Here's What Ivy League Admissions Officers Really Think About Your Summer Job

Forbes

21-05-2025

Summer jobs
Parents and students often assume that colleges only care about students' summer activities if they are academic in nature. Many think that while academic competitions and merit-based summer programs impress admissions officers, working at a local pizzeria or lifeguarding at the neighborhood pool are inconsequential in the eyes of top schools. However, that's not necessarily the case—a summer job can be a valuable opportunity to develop leadership and communication skills, build a professional network, and learn more about yourself. As with any summer activity, a resume line item is only as valuable as the way it's framed in Activities Lists, recommendation letters, and essays.
Summer jobs can be particularly beneficial for students in their first and second years of high school who have not yet met the minimum age requirement for many competitive academic summer programs. Working a summer job—even one that is not directly related to a student's intended course of study—can help them ascertain their skills and interests.
Here's what students should keep in mind if they want to maximize their summer job experiences for their college applications:
A summer dog walking business could be more impressive to admissions officers than a job at your dad's law firm.
It may be tempting to leverage your connections to land a job that you assume will stand out to admissions officers—but often, securing a position at your parent's place of work will actually reflect negatively on your application, even if your title or workplace sounds more prestigious than working at a coffee shop or mowing lawns. Instead, these types of internships can send the message that a student has not earned the position for themselves. Additionally, while working in a professional space that aligns with your intended field of study can be beneficial in some cases, in other cases, you won't gain much hands-on experience in your field that would differentiate this job from others where you might learn more valuable tangible skills. For instance, working in the daycare at a hospital will not necessarily benefit your medical knowledge, but teaching students survival skills at an outdoor camp could provide insights into emergency medical care.
Ultimately, whether your summer job is bagging groceries, working as a secretary at a law office, or running a small dog-walking business, you should approach every aspect of your summer employment strategically and intentionally. Begin by asking yourself what long-term professional skills like time management, communication skills, conflict resolution, or organization, you might develop in the role. Focus less on the job title and more on your growth.
Your ice cream scooping job can prepare you for a future in physics—if you approach it with intentionality and creativity.
Students should think outside of the box as they consider the points of overlap that might exist between the job and their academic or career goals. In some jobs, the relationship to your intended major may be apparent—for instance, if you want to go into business or entrepreneurship and you're working at a successful local business, you might ask the owner or manager to learn more about inventory management, vendor relations, or revenue tracking. In other cases, students may have to be a little more creative to draw out the connections between their work and their future field. While being a lifeguard might seem completely unrelated to your future career as an engineer, it can be highly beneficial if you approach it as an exercise in risk assessment, focus, and quick problem-solving in real time. The more you can forge unexpected and creative connections, the more your application will stand out to admissions officers.
The job won't speak for itself—you have to tell your story.
The interactions you have, professional skills you develop, and challenges you overcome in a summer job can be great starting points for future passion projects and dynamic college essays—but only if you take the time to reflect and log your thoughts so you don't forget the important details, small wins, or mundane encounters that left an impression on you. The best way to do this is to log your experiences, areas of growth, and everyday insights in a journal throughout the summer.
When it comes time to compile their application materials, students should remember that their summer job, like every other aspect of their profile, should tie into their overarching narrative—they should not expect that a title or line item on their resume will speak for itself, but instead actively demonstrate the value of their experiences as it relates to their personal, academic, and professional growth. It is therefore critical to articulate the importance of your summer experience in both quantitative and qualitative terms. On the Activities List, students should use dynamic, active verbs and finite, numerical values to show their contributions (e.g. 'I spearheaded an initiative that increased the volunteer team membership by 50%').
The essays, on the other hand, offer an opportunity for students to share the qualitative aspects of their summer employment, such as challenges they overcame, diverse perspectives they engaged with, or discoveries they made about themselves or others. In some cases, universities orient questions around specific aspects of the summer job experience—the University of California system, for instance, asks students to explain how they intend to spend their earnings from their jobs: 'Please tell us how you've used your earnings from all of the jobs you've listed. This information will NOT be used to determine financial aid — rather, it gives us more context about you and your experiences. How have you used or will you use your earnings?'
Summer jobs are what students make of them—approached with intentionality, open-mindedness, and creativity, the most mundane job can be a laboratory for testing ideas and interests or a workshop in management and leadership skills. As the summer kicks off, students should dive into their summer opportunities with the college admissions process in mind to ensure that the experience adds depth and dynamism to their applicant profile.