In my experience, college life means constantly being short on cash. It means living off of ramen noodles, downloading music and movies illegally, and hoping I still have enough Dining Dollars left to buy toothpaste. I in particular am especially short on money because I am only smart and not a genius and therefore am not granted any scholarships. What's a girl to do if she needs some pocket money? Well, there is always the option of an on-campus job. However, there are some issues with that. A lot of people want them, so it's not always easy to get the hours you want. In addition to that, I would personally find sitting at a desk, monitoring the game room and workout room in the terrace level of Wolman at 2 a.m. on a Saturday quite boring, but maybe that's just me. For those of you looking for something a little less boring and a little more lucrative, there is always the possibility of working off campus.
I work at a clothing store in Towson Town Center, and I can tell you that I make a lot more than you'd make working anywhere here. You meet a lot of interesting and diverse people that you wouldn't meet at Hopkins. It's also great because you can get away from college for a while and be a part of the real world. My favorite reason to work at a retail store is the large discounts on the products that they'll usually give you. At my job, I get at least 50 percent off of everything.
Monitoring has its perks too, though. You don't have to talk to anyone and you can get your work done for school. However, that really teaches you nothing about what it's actually like to have a job. Most careers involve interacting with people on a regular basis and working to please both your customers (or clients, or patients) and your boss. Working in retail has helped me to listen to people better and to understand the best ways to approach people. Of course, it also helps me know how to sell things to people, which can be quite a useful skill in many fields.
While working on-campus is convenient, it is not all that difficult to get to the mall. I don't have a car here in Baltimore, but the Collegetown shuttle is free and reliable. I always get to work on time when riding it and don't have to worry about using the sketchy MTA buses. I also get a lot of my work done in transit on the lighted buses and during my break.
I love working off-campus. It gives me a chance to get away from the stress of school and be myself. I feel like Hopkins can be a big rain cloud of misery, and this job gives me somewhere else to be. I love having friends not associated with the school that I can work and have fun with. My job has a very fun environment, and it's great for me to have a reason to go to the mall. What's even better is that now I have money to spend there.
