Reply to To work or not to work throughout college? That is the question!

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I was talking to my DD about how I worked in dining hall in college, how it was hot miserable exhausting work, about 10 hours a week paid on top of the time of walking cross campus and changing after each sweaty shift.

Then I got thinking how I spent probably 5 hours a week doing laundry, lugging the dirty laundry to laundry facility, waiting for it to finish and lugging it back to fold.

To get a haircut or pharmacy was a 20 minutes bus ride each way (I didn’t have a car and had never taken a taxi until I was a grad student).

Most students don’t work at my elite university, most had laundry service, and I think many took taxi without much thought.   I realized I probably lost 20 hours+ each week compared to them in sleep, study, and socializing time (and  at an elite university socializing is networking). I got to know my dining hall staff, but all of them were like me and went into low paying passion career like teaching or evolutionary science.

I realize now that those hours lost were another barrier keeping us apart; not intentional I’m sure, but it is what it is. [/quote]

+1
We are not poor. Donut hole family and kids went to public k-12 and instate flagship college. Cost is quite low and  on top of that they got generous merit scholarships. As a result, they are almost getting their STEM education for free.  And have enough money to buy a car that they will use for the next  10 years.

Kid is in college 30 minutes away. No cost of time, money and effort to make trips back home. We take care of his weekly laundry, groceries and sundries, plus all minor logistical needs.  All the extra time allows him to do well academically ( two well paying STEM majors), socialize, do EC activities, volunteer, get medical care from his trusted doctors through our insurance and travel. He has been able to score two internships as a freshman. One is a year long internship and other is a summer internship.  All of these are resume builders.  I do not fear that he will not be able to “adult”. He knows how to do laundry and fold clothes the Marie Kondo way. He knows how to cook. He knows how to do dishes. What he does not know, he will learn. There is not a high barrier to learning these chores.  What it buys him is time. If he would have been in an elite college, he would not have got the help that we can give him here. Furthermore, the cost of college would have meant that we would not be in a situation to help him financially to give him a leg up later in life.

However, if your kid will while away their time in partying or sleeping, then I think it is better they work. If work will take away time from academics, networking, internships, EC activities, then you need to pause and re-evaluate.  But if working is required to pay bills, then working becomes important 
. [/quote]

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