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[quote=Anonymous][quote]People are bashing the idea of working in a burger joint. Guess what? I worked in our college admissions office for work-study as an undergrad and I can promise you that a job at a burger joint looks just as good or better on a college app than volunteering at a hospital or in a museum. The only exception might be if your volunteer work were for a special project that had major leadership potential or a tangible product that was a sole endeavor of an extraordinary sort. But patents who think that they should shelter their gifted little Larla from getting her hands dirty with condiments in favor of a cushy volunteer gig are mistaken if they think that colleges dismiss service industry jobs.

We values commitment, growth, etc. so starting a job at 16 and getting promoted to assistant manager at 17 looked great. Taking on some kind of initiative or leadership is important, and it can be done in all kinds of jobs 
[/quote]

That may well be true, but there are reasons you might want your kid to spend their time volunteering at something that they are interested in other than bolstering their college resume.  I spent two years in high school working at Burger King (a nice step up from my previous job sorting mushrooms).  I didn't learn much from it, except be on time, listen to the manager etc. - stuff that as a relatively respectful kid, I would have done anyway.  Basically, it was just a way to get money - which is fine, that is why I needed the job in the first place.  Nobody at the restaurant I worked at was getting promoted to assistant manager at age 17.  The workers who held those positions were older, with more than a year or two of work experience.  
There's nothing shameful about having a job for the sole purpose of getting money, and for some kids, it can definitely help to develop a work ethic.  I got into a good college (no idea of my job factored in favorably).  But if were financially possible for me to volunteer instead, I would have been able to learn more about what I might be interested in doing long term. The point of an internship/volunteer position [i][b]should[/b][/i] be to learn something about a field you may be interested in pursuing, not to act as some "gold star" for college admissions offices.[/quote]

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