D22 is studying in Madrid and we will be visiting her at the end of the month. She is having the time of her life and getting way more immersed in the Spanish culture than she ever imagined.
We are actually going to take her to Geneva for the weekend! I spent 4 months working there fresh out of college and loved the city even if it wasn’t the most exciting for a young adult. It’s a great base for traveling and having a cohort of 30 should give her a built in group to have fun and travel with.
Madrid and London, such fun places to visit!! Enjoy!
For whatever reason, the class of 2022 gets fewer updates than other years, so I’m updating!
S22 continues to enjoy his study abroad semester in Japan. He’s doing it through Temple University’s Tokyo campus, and it has turned out to be a very good experience. The students are a mix-- some are American students studying all 4 years at Temple Tokyo, some are American students doing a study abroad term, some are Japanese students who want to attend an American-accredited school, others are students from various countries around the world. So the school is used to supporting various types of students, and arranges optional activities such as local outings and weekend trips away. It also follows a typical American semester calendar which is convenient. We visited S22 in October, and the school is located in a cute neighborhood. S22 reports that some classes are rigorous, while others are not, but overall a very good choice for a semester abroad in Japan.
S22 is feeling down and worried about getting internship this coming summer. He has sent in so many applications, not a single interview call yet. Told him that’s all he can do, keep trying. I know he’ll be ok whatever happens. But it breaks my heart to see them so stressed and frustrated. Job market is not great right now.
What sort of internship is he looking for?
Fyi, deadline next Monday.
Does campus have career resources- to review resume, practice interviewing?
I find campus parent groups help with job leads, too.
My D22 hasn’t received any interviews yet either for summer 2025 - she didn’t land her summer 2024 internship until the very end of the school year, so she’s not super stressed yet. But, it would be so nice if she could get it settled sooner this year … last spring was awful and I don’t want a repeat.
D22 is racing along at her usual breakneck pace. Someday, that girl will take fewer than 20 credits a semester. Between that and her performance schedule, I don’t know how she keeps up, but she does.
She’ll probably stay with her current lab this summer since she enjoys the work and is likely to build her chemistry thesis around it.
Thankfully, our D22 was offered a return internship after last summer’s. She really had a great experience there. So, back to Pittsburgh in summer 2025!
Same here! Last year he landed a pretty decent one but it was at the beginning of spring semester. So we still have time.
S22 just was accepted into the progressive masters program. He’ll have a B.A. in cognitive science and a masters in computer science in four years, with no summer school. But that means no study abroad for him. We are planning a trip to Europe for him when he graduates in 2026. He’s working remotely part time for the A.I. start up where he worked last summer. He decided that job is giving him better experience (and pay) then he’s get in a university lab. The trick is not to let them demand too much of him when he has a challenging course load.
D22 is preparing for her spring semester in Switzerland, which includes a research project. Currently her plans are to return to New Orleans for the summer and hopefully get a research job.
She is also forging ahead at fast speed. Even with the semester abroad she could graduate in 3.5 years with a double degree and a minor. I have a feeling the job market in her fields will be challenging, so I’m curious to see what she decides to do.
I’m so happy for your S22 that he’s had such a great experience! It sounds wonderful! Sadly, things did not work out as well for us. My S22 enrolled directly in Keio University in Tokyo for a one year program and had such a miserable time that he ended up withdrawing (their semester extends into February so to be able to return to his US university for spring, he had to withdraw this semester). I think the difficulty was that he entered the program on his own and there were only two other American students, who had a different field of study so he only met them once during orientation. All of the other students came from around the globe, which you would think would have been a wonderful opportunity but the university did not organize any group activities and the international students were spread out in dormitories, some an hour from each other, so that my S22 felt quite alone and lost. He tried to make friends with the Japanese students in his dorm but was unsuccessful. Lesson learned. It might have been much better if he’d done a study abroad program through his own university and with students from his university. In the end, it’s been a great learning experience. He stayed in Japan to travel and explore on his own now for a total of 10 weeks, will return home soon and get a job to earn some money before returning to his university for Spring semester. So all is well that ends well!
Good for him! So smart of him to change course as soon as he realized his original plans weren’t going to work for him-- way to stay flexible! And exploring Japan on his own–what a dream. Congrats to him!
What a great place to be in the summer……lol……
S22 has been working in a lab and loves that he is getting experience but finding summer internships are difficult. At least he can still work in the lab during the summer but his preference is to get some industry experience. I have seen lots of opportunities for mechanical, industrial- but for his interest, lots of internships are requiring current masters students.
We just got back from visiting D22 in Madrid. It was so fun having her lead us around the city she knows so well now. She has traveled all around Spain and is now branching out to other countries. Despite knowing very little Spanish, she has managed just fine. Her wonderful host mom has helped her out when needed as she speaks great English as well as her native Spanish.
I think D22 would happily stay in Madrid for the whole year. However, she can’t take the courses she needs to fulfill her degree so it’s not a possibility.
As far as summer plans, she will be taking Gross Anatomy. It will be the first summer she does not come home which will be an adjustment.so fun hearing updates on what all the 22 kids are up to!
Ditto.
Son has applied to over 150 internships since January, done so many HireVues/HackerRank, some interviews, and 1 SuperDay (at an airport/on the airplane - company couldn’t change his date/time)
= nothing.
It’s depressing getting almost daily rejections.
And the window for his focus is just about closed, so he’s spinning to different industries.
In case anyone can help, son is math and computer science major, looking for internships in quant research, trading, investment, or development industry.
No restriction on:
Networking is the key, but he’s gotten no where with cold-reach out, LinkedIn, alums, friend’s friends.
Because he has about 5+ available slots in his schedule before graduation, he’s going to talk to his advisor about taking MS graduate classes to see if he can do BS/MS Finance in 5 years.
I know experience is important, but if he can’t get his foot in the door,
so maybe competing against others with a MS would give him a leg up in 2027?
For his industry (quant), they seem to want MS/PhD.
Very open to all sorts of feedback/opinions/suggestions.
Thank you.
Sorry didn’t see this message. He is doing Mech Engg.