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My sister, a junior, is a piano tuner and service techiniachian. She has been doing this for about 2 years. My question is, does that count as work or even extracurricular? She doesn't really get paid, mostly doing it to raise money for the school newleter, etc and to save for college. She's self-employed. How would she state this on her college Apps? She does have a diploma from a nearby music institue, but isn't a member of the gruop that awards the certificates,lol. How would she be able to list it as her work/EC?
thanks
desparate for info!

By Dolce (Dolce) on Wednesday, June 11, 2003 - 07:52 am: Edit

I would certainly use this, mentioning the training involved and the business aspect of starting one's own business. To be in highschool and self-employed takes discipline, motivation, and initiative. Most piano technician programs take a couple years to complete, and most tech's say it takes about 1000 piano tunings to get really good at it. So this is something that she has likely really put some time into. Many app's specifically ask for how many hours per week went into each activity, so that will show them that this is a major undertaking.

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Thursday, June 12, 2003 - 12:32 am: Edit

General advice: always include a separate resume with your application. List activities (which is general enough for ECs, work, volunteer, piano tuning, you name it) probably in descending order of importance to her. In those, she can bullet point the major parts of it. Also, many colleges let you write a second essay; she should use that opportunity to expand upon her piano tuning, the work it takes, and how raising money helps her, etc. Good luck!