to be her job. She has spent a lot of hours doing volunteering, which is something her school is big on. Also, she is on a full ride scholarship and that pays for most of her schooling costs. Her job is to keep up her GPA so she keeps her scholarship [which is more than I earn in a year ;)]. I don’t think I will have S work either the first year. I want him to be able to settle in to the life of being responsible for basic stuff. However, we will be able to afford the school he is likely to choose (public with merit aid) and that puts a different spin on things. I will and do expect him to work during the summer, either in a paid job or at a paid or unpaid internship. He is dismayed to find that we mean starting this summer!
@itsgettingreal17 I think it depends on the student…college and a lot of other factors. My S will probably NOT work in college until he gets close to be out. He is smart however still needs to learn a few skills about procrastination and planning. My D always has been super good with having her little planner and everything written down. My S…not so much. He just flies by the seat of his pants and tell me it will be okay Mom. I can not tell you how many times I get told that a day. He has managed to make is this far however I have a feeling college maybe a different story. He is taking Dual Credit classes at the local junior college and he thinks that is what college is going to be like. Not even close to a university that he wants to attend. It maybe a rude awakening for him…I so hope I am completely wrong about this!!
Both of my older two have work study jobs, because there’s no other option to make ends meet. Sometimes I wish they had more flexibility with their time, but we can’t always have what we want, I suppose. Between their school and summer jobs they are both already in management positions so that experience is one advantage. They could drop the work study if they wanted to borrow money but graduating debt-free is a higher priority for them, and I can definitely get behind that. Their grades are excellent and they are both involved in other activities too so it seems to be working out for them.
A large part of their yearly wages, (actually all of their work study wages) goes toward paying the taxes on their scholarships. They find that irritating but they know that they’ve been given an amazing opportunity so they don’t complain too much .
For DS’17, it’s a harder call because he wants to run track (preferably D1) and I’d like him to not have to work on top of that. If he manages to get a little athletic scholarship money, that could count as a job. But we’ll all have to pull together if he is to graduate without debt too, so we’ll see.
For us the “work” in college will be their classes unless they find something they want to do that doesn’t interfere with getting good grades. If older D does a co-op, that issue is settled anyway.
As someone who’s worked a myriad of jobs from the truly terrible to the truly awesome, I don’t ascribe magical properties anymore to doing something because it gets you a paycheck.
@Tgirlfriend, my S’s responses to everything is “Yup” or “I Know”. Arrrgh. It will be interesting to see how he copes on his “own” in college.
@mdcmom, I agree that graduating dept free is important if that is possible, especially if the student’s major is something that may not be a big earner (D15 and anthropology and poverty studies!). S is looking at CS, and would likely be able to pay off dept easier. Sometimes a little skin in the game makes the kids more responsible.
Thanks for the info on the skimm, I haven’t seen that one before.
Personally, I consume the twitter links of NYT, which get you past the paywall easily, the washington post, and the chicago tribune. Used to read WSJ, but can’t handle it after Murdoch bought it. I need something more conservative that isn’t too cranky for balance.
Also record the PBS newshour, but rarely get time to watch it.
It not only gives them skin in the game, but it gives them a place to “belong” which can help those first 6 weeks or so. It’s been a positive for my very social D who felt like everyone had besties that first month. She never clicked with her roommate and it seems like she was the only one without a Best Friend For Life. Turnes out many, if not all, of the girls in her dorm had that same thought. Beyond those few weeks, it’s given her a chance to meet friends not in her major.
Our older D is finishing up her junior year. She had a part-time job, for spending money. Then, she dropped the job to take an unpaid internship. We had no objections. She had the savings from the previous summer’s work.
I think it’s easy to work 5-10 hours a week and handle school. Don’t forget, college jobs are often in short blocks of time, here and there. Loads of benefits to working! Especially if one hasn’t been exposed to different types of people on different paths. It can be eye-opening, right?
We expect D16 to work for spending money in college.
Both kids are responsible for their own clothes, make-up, spending money, eating out money, and putting gas in the shared kid car.
@itsgettingreal17 Not sure if D will work during the school year yet - but she does/has worked for our family business during the summer for a few years already and will continue to during her college years unless she gets some amazing internship/co-op opportunity that would replace her summer work. D is in a pretty fortunate position though, where she can rack up some pretty serious $$ in tips, and she’s naturally frugal. The hope is that she can pile up enough over the summer to cover her personal expenses and whatever her “expected contribution” is, and if she does, she won’t have to get a job during the school year unless she wants to. But she will work, one way or another!
On the news front - my kids and I listen to NPR in the car (younger D is a huge fan of Science Friday) Beyond that, I think D17 only consumes news when she has a project to do, or if she comes across something on Tumblr that makes her curious.
Wow, it is so easy to get pages behind here! Thanks for the recipe suggestion, @jedwards70, looks yummy! Luckily, my D doesn’t have time to actually make everything she finds or our waistlines would be in trouble! Although I could have used a piece of cake last night. It was a late night due to dance competition solos being run on a Thursday night. Weird. My D managed to squeak into top 10 (yes, 10th place, lol) and her pals did great as well. This morning was a little rough, though.
As for working in college, I don’t think we’ll expect it, certainly not freshman year. My D has worked since age 15 for 4 hours per week and it’s year-round, so her bank account is slowly but surely increasing. It helps she doesn’t spend much now. I told her that $$ would be for incidentals in college. I would rather her focus on getting good grades and finding enjoyable activities and also looking for opportunities related to her studies, even if not for pay. Happy Friday the 13th everyone!
The only job my 2 sons will have during high school is being a referee for soccer. It’s easy for them to fit it into their schedule and it pays pretty good. 2 hours or so and they get $40.00. So they’ll usually work every other weekend when they have time. That’s good enough for me, they don’t bug me much for $$ other than to buy them new cleats/sneakers/equipment when needed.
so he reads BBC, NYT, financial news and local stuff. He has alerts sent to his phone and he watches John Oliver, the Daily Show, anything Vice does. We don’t watch local news unless there’s a chance for a snow day. I have a ton of news outlets on my Facebook feed.