They’ve paused funding to Fulbrights worldwide. 12,500 Americans abroad and several thousand foreign nationals in the US.
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D23’s summer research program offer was just withdrawn today. Due to the hiring freezes on that campus. She’s super disappointed and now we’re scrambling to find alternate summer plans. I’m just so sad and mad for her.
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D21 is a semi-finalist and would have heard about whether she was finalist in a few weeks. Don’t even get me started on that one.
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D20 has several friends who are directly affected by this. Her fellowship monies haven’t been paused (different fellowship program) but her program has been indefinitely canceled for future years.
It’s awful.
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S23 is home and super sad and having fomo as all his frat buddies are in amazing locations. He knows he/we are not in a financial situation to send him anywhere so he gets it but still, yeah buddy, I wish I were in Cabo or Madrid right now too.
But we did have some nice conversations about his future and his world views. It is always interesting to see your kids developing their own opinions on current events. 
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D23 has final interview for very cool research position* this summer this week. Fingers crossed here. 
*It’s unpaid due to current change in circumstances but still super cool opportunity. They are offering course credit for it.
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Hopefully the school won’t charge you for the credits.
They won’t; there’s an agreement between the school and the department because funding was removed. That was explicitly made clear.
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Add S23 to the list of students affected by the federal cuts. His internship in a company’s R&D group has been waitlisted. The company receives DoD funding for some of their R&D projects, so they don’t know if they’ll be able to hire interns this summer. He was told that if he had another opportunity he should take it. So, now he’s scrambling to find something else. We’re hoping he can at least get an unpaid research position in a professor’s lab at one of the local universities so he can live at home and not worry about expenses. Still, he wanted to get paid and this internship was the dream job in his field of interest. He’s feeling completely dejected.
And I should add, it’s ridiculous how many applications companies get for internship positions. S is an electrical and computer engineering major with a 3.85 GPA, yet he said applying for internships feels as competitive as applying to colleges—if not worse. In a few interviews he’s had, they’ve told him over 100 applicants applied for the same position. I fear it’s only going to get worse with all the economic uncertainty these days. I feel so bad for these kids. Sigh.
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D20 is scrambling with trying to figure out summer plans. Two of the places she interviewed with stopped the process with all applicants (funding removed), and another has made the positions unpaid. She is now wondering if she needs to go back to retail work if she wants to make some money before going off to grad school this fall, not ideal but she is willing. We will see how retail hiring looks with the negative consumer sentiment.
I am not looking forward to the knock on effects that haven’t even really begun to show up. Makes me mad and sad.
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It’s why you have to apply to so many.
This stinks. I hate these stories. And the Fulbright kids are mid study which is worse.
There is no empathy.
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S23 just found out that he’s being invited back to the same engineering internship he had last summer (consumer goods manufacturing). If they invite him again next summer, I bet he’ll just stick with the same company because they’re reasonably close to home and he had a great experience. I think that being local-ish was a big factor in him getting the position last year.
This is a huge relief because, while he got a few bites on other applications, he didn’t receive any other offers. His friends have struck out a lot on their summer gig searches. It is really tough out there right now, and yes sometimes it unfortunately takes hundreds of applications (depending on the field).
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Yes, my D23 is having a hard time finding a full time internship (marketing/communications) for the summer. She does have a part time remote job but it looks like she’ll be lifeguarding again.
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Honestly it’s still not late. It’s prime time. After April is late. If you look on indeed, new postings go up every single day.
Do 3 apps a day - location irrelevant. In a month that’s 90.
That’s what you need to do today. And 90 may not be enough.
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S23 has sent out hundreds of internship applications, but hasn’t had a single interview. He’s an EECS major with a hardware emphasis (he’s interested in semiconductors), close to 4.0 GPA, team lead in a club, member of honors societies, etc. His friends in software also applied to lots of jobs, but they all have good internships lined up now.
S23 thinks the difference is that software engineers with one or two years of college (or even just experience in high school) can already start to contribute at a job, but hardware students in their first and second years are still taking math, physics, and basic EE, and haven’t yet gotten to more advanced subjects that are directly applicable to jobs. He said most internship postings state that they prefer juniors or seniors.
He talked to company recruiters on campus for some of the companies he’s interested in, and they’ve told him they either don’t do internships at all, or only hire juniors (or seniors). And he said they told him “don’t worry if you don’t get an internship this summer,” that an internship as a sophomore doesn’t matter as much for this career path, and he would definitely get an internship next summer based on what he is studying.
He’s still applying to internships, but at this point he is thinking of taking a class this summer that would finish a prereq chain and get him set up for the more advanced classes next year.
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Same story for D23 with summer Bio internships, 4.0 last semester and on-campus research experience- striking out on all fronts - some cancelled due to funding cuts - hopeful that something will come through for all our kiddos!
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Our D23 is studying abroad at her school’s campus in the Netherlands this semester. The program is geared toward sophomores. She’s been living in a castle and has loved traveling to different countries but has had a hard time with some “friend” drama. A couple of weeks ago we thought she’d be coming home early but she’s pushing through it. It’s just hard being so far away when they need a hug. We are meeting her in London when she finishes up next month and then going to Ireland for about a week before bringing her home.
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How about related but not exact internships. Or non engineering, like customer satisfaction, but in a technical organization?
He has talked to his professors about research and career plans, and feels that either an unpaid research position, or making progress towards degree requirements, would be better for his career than a non-technical internship. Of course he has already applied to plenty of “non exact” internships for which he has any qualifications (materials, manufacturing, etc)… that goes without saying.
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Hoping something comes through. I remember ABB called my son really really late and then got the one he got.