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Remember summer jobs?
For decades they were a good way for college students, rich or poor, to earn money for living expenses. Not so much anymore. According to an article by Jeffrey Sheban at the Columbus Dispatch:
Seasonal work flipping burgers or bagging groceries - long a rite of passage for American teenagers on summer break - is becoming increasingly passe for many high-school students.
With the job market tight and competition keen for college scholarships, more students are forgoing summer employment to pursue activities that will give them a leg up on college admissions. High-school students are being drawn in increasing numbers to sports camps, academic camps, mission trips and volunteer work….
In 2001 half of 16- and 17- year olds had summer jobs. Last year less than 30 percent of them were employed. This is because “volunteer work in Haiti” looks a lot more impressive on a college application than “waited tables at local country club.”
As 17-year old Carly Bedinghaus, quoted in the article, explains, “I wouldn’t mind having a job, but I don’t have time to fit it into my schedule during the summer.” Bedinghaus plans to volunteer at a 4-H camp and at a local hospital, judge horse riding competitions, and on her college applications.
This logic makes sense but the implications of this behavior are troublesome. This is the dark underside of college admissions; while college prices have increased it’s sort of hard for students to earn money in the summer to help pay for college. That’s because holding a job during summer months is a risky decision when a student risks missing out on the crucial extracurriculars that might help him get into his top college.
This means that students have to take out more loans when they get to college. It also means that for relatively poor high school students, who actually have to work during the summer, their chances of getting into top schools go down; they can’t afford to volunteer during the summer. [Image via]
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Jimo on June 15, 2011 7:33 PM:
I recently emailed Andrew Sullivan regarding a related aspect of this problem.
I recently visited a government agency on a project. There's this great guy there who was very helpful and has an incredible knowledge of this agency. The problem? He's 83 years old. I guess I figured Uncle Sam had a maximum required retirement age. Apparently, not.
Now he's a great guy. And he keeps working because he's alone and what would he do if he retired? But the fact is he could retire and keep working as a volunteer. They let volunteers work for the government? Yes. I know that because there are actually six volunteers working at the same agency. They're all younger college students desperately trying to add some experience on their resumes and make some inside agency contacts in hope that the agency will hire them upon graduation (which is frankly very unlikely in that, despite GOP claims, the government is hiring almost no one outside of military/security jobs). Odds are, if this guy retired, the agency would just absorb his position via attrition and use his salary to make up budgetary shortfalls.
That's a peek into the reality in the labor force today: tons of baby boomers (and pre-boomers) hanging on to jobs while unintentionally keeping out younger workers. (Think of the difference in practical life experience between a 30 year old in 1950 and today. In 1950, almost all 30 y.o.'s had been to war and a booming economy gave them a boundless choice of occupations. Today, perhaps 5% have been to war with the remainder finding career choices largely limited to tech and health care.) That should be a concern for all Americans because eventually all those boomers must eventually cease working and we'll be left with a younger generation suddenly shouldering the nations' burdens but with considerably less experience than that of previous generations. That's a problem if you think experience counts for anything.
Luthe on June 15, 2011 9:29 PM:
You also forget the downward job pressures of the current economy. Fewer high-skill job openings push skilled workers into less skilled jobs. There are those of us with college degrees have to take jobs flipping burgers and waiting tables to make ends meet. This, in turn, reduces the number of jobs available to people without a high school diploma, whether they are drop-outs or still in high school.
Susie the high school senior doesn't stand a chance if her older sister Sally the college grad is already working at McDonald's.
Doug on June 16, 2011 11:10 AM:
so why am i still unable to find work as a college student?
JJ on June 16, 2011 2:13 PM:
Same exact thing happens in college. When you get out, you want a job. Right? Well, you're only getting one if you have a boatload of internship experience...