$14/hr

So as you (should) know, I have recently entered the wonderful world of working people.

Last semester, I "worked" by taking notes in my classes for some anonymous person in my class who had diagnosed learning disabilities. I only got 4.5 hours of work a week, for $14/hr.

This semester, I signed up today for more note-taking. So that's 4.5 hours.

Then I have my Financial Aid Office job at 10 hours a week, $14/hr.

The FAO is located about 4 minutes from HGSE campus, so it is super convenient to go before class. They require us (there's 3 of us) to work at least 2 hours a day each in the file room. The file room is a big room with floor to ceiling book shelves that I have to swipe my ID card to access. (Ooo fancy.) All the undergrads have folders in there, but my job is for freshmen filing.

The College received 35,000 applications this year; that's a 20% increase from last year; last year saw a 10% increase from the year before. I don't know why everyone has decided now's the time to go to Harvard, but that's beside the point. The fact that their application fee is $75, so even if we generously estimate that 20% of the students got to apply for free given their financial background, the College still made more than $2 million on applications alone is also beside the point.

Technically, most of the paperwork is submitted online. But there are still a LOT of people, and over-zealous, anxious students/parents who submit paper copies of forms. And that's where I come in. I file all their paperwork into drawers of folders. As the application decision season progresses, we start pulling folders of students the College likes. They get filed on a different bookshelf to be looked at by a financial aid officer. Eventually, they will admit 2500 students.

So technically, I suppose, I have an inside scoop on who Harvard is admitting this year. If only I knew anyone who cared about such information. Although, even if I knew anyone who cared, I am sworn to secrecy, so I couldn't tell you if I wanted to, without getting fired and probably "dismissed" from HGSE.

I will say my alphabet skills will be acutely honed by the end of the semester; with so many applications we are often filing up to the 5th or 6th letter of names. Also, I'm getting a lot of paper cuts. We're talking massive, 1/2" long paper gashes. It makes washing my hands or using hand sanitizer a real treat. Also, it is surreal to come across tax returns and bank statements with 7 figures on them.

That's an amount of money I'm pretty sure I won't ever see associated with my name. I am just happy to have my $203/week, thank you very much. Someday I might make like $1000/week.Maybe.That would be nice. I don't know what I'd do with a 7 figure bank statement... after paying off my student loans.

Anyway- before I get sucked into thinking about just how much money that actually is, I'm gonna be done now.

-mollie

p.s.- I'm going to a sushi restaurant for the first time tonight; I'm wishing I was going to be eating 20 chicken nuggets instead, which I have yet to partake of.