Job During HS

Army_Dad

Army_Dad

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Aug 22, 2018
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Greetings. My DD wants to quit her job during HS to focus on academics and sports. She usually only works on Sunday but she is a sophomore taking a heavy load. Does anyone know how a job during HS affects an NROTC application?
 
My DS earned an NROTC scholarship without ever having a job in HS. He took mostly AP classes, played 2 sports each year, was captain of one varsity team for two years and another for one year, participated in a couple school clubs and is an Eagle Scout. I'd say the academics and sports are more important than a job, especially if your DD can secure a leadership position in at least one sports team, school club, etc. All the ROTC programs are looking for the Scholar, Athlete, Leader.
 
ProudDad17 said:
My DS earned an NROTC scholarship without ever having a job in HS. He took mostly AP classes, played 2 sports each year, was captain of one varsity team for two years and another for one year, participated in a couple school clubs and is an Eagle Scout. I'd say the academics and sports are more important than a job, especially if your DD can secure a leadership position in at least one sports team, school club, etc. All the ROTC programs are looking for the Scholar, Athlete, Leader.
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Thank you!
 
My DS' only job was to get perfect grades and AP test scores, which would (in effect) pave the way to college. He did that by earning a six-figure full ride scholarship, and then turned it down to accept an appointment to USNA.
So no, I don't think that a part-time job matters. ;)
 
My personal opinion is that the time spent at a job in high school is better spent at academics, eca’s, church, community service or other. But it does look good on a resume/application and does require time mgt skills
 
Most of us are not privy to the exact formula for the right combination of GPA, SAT/ACT, leadership, sports and job, no matter how hard we try to reverse engineer it here on SAF.

If the OP's daughter feels she can achieve better balance and academic performance by dropping the job, then she should do so. If she can still perform academically at the same level and keep the job, there is a financial benefit and a time management lesson to be gleaned from that scenario too. It is her path and thus should be her decision.

My DS worked all through HS as a tutor and movie theater crew member, and captained a varsity team. While he got solid grades, but he never could "beat" the SAT/ACT, and thus was turned down by the SA's and NROTC/MO. Could he have done better by not working at the movie theater so many hours while doing varsity sports? Maybe. We will never know, will we?

After being turned down, he picked himself up, dusted himself off and still got an AROTC campus-based scholarship at State U and worked TWO jobs all the way through college while at times carrying 20+ semester units. Maybe his HS experience helped prepare him for college better. (He did NOT need to work in college, but chose to do so, because he enjoyed the challenge and the extra cash).

He is now an active duty 2LT and my wife and I know that he has become pretty good at multi-tasking and time management. Perhaps the HS jobs interfered with him receiving admission to USMA and USNA, or the NROTC scholarship, but he still achieved his goal of commissioning as a military officer in four years.

We always gave advice to our DS, and then let him make his own decisions.

So far it has worked out.
 
NROTCdad said:
I think having a job the shows leadership skills is a definite plus.
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I think so t
AROTC-dad said:
Most of us are not privy to the exact formula for the right combination of GPA, SAT/ACT, leadership, sports and job, no matter how hard we try to reverse engineer it here on SAF.

If the OP's daughter feels she can achieve better balance and academic performance by dropping the job, then she should do so. If she can still perform academically at the same level and keep the job, there is a financial benefit and a time management lesson to be gleaned from that scenario too. It is her path and thus should be her decision.

My DS worked all through HS as a tutor and movie theater crew member, and captained a varsity team. While he got solid grades, but he never could "beat" the SAT/ACT, and thus was turned down by the SA's and NROTC/MO. Could he have done better by not working at the movie theater so many hours while doing varsity sports? Maybe. We will never know, will we?

After being turned down, he picked himself up, dusted himself off and still got an AROTC campus-based scholarship at State U and worked TWO jobs all the way through college while at times carrying 20+ semester units. Maybe his HS experience helped prepare him for college better. (He did NOT need to work in college, but chose to do so, because he enjoyed the challenge and the extra cash).

He is now an active duty 2LT and my wife and I know that he has become pretty good at multi-tasking and time management. Perhaps the HS jobs interfered with him receiving admission to USMA and USNA, or the NROTC scholarship, but he still achieved his goal of commissioning as a military officer in four years.

We always gave advice to our DS, and then let him make his own decisions.

So far it has worked out.
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Thank you for your candid comments. I’m confident my daughter will achieve her officer goals one way or another.
 
NROTCdad said:
Mine was a Math/Test Prep tutor at Mathnasium. Not sure if it helped but his interviewer did like that.
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Now that's a job that really looks good on an application. It shows academic prowess at math, leadership, service, people skills. Great example of a worthwhile job. On the other end of the spectrum, I would think time could be better spent at other activities than at a job flipping burgers or stocking store shelves. And, i did both of the latter, so not being a snob.
 
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Cool notes above from others.

I'll share my perspective. I think it depends and there are exceptions, but---the positive benefits of continuing to have a part time job should not be discounted or dismissed - self awareness, feedback, learning to work with others, seeing that life is good, but isn't always fair - plus the aforementioned time management/organization skills, good experience, and imo yes it looks good on applications.

recommendation? You'll of course do what's best and that's that, but if she can, see if she can keep the job but scale back during the school year - look to take a shorter weekend shift and then work more in the summers, to average a few hours per week for the year. Or if that is too much, go to being an on-call backup during the academic year and try to pound hours during the summers.

