I’m currently a third year undergrad at a large public university in the midwest. I’m majoring in finance and have been informed I can graduate early, which I don’t technically want to do. Instead, I’ve been thinking of taking a gap semester this coming spring.
This past summer I was lucky enough to be interning on Wall Street at a bulge bracket bank as a sophomore. I have since accepted my return offer for next summer. I really want to explore the possibility of doing an internship or work in either education reform or LGBT rights. I interned for a large education reform organization in NYC the summer after my freshman year and really enjoyed it and being an LGBT student I am looking to explore ways to get involved.I would like to do something east coast again (new england, Boston, NYC, DC).
Another idea was backpacking Europe and volunteering at various organization throughout a semester. Though, I’m not sure how smart that is to go alone and what the a feasible budget would look like. I have a 3.8 GPA and like I stated, excellent work background/resume.
So you’re a junior and have been invited to return to intern your junior summer; you have the opportunity to graduate in December 2016, but you don’t want to. (just clarifying).
Is there a specific reason that you don’t want to graduate early?
If you’re already returning to Wall Street summer 2016, you could extend your internship into fall 2016 and then return to college to graduate in spring 2017. You could graduate early and get a jump start on your career. Or you could do a different internship either semester of the 2016-2017 school year. The value of graduating early in December 2016 is that any internship or opportunity you take could potentially be extended January through summer 2017 before you begin a position in the late summer/early fall of 2017 (assuming that’s when you intend to start). I think a potentially 6-8 month internship might be more valuable to you than a potentially 3-4 month internship, after which you have to return and finish school. Remember, though, that if you intern somewhere during term-time you will also have to find somewhere to live and pay your own room and board unless the program has that built in. Academic programs often let you take your financial aid from college with you, which make them easier to repay.
Everyone is going to have a different opinion on this. I value structure, so backpacking through Europe and randomly volunteering doesn’t sound like a great plan, unless you formulate ideas ahead of time where you can volunteer that won’t be restricted by your language skills and any visa issues. You could look into a volunteer abroad program sponsored by an experienced company like CIEE. Maybe you could spend a semester as a visiting student at an NYC, Boston, or DC university, taking just a few classes but really throwing your time into activism or something.
I realize my original post might have been lacking in intentions. Yes, you’ve got the situation correct.
I’m specifically focusing on something that would benefit my business school applications down the line. I like the idea of graduating with my class and enjoying a full senior year but that’s not concrete.
I nearly applied for the White House program but was talked out of it regretfully. I realize that I have a unique opportunity with a free semester and want to make the most of it. I’m more of a fan for structure as well, but I’m open to fallback like backpacking.
Just putting it out there… I graduated early but didn’t start my job for a few months. It was pretty fun to be able to spend my second semester of senior year living the life of a college student without any of the responsibilities!