If so, why not? If you didn’t need the money- rich family, or you made a fortune already somehow, or something- that’s one thing; but you could also justify it in other ways.
So let’s hear from you.
Went to Junior College for two years and lived at home.
Worked summers to pay for it and save money.
Went to the University on a student loan.
Used my savings and worked summers to pay for part of that too.
So, no - didn’t work while in college.
Define school? I didn’t work in highschool but I work pretty much fulltime during semester breaks and 2 shifts a week when class is on.
Didn’t work at all during term time while in college, as I attended in England in the days when if you passed your A-levels you got your full tuition paid by the government, and a grant which was means tested on your parents income. I got a grant which covered my rent but nothing else, and my parents gave me an allowance which covered my living expenses that were not met by my working in the summers.
At the time and place that I went to college, part time jobs were very hard to come by, and my college course was pretty much 9-5 anyway.
I realise how lucky I was, and wish I had used my time better there, but such is the wisdom of hindsight and all that, eh?
I didn’t (well, for about six months I did a little, but not at all for the other four and a half years), but here in Sweden we have student loans and no tuition costs, so it’s not that unusual.
I mostly didn’t work during during college. Loans and grants took care of the tuition with something left over for living expenses. I did have one temp job for a while last summer, but that ended and by the time that happened, it was almost time to go back to school.
This semester, though, I have an internship at one radio station and a part-time job at another that is likely to go full time sometime in the next six months or so.
The reasons I didn’t work were largely because I had other obligations. Yes, we struggled financially for a while, but that’s a lesson learned. When I start graduate school next semester, I will be working around 30 hours or so a week, which will take care of tuition and a little something in my pocket besides. :shrug:
Robin
I didn’t work my first two years in college, and worked only part-time (10 to 20 hours a week) for the last two. I didn’t work when in law school.
Not sure it needs to be justified, but I’m happy to explain. 
For undergrad, I had scholarships that paid for nearly all my tuition. My parents paid room and board, and sent me spending money. They were not rich, by any stretch, but my parents believed (and still believe) that college is important. They made many sacrifices to get all of us through college, and we were appreciative of what they did for us. We were not permitted to know how they did it, because their finances were not our business, but I believe that they took out a second mortgage on our home at one point, when they had three of us in college at the same time.
Our parents told us that our job was to study, and to do well. So we (mostly) did. In law school, I took out loans to pay for school. My parents offered to send me an allowance every month; I lived on that, instead of taking out more loans.
Yeah, I’ve got good parents. I’ll thank them again on turkey day.
Well, I do sort of fall into the “don’t quite need the money” category (I’m not rich but my parents can afford to send me to school). I do work during the summer, and run off my own savings for as long into the year as I can manage. I will admit that I’m kinda spoiled.
But the main reason I don’t work during the year is because I don’t think I can manage it and still get decent grades. I was planning to work this year–I held a job over the summer and originally planned to hold it into the school year. Then, halfway through the summer I found myself completely burnt out, and realised that if this it what it’s like when I’m not in school (and I felt like a complete wreck at times), it would be even worse when I was trying to manage classes as well. I quit at the end of the summer and never looked for another job.
On a side note, a friend has been working the same job I was doing since first year. I don’t know how she managed to stay with them that long, and when I asked she said she didn’t either.
I’m another Brit who didn’t work during term because the government paid for everything. I did do some work in the summer, but nothing outside that.
I don’t work as I live on my student loan, and the money my parents give me at the beginning of the year. I did work during my first summer though.
I worked three part-time jobs while achieving almost straight-A student status at a very competitive Univerisity. My wife went there too and didn’t have to work at all - wealthy family. I would like to say that it taught me valuable things but I know the same things from working before and after college. My wife works extremely hard and knows her profession better than almost anyone now.
My 20-year-old is in college and is not working. Why? Two reasons.
First, she got straight A’s in high school and has an excellent scholarship that covers tuition and room and board. While we aren’t wealthy, we are able to cover her books and expenses.
Second, she is a music major. Her classes and necessary practice are very time-intensive. She also plays in the local symphony and youth symphonies. We made a conscious decision that she should focus on her studies.
She does give occasional oboe lessons to high school students and sometimes gets paid for performing in local symphonies or chamber groups.
There were some times during college when I didn’t work. IIRC, I went to the same competitive university as **Shagnasty ** and his wife. One thing he failed to mention, or maybe it was changing times, was that the job market in that area sucked big time. The fast food restaurants would hire local residents as full-time employees rather than hire college students. On-campus jobs went to students with work-study awards, which I didn’t have. After a couple years I was able to track down some on-campus work that I could get without being on work-study. You’ll notice I focused on on-campus jobs. Had I looked off campus, I probably could have gotten a job that would have allowed me to make almost as much as it cost to own, insure and park the car I needed to get there, so not such a good deal. I did do volunteer work on a regular basis.