With respect to the kids who are in the top 1/10th of 1% at something - top HS athlete in the nation, perfect/perfect on ACT/ SAT and GPA or whatever, simply, the regular rules don't apply. I agree, it doesn't matter - coronets will blare and carpets shall be rolled-eth out. The rose petal ladies and amiable fellow from Coming to America shall throw said petals ahead of the steps those cherish-ed one's arrivals. Jolly good for them, but my advice I guess is for the rest of us, because I've seen a lot of kids try to be that by doing nothing but school, Kuman, and studying and fall a little short, and to them without jobs, sports, activities, despite having higher than average grades and SATs, they fall hard because they are not competitive. Just a perspective shared here.

There's another aspect which is the magical pride/ empowerment I see when a kid has earned their own money and can do what she or he wants (like say fly to Iceland for a weekend for example to go see about a girl or whatever) without having to ask someone else for the money to do it.

PS: What did we call a person who graduated at the bottom of the class at Med School? DOCTOR. Meaning having the continuity of a job and keeping it/ advancing in responsibility can happen in a 3 hour per week job - maybe not in title or as fast, and yet they can check the box for steady employment on their app just like my awesome but nutty DS who worked about 20 hours per week in addition to an insane academic/ sport/ service schedule. Well, the app will specify if you worked 3-9 hours, or 10-20 or whatever, but I really don't think that matters much at all (again imo).

good luck to your child and kudos to you for seeing guidance to help - we're all in this together/ trying to figure this out - hope this helps.

very respectfully,
Hermie, Sr.
 
Herman_Snerd said:
Cool notes above from others.

I'll share my perspective. I think it depends and there are exceptions, but---the positive benefits of continuing to have a part time job should not be discounted or dismissed - self awareness, feedback, learning to work with others, seeing that life is good, but isn't always fair - plus the aforementioned time management/organization skills, good experience, and imo yes it looks good on applications.

recommendation? You'll of course do what's best and that's that, but if she can, see if she can keep the job but scale back during the school year - look to take a shorter weekend shift and then work more in the summers, to average a few hours per week for the year. Or if that is too much, go to being an on-call backup during the academic year and try to pound hours during the summers.

With respect to the kids who are in the top 1/10th of 1% at something - top HS athlete in the nation, perfect/perfect on ACT/ SAT and GPA or whatever, simply, the regular rules don't apply. I agree, it doesn't matter - coronets will blare and carpets shall be rolled-eth out. The rose petal ladies and amiable fellow from Coming to America shall throw said petals ahead of the steps those cherish-ed one's arrivals. Jolly good for them, but my advice I guess is for the rest of us, because I've seen a lot of kids try to be that by doing nothing but school, Kuman, and studying and fall a little short, and to them without jobs, sports, activities, despite having higher than average grades and SATs, they fall hard because they are not competitive. Just a perspective shared here.

There's another aspect which is the magical pride/ empowerment I see when a kid has earned their own money and can do what she or he wants (like say fly to Iceland for a weekend for example to go see about a girl or whatever) without having to ask someone else for the money to do it.

PS: What did we call a person who graduated at the bottom of the class at Med School? DOCTOR. Meaning having the continuity of a job and keeping it/ advancing in responsibility can happen in a 3 hour per week job - maybe not in title or as fast, and yet they can check the box for steady employment on their app just like my awesome but nutty DS who worked about 20 hours per week in addition to an insane academic/ sport/ service schedule. Well, the app will specify if you worked 3-9 hours, or 10-20 or whatever, but I really don't think that matters much at all (again imo).

good luck to your child and kudos to you for seeing guidance to help - we're all in this together/ trying to figure this out - hope this helps.

very respectfully,
Hermie, Sr.
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Thank you very much. I feel like I have a foot in each camp. I’m going to motivate her for at least four hours a week.
 
MY DD will be applying for 2025... she worked 40/hours week over the summer and will drop back to just Sat/Sun in the school year. We did not make her work. She loves vintage clothes and wanted her own $ so I couldn’t say no to her spending.
 
Our DS is an applicant now. He teaches Taekwondo at his Dojo to both adult and youth classes. He does this in trade for his TKD tuition. He also proctors belt tests and on an occasional Saturday does sparring instruction. During school year it is approx 5 hours a week. During summer he works at our auto repair and this summer did about 130 hours for us in between Boys State, Boys Nation and FBLA Nationals. He has a heavy academic schedule and is involved in multiple clubs, and a member and officer of Student Government. He does have a lot of obligations, by choice (his) and when we have on occasion questioned his long hours and lack of sleep, he has insisted he can manage. I do help by doing the household chores that used to be his prior to this crazy schedule of his. But by and large, we let it be his call. He is stretched thin but he has had this goal of USNA since he was 11, and he is laser focused on being a an excellent candidate, well rounded and with service, leadership, academics all on his resume. Good luck to your DS ! And good luck to you as well, being a parent through this application process is stressful, too. :) :):eek:
 
I talked about my working at a fast food chain flipping burgers both in my Officer interview and in the written app.. not saying that it’s what got me a scholarship obviously but they love to see hard work in any sense. If your child is only working once a week, esp on the weekends when they don’t have school earlier that day, I’d say this once a week job is great practice for balancing different things; a skill needed for the ROTC programs. Cheers !
 
If you can get a job that doesn’t interfere with other activities that is good. It’s hard to find time. My DS has sports or JROTC every day after school and most Saturdays. That leaves very little time for a job, but a job is an interesting thing to talk about in an interview, I agree with you there.
 
No two candidates are alike. Your journey is your journey. There is no magic formula, no right/wrong answer.

It’s important imo to also enjoy you senior year. I advise my own to be cognizant if this. A lot of celebrations, firsts and lasts....don’t miss out on those memories! Sure don’t want to regret missing out on your senior year to the expense of trying to form your application package. Especially if an appointment doesn’t come your way.

It’s all a life/work balance. A good skill for the rest of your life.
 
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