With a senior at Duke and a sophomore at UPenn, I agree with the OP in some areas, disagree in others. The same concerns are also true for students we know well at many other schools not in the uber-selective category.
-Both schools have some extremely competitive clubs, with tiers of cuts and rejections that can be difficult, but both also have many open clubs and activities to join. Each of mine has been on both sides: getting rejected as well as being in the role that has to do the rejecting of others. Rejection is a part of life, and something they will face in the job search or grad/professional school, repeatedly, just as all of us have. At both schools, there is a culture of being busyāthey do so many things outside of classes, and they take interest and support their friends in different clubs/ECs.
-The SAT, with math and reading breakdown, has come up on applications for my stem student already; it has never come up for my humanities senior and she has received fellowships and funding for different selective application-based opportunities in her field. College GPA cutoffs exist for many paid opportunities across all fields but so far most are reasonable 3.0 cutoffs, which is far below the average GPA at these schools. Some are 3.5, which is typically a little below average depending on the school.
-Professors are key to getting opportunities: professors advocate for the students who get to know them, and are happy to connect students to colleagues at different institutions. Most are happy to have undergrads work with them during the semester, or at least suggest a different professor if they do not have openings. Some of these opportunities are paid and paid well; even the unpaid ones are great resume experience. Senior got a sophomore summer research position due to a connection and wishes she knew to ask professors her first summer.
-Upperclassmen and grad students can be a wealth of information and advice to undergrads: the culture at both schools is the older students help the younger ones, including advice for summer, for resumes, tips for specific classes, on and on. Even when these students have graduated, they have continued to be great resources. Mine are passing that culture of mentoring on to the younger crop of undergrads.
-Funds: There are many funds to apply for unpaid summers or also school-year fellowships that are not widely announced yet savvy undergrads look for the postings in each department or via career center and apply. Yes they take a lot of work and are competitive but you miss all the shots you donāt take.
Thank you for saying this. One of my DC was rejected from all 3 competitive business clubs ( 2 of them twice!), yet did land an internship and now job offer from a MBB firm. Also, it is a great idea to arrive at college with one nice business formal outfit - they are often required for certain classes/presentations. Even classes you would not think would require it, would often have students wear business casual on the days when an important speaker was coming to class.
Some colleges have been doing this for years. I donāt see anything nefarious about the practice. For example, Davidson has had a Recommend a Wildcat program for current students/alumni/parents for years. Itās an inexpensive and low effort program for their admissions office to identify potential students who would be good fits and choose to attend. My son recommended the younger sibling of one of his best childhood friends. Since he knows her and her family very well, he thought Davidson would be a great fit for her and she welcomed the outreach. I understand that the admissions office reached out to that student with a nice personal email, and she later applied to Davidson and is currently awaiting a decision. She didnāt get into her ED school and would likely attend Davidson if she gets admitted.
Even if it is, you still have to work. D19ās bf has his family name on a campus building. I donāt know whether or not that made any difference in him getting in and Iām certainly not going to ask - heās smart and ambitious enough in his own right - he still had to work like anyone else for his degree.
What kinds of jobs? āSTEMā is a broad category, so use of SAT scores in employment in one type of STEM job is not necessarily representative for other types of STEM jobs.
Go to office hours. My student went early and often and I was shocked at how much guidance the profs gave on draft papers, test subjects etc. that pretty much lined up the student for a good grade.
If you want one of the solid summer internships in your area of study, start working on identifying the opportunities if not applying by or before the December break.
Iām guessing these are probably more business school type kids. Never heard of this need to bring business-smart clothes to campus personally, particularly for undergrad.
My engineering kid had to dress up fairly regularly for presentations, networking events, and interviews starting first year. They were told to bring something business appropriate to school, and for students who didnāt have something appropriate, there was a lending closet run by the career center.
My premed kid has to wear business casual/professional attire regularly for events, presentations, etc. For example, if a panel of professionals is speaking to the pre-health club, the students are expected to dress accordingly.
It sounds like expectations may vary by school as well as major. I believe the intent is to get students comfortable wearing professional attire. Like momofboiler mentioned, my Dās school has a lending closet in the career center for anyone to āshopā if needed.
Yes, computing and finance often seem to come with very different expectations of workplace dress.
However, it seems that many college age men will need to get made-to-measure suits and dress shirts these days, due to them being either built more athletic or more skinny than the typical target market for suits and dress shirts.
Internships are important. Very important. Whether a students wants to go into finance, tech, medicine, teaching, non-profits, etc, the more internships that they have, the more likely they are to get a job, be accepted to a good grad school, get into medical school, and so forth. Every employer or admissions person prefers applicants with more experience, and internships provide that experience. Try to have an internship every summer at least.
Internships are also often competitive, so start looking early, and figure out the best way to get one.
You will need letters of recommendation for getting jobs, so make sure that you connect with your āsuperiorsā during your internships, you professors, TAs, etc.
OMG yes. My older son rowed crew. We had the worst time trying to buy him a suit. He had a 42 inch chest, 28 inch waist, and his thighs and butt were huge because of all the jumpees and muscle built up. Nothing off the rack even came close to fitting, and who wants to spend that much on a suit for an 18yo when you KNOW they arenāt going to stay that shape.
We ended up going with two nice blazers and some nice slacks and shirts. Itās been good enough for career fairs and interviews (heās an engineer, so not as dressy as business). Heās a junior now and we will buy him at least one full on suit this summer, but he stopped rowing and grew some more and is a little bit easier to fit now.
My S25 is also an athlete, but heās more proportionate. He already has a suit that Iām hoping will fit him for a few more years.
My S23 is getting his BFA in an art-related field and has needed dress clothes (blazer, dress shirt, nice pants and tie) almost every semester. I would definitely send any student to college with at least one of each. Luckily, my son goes to school in a city where they can tailor anything in an hour (!)ā¦I have no idea how that worked, but he used it in a pinch!
Of course I understand the need if itās for an interview or presentation, but the notion that some guests are more important than others makes me sick. But I also donāt pay much attention to what goes on in business school.
I donāt think it is that, I think itās more that there are more formal events, and less formal events. At my youngestās school there are events without special speakers where a blazer and button down shirt are expected.