I worked last summer (after my freshman year), but I haven’t been working during the year. I have a full-tuition scholarship, and my parents have been giving me some food money and stuff. Also, I’m a music major like as_u_wish’s daughter, and so I just don’t have time to have a job. And I don’t have a car, but I couldn’t get an on-campus job because I’m ineligible for work study on account of my parents’ money.
University student here.
A government loan and a line of credit from the bank cover the big expenses like tuition and rent. I work summers, and the money goes to the line of credit and my chequing account. My mother helps out sometimes, when she can afford it. If my courseload allows it, during the school year I’ll find some part-time minimum-wage job that allows me to work a shift or two, and the money covers things like food and clothes and sundries. This semester I have an extra course, so no job. Justification: I’m only an average student who won’t win any scholarships, but school still comes first.
Some people have a principle against taking out loans. So the parents don’t contribute anything (often they can’t afford to) and the students pay for it all with their jobs. It’s obviously a lot harder for them. But for my friends in this situation, it’s something of a matter of pride.
<rant> It really, really stings when I’m schooling myself into tens of thousands of dollars of debt, beyond any summer job’s capacity to repay, while they’re still in the black, scraping by without having to take out any loan. I just have to think, for me it was either this situation or no university at all. What, just because some people want to work themselves into oblivion over principles, the rest of us have to lay down and die? </rant>
I graduated a couple of years ago. I didn’t work through undergrad. I had a scholarship that paid for tuition and books and gave me some money for living expenses. I lived with my parents who paid the rest of my expenses. I did tutor when the opportunity arose.
-Lil
I didn’t work much while I was at University, though I did a little tutoring to help pay the bills in my later years, and I held a student government position that paid a stipend one year. (Some people complained that out of the people at my college receiving the stipend I was one of the two people who least deserved it, on the other hand my office - recording secretary - was generally a thankless job otherwise, that nobody else wanted. In fact, one year, I lost the election, and THEN the girl I was running against abandoned the position, so I got it by default. That’s a side-track tho 
)
I also did some work for the IT-training school I went to after university to help pay the bills there - teach-assisting classes that I’d already been through, grading assignments, and providing tutoring services paid for by the administration.
I never specifically ‘worked summers’ - during two of the three summers in between regular terms at university, I was taking summer classes - once on campus, (picking up my calculus requirement and a compsci prerequisite that I hadn’t been able to get freshman year,) and once from my parent’s place, taking elective courses that were offered over the internet. The summer after my second year, there had been a professor’s strike or I would probably have tried to sort out some kind of summer classes, as it was everybody had to come back to campus in the middle of summer anyway to write their finals after the strike was settled.
Most of my post-secondary expenses were paid for with student loans (that I’ve largely paid off by now.) My parents helped out as much as they could, and I think their perspective was that working while in college was an option – not something that was expected, or needed to be justified.
I could probably have found some dull job to pay off a lot of my university, I could probably have even maintained my honors GPA and a job at the same time. But I’m not sure I’d have learned as well, which matters more than grades in the end.
I worked summers while I was in college, but not during the school term. I would not have been able to hold down a job and also get the grades I wanted. My first year, my parents paid the tuition. I got married that summer, and my husband and I just managed somehow. I got student loans to help out and we just economized.
When my daughters were in college, I gladly paid all the school costs, because I was able to do so and because I think it’s important that one get all that one can out of the experience. If you’re too tired to learn and do well because you’ve been working, then some of the tuition you’re paying is wasted. Obviously, many times there’s no alternative, but I wanted to maximize the benefit. My younger daughter chose to get a part time job anyway, but only limited hours, and she always put the school work first. Of course, that job was waiting tables at a country club, which she got to be very good at. She subsequently went on to become a bartender, which she’s also excellent at, and makes good money. A little irony there?
Didn’t work in college. Didn’t have to. Loans/well off $$. Neener!
Others have worked their way through college, but so what? I’ve known people who have tried to work their way through school and fail miserably at both. Or the job actually prevented them from doing what they really intended to do through college.
People who intend to dedicate their lives to a particular major/study will generally choose school over a job and I can’t say I blame them.
I don’t care about pride when it comes to situations like this. If you know you’re better off just going to school and worrying about a job later, then you do that and to hell with what other people are doing and/or expect you to do.
In my recently-completed undergraduate years I did work a bit, but I never really needed the money. I had a scholarship that was fixed at the full tuition of my freshman year, and I had a couple of smaller scholarships, too. With tuition increases and so forth, the cost for me rose as much as $2000 per year, but my parents had saved more than enough over the years to cover that. During two of my years I held a low-paying campus job for just a few hours a week. I also worked full-time as an intern over one summer, but of course that was more for the experience than for money. And in all four years, the week or so between the end of the fall term and Christmas meant working like mad for my parents, who own a retail shop.