Hello,
-How much does you undergraduate institution impact your career opportunities?
-How can I become a more competitive and stronger applicant or prospect?
-Am I over doing my undergraduate development?
I graduated high school with a 4.2 GPA, 60+ hours of community service, played 3 sports etc. I managed to be accepted to 2 Ivy Leagues and 2 Quasi-Ivy educational institutions; however I was not able to attend them because of serious financial issues and medical expenses within my family.
At my current institution, I have done my best to stand out from my peers. I have:
-a 3.5 GPA as engineering major
-also pursuing Business Management and foreign language
-excelled as an honors student (from my freshman year - present…I know it means nothing to professioanls)
-competed internationally through engineering teams
-been initiated as a Tau Beta Pi Honors student (Again, I know it doesn’t mean a darn thing to professionals)
-have had 4 internships across the engineering, research, and management sectors
-studied at a top institution in Asia located in China (Top 10 Asia, Top 50 World)
-etc
I have not graduated yet and I am still researching opportunities to continue my development before graduation.
Mentally, I feel that I did not reach my full potential academically because of certain things that were beyond my control. I want to be able to develop myself even more to ensure that I am able to graduate and present myself as a competitive, energetic, and ambitious young individual who is willing to learn and contribute. I hope to go into financial or management consulting; however, I feel that I am a very sub-par to mediocre candidate for the industry.
However, I am still doing my best to continue my development. I hope to:
-study abroad one more time to Asia
-continue honing my language skills
-do a collaborative engineering-financial research project
Mentally, I have not been able to get myself to be a “normal student” (dating, going out, etc) because for the past few years I have been very worried about where I will possibly land my first job. Networking has not been successful because being in California has made it difficult for me to network out of the state to other metropolitan hubs (don’t know why, just noticed a trend)
What can I do to stand out?
How can I present myself in a manner that allows me to be competitive?
Thank you for taking time to read and assist me. Any advice helps.
-Y.H