"My parents pay enough," junior Mauro Ferman said. Ferman, along with other guilt-ridden college students, have acknowledged the financial sacrifice made by their parents for a college education by finding off-campus jobs. A Tufts education is not especially cheap, and many students attempt to supplement the thousands of dollars their parents shell out in any way they can.
"The money I make pays for all my personal expenses," Ferman said. Ferman works at two off-campus jobs; he runs a nightclub on Saturday nights and works at Merrill Lynch during the week. Ferman enjoys the entertainment aspects of his job at Zenu, a Boston club where he has been working since his freshman year, but also appreciates the income.
"It's great revenue. It beats washing dishes at Carmichael for seven dollars an hour," he said.
Ferman also pointed out that his real world experience helped him secure his month-old job at Merrill Lynch. "They were impressed. I've been promoting and running clubs for three years - that's more [experience] than most college kids," Ferman said. He says his new job will prepare him for a future in investment banking.
Senior Jeremy Zuniga has been working as a bartender's assistant at the Florentine Caf?© in the North End since last year. He believes that the benefits of an off-campus job are twofold.
"The money's great...and I get perspectives and opinions from older people who come into the caf?©," Zuniga said. It's pretty dynamic and diverse." He says most customers are in their thirties or older, and he meets people from a variety of backgrounds.
While his job is "definitely worth the trip out to Boston," Zuniga admits that the 30-hour a week time commitment is a down side.
"I really don't have time for an internship right now. It [would be] too hard to balance school, work, and an internship," Zuniga said.
Some off-campus jobs can provide future career experience with the added benefits of a salary. Sophomore Colin Stewart works in the sports department at the Boston Globe as a "night hawk" - which he defines as basically an "office gopher."
Last semester, however, Stewart covered a high school soccer game for the Globe, and his article was published.
"It's great if you want to get into the sports journalism field...It interests me. This could be something I want to pursue [as a career]," Stewart said.
While his current salary is not significantly higher than his previous one, Stewart insists that there is no comparison between his job at the Globe and his previous on-campus job at Telefund.
"[Telefund] was mindless. Calling old ladies for money for four hours straight was awful," he said. He now works one shift a week for seven and a half hours.
Stewart admits that his job wouldn't be feasible if he didn't have his own car. "I work a late shift until 1 a.m. when the T is closed. It makes it much easier if you have access to a car," he said.
For those without personal transportation, on-campus internships can be more convenient and equally fulfilling. Sophomore Valerie Wencis works as an intern at the Tufts Public Relations department. As a communications minor, she believes she is gaining valuable experience while earning a good amount of money.
"[PR] is something I may want to do [later on]... and Tufts pays really well," Wencis said. She also notes that the job was fairly easy to come by. "There was no experience needed, I just sought it out. I knew a wanted a communications-related job."
Work study and non-work study job hunters both complain that obtaining on-campus jobs can be difficult. Sophomore Caroline Abbott worked at Denise's Ice Cream in Davis Square her freshman year after exhausting on-campus possibilities.
"I searched the online job finder, and only three or four of the jobs listed were non-work study. They were already taken," Abbott said.
Abbott said that while she wasted her time looking for on-campus jobs, off-campus jobs were also filling up quickly. "By the time I started looking off-campus, those jobs were gone [too]," she said. Denise's pay was "decent," so she took the job.
Freshman Tim Reardon is on work study, but when he applied for jobs at the library and the bookstore, they were already filled up.
"They told me to come back next semester," he said. Reardon ended up working at Telefund for five months before quitting this month. "I needed the money, and I made a lot of it, but I was fed up a lot of the time. I'm happy that I worked, but I'm even happier that I quit," he said.
In the future, Abbott and Reardon both plan to find internships related to their majors. But for now, like most students, Abbott says she is "just looking for a job that pays."
