Many high school students work after school and on weekends to save for college and for extra costs like a car and phone. These students have to manage their time between school work and their job.

Megan, a senior in High School, who works at a department store, says,” Its hard to get good grades when I have a job.”
A study done by the Bureau of Labor statistics says, “The study found that kids who held a job while they were in high school spent forty nine minutes less on homework on the days they worked.”

For high school students who have hours of homework a night, they spend much of their day after school working on school work. For students who have jobs after school, they usually can’t start their homework until they get home late at night from work.
Megan, who works anywhere from fifteen to twenty hours a week, says, “ Its very hard to get school work done if you have to work that night. Sometimes I have a whole essay to do at night and I can’t start on it until after work at eleven.”

Maddie, a junior, who works twenty to twenty five hours a week at a fast food restaurant says when balancing work and school her biggest problem is, “time. There is a struggle to have time to get all of my school work done. When I work I usually start homework around eleven thirty at night, then go to bed around two thirty in the morning.”

With the cost of college increasing, high school students have to start saving far in advance; this means some students need to get a part time job to start saving.

Maddie says she uses the money from her job to, “save for college and pay for gas money.”
Megan says, “My parents make me put part of my paycheck in a savings account to save for college.”

But some students say they get a part time job just for the experience itself. By having work experience, it can help with job and college applications.

Education expert Peggy Gisler, from familyeducation.com says, “being able to include a part-time job on a college or job application is definitely a plus.”

Jobs, although a huge responsibility, can teach and give students experiences they can’t don’t in high schools.
Maddie says, “having a job does build responsibility and time management.”

Megan says, “my job taught me money skills, like counting money and making change.”

Gisler says, “if they are handling their job well and receive additional responsibilities, their self-esteem grows.”