Hello everyone ,
I’m going to jump directly towards it
I have an internship opportunity in a software company where I will be involved in projects that are very close to most of my extracurriculars in category ( " My spikes ") however this internship will be in September till October and I will have to skip a few classes and etc however I can make up for skipped classes , anyone has an idea is it worth it ? Does an internship make a big difference for big names ? MIT ,STANFORD. IVIES… ETC. ?
Thanks,
Until and unless it is a competition, at a national level, I would not skip classes to do any extracurricular activity, let alone for an internship at a software company.
Why is this internship scheduled during your regular school day? That makes no sense at all. Find out if you can participate outside of your class hours.
Is this internship during the school day or woukd you only skip one or two hours one day eaxh week in September-October?
It depends on life goals. I wouldn’t consider getting in to MIT/Stanford/Ivies a sufficiently worthwhile life goal.
an internship that will include participating in a web developing project isnt worth it ?
at my country its EXTREMELY HARD to participate in an internship that requires a background in programming and etc. without being a college student …
It depends what you have to miss to do it though - what if your teachers give you demerits for missing schools? What is your school’s policy? Will you be able to catch up the classes you miss? Will you have to do the assignements even if you’re not in class?
All of these factor into the responses above.
my teachers wont mind much they support such opportunities and i will self study the parts i miss and i will , hopefully ,
make up for what i will miss
If it helps you grow, I say go for it, but not because it may or may not look good for some college or another. Life shouldn’t be about crossing t’s and dotting i’s.
I am having a hard time imagining an internship that would make the difference between a Harvard acceptance and a Harvard rejection. If you want to do the internship and your school is fine with it, don’t let us stop you! But don’t waste your time for the sake of college admissions. Not worth it.
It’s even conceivable that this internship-during-school-hours thing might hurt your college applications. Colleges tend to frown on students who prioritize other things over school work, especially things that could have easily been scheduled during school breaks with some better planning. Notice how every reader here had the same initial reaction? “WHY would anyone skip school to do an internship.”
Good for you if you taught yourself. That’s admirable and reflects well on your motivation. Does it make you a stronger college applicant? Absolutely.
Alas, learning basic programming is comparatively easy. Hundreds of thousands of students do it each year. It took me about 4 months to go from no programming to publishing my own computer game. It would take me MUCH longer than 4 months to become a world-class athlete or a world-class scholar or to accomplish something else on the level of the typical Harvard/Stanford/MIT international admit.
Is that internship with a recognized company (SAP, Qualcomm, EA…) - a name colleges will recognize?
If you feel strongly about it and it won’t impact your schooling negatively, do it, but don’t do it for colleges so it for yourself.
I would skip school to do an internship. And, I don’t think the typical international elite school admit has really done much. That said, ^^^