Earn $1300 for iMac?

[jmpage2]

Access to great summer jobs and internships often isn't a possibility or option for those living in rural or suburban parts of the country. In many parts of the country the only option for a HS kid to earn a summer buck is through burger flipping, hay baling, etc.

 

[Andy348]

I worked a job in the winter (well November-Jan) and made $1200. I bought the $899 MB on the refurbished Canadian site.

My working hours were 9-5 Saturday, Sunday and any PE days I had off. It was worth every penny!

 

[Capt Crunch]

Access to great summer jobs and internships often isn't a possibility or option for those living in rural or suburban parts of the country. In many parts of the country the only option for a HS kid to earn a summer buck is through burger flipping, hay baling, etc.

To be honest then I'd spend the time studying. College admissions are so competitive these days you need to distinguish yourself earlier and earlier.

 

[jmpage2]

To be honest then I'd spend the time studying. College admissions are so competitive these days you need to distinguish yourself earlier and earlier.

While I don't completely disagree with you, there's a lot to be gained by doing hard work too.

I've fired plenty of rookies with spotless degrees and resumes because they never developed a real work ethic or understand what is expected for conduct in a workplace.

Some lessons simply can't be learned in the classroom.

 

[trose]

The first major purchase of my life was my Dual Processor 867Mhz PowerMac G4

I worked over the summer at an internet provider/cybercafé, which was also my first "real" job. I was 16 at the time.

Everyone else was saving to buy a car and I got the Mac
My *next* purchase was the used 1991 Volkswagen Golf...

Flash forward 7 years and I drive a 2008 Honda Fit and have a shiny new Intel iMac... but I still miss both that old computer and that old car! Grr, getting sentimental.

But ya, summer work will get you cash fast if you're living at home and not paying bills. Do you live somewhere with a tourist industry? Restaurants will hire you to clean dishes or help do food prep.

 

[trose]

While I think it's bad to tie gifts to academic performance and it's always irksome when parents drop a ton of cash for their kids, I'm with this option.

preaching/

You're 14 so you're just starting HS. You have got to start worrying about your GPA and resume. I'd start looking for academic things to do during the summer. There are a lot of research programs where you get to play lab monkey but pick stuff up as well. This kind of stuff looks way better in a college app than flipping burgers at micky-Ds.

I had friends that worked labor jobs in HS. They had cool stuff that I didn't. But I got into a good college because colleges weren't really impressed with busting 40 hours a week doing mindless stuff. As a result, they are still doing 40 hours a week (more now to make ends meet) doing mindless stuff.

I'm am all for learning to earn what you want. However, you have to be careful that you don't let your short-term goals eclipse the greater good. People are here are saying you should do anything to get your iMac, but if you keep that mentality you'll be doing anything to get the next best thing forever. Being patient and putting something off for the greater good is a virtue as well.

I'm not saying that stacking shelves is going to keep you out of college and ruin your future. I just want to temper what everyone else is saying.

So that I'm not a total kill-joy, a lot of research positions have stipends associated with them... mine was around $3000 for the summer if I recall.

/preaching

Sheesh...

Let's build the kid an ivory tower while we're at it.

Building a work ethic and understanding what it feels like to earn your own money and manage your finances is far more valuable than any kind of studying you'll be doing when you're 14, unless you're a prodigy of some kind and plan on devoting your life solely to education.

 

[Capt Crunch]

Sheesh...

Let's build the kid an ivory tower while we're at it.

Building a work ethic and understanding what it feels like to earn your own money and manage your finances is far more valuable than any kind of studying you'll be doing when you're 14, unless you're a prodigy of some kind and plan on devoting your life solely to education.

It depends on what you think can accomplish by a good HS record. I'm not talking about getting a degree in basket weaving at the local 3rd tier school, I'm talking about getting some kind of technical degree and a top school.

What makes you think that work in academics is somehow less than "regular" work?

 

[alphaod]

Get a job and work for that computer; just make sure you get into the habit of keeping a good budget, don't spend more than you have; more importantly is school, so don't get too much into that computer acquisition.

This means you should balance work and academics. Get some work experience before in your latter years in high school, I would highly recommend stop looking for paid work and start looking at volunteering the such; that builds up your resumé for college.

Good grades, a mixture of volunteer and work, and some luck will get you places.