Student Loan Blog : Internships

Colleges and Universities to Subsidize Unpaid Internships

Student Loan Girl — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:08:00 GMT

Some small, private schools are beginning to offer internship grants to students who would otherwise have been unable to accept an unpaid or low-paying intern position, according to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education (“Subsidizing the Internship,” July 18, 2008).

“That’s one of the more important aspects of career assistance that a university can provide a student,” said Mark Oldman, co-founder of Vault, a career-information company. Amid so many unpaid and low- paying internships, he told the Chronicle, “the university can come to the rescue financially.”

Once considered an added bonus to a college degree, internships have now become “a prime form of professional capital” for college students. But being that most internships offer little to no financial compensation, lower-income students are often placed at a disadvantage in the competitive internship field.

Internship-grant programs now being offered by schools across the country will subsidize unpaid or low-paying internships and allow more financially needy students to take advantage of these experience-building opportunities:

Connecticut College awarded up to $3,000 grants to two- thirds, or 285, college seniors
Austin College in Texas gave 54 students $2,300 each
Whitman College in Washington paid 26 students $2,100
Smith College in Massachusetts has pledged financial support for all internship-seeking students, regardless of their financial need

American University in Washington, D.C., while unable to offer direct financial assistance for internships, provides room and board for Native American students who secure internships at federal agencies or private corporations.

Butler University in Indianapolis, Ind., offers on-campus housing at a subsidized rate for summer interns through the Brain Gain program, as well as career counseling for those who participate in the program.

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Student Correspondents to Get National Exposure as ABC News Launches College Campus News Bureaus

Student Loan Girl — Tue, 13 May 2008 01:08:00 GMT

In an effort to reach younger viewers, ABC News plans to open five multimedia news bureaus on select college campuses this fall.

Students at Arizona State University, Syracuse University, the University of Florida, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the University of Texas at Austin will have their work featured on various ABC News outlets, including “Good Morning America,” “World News With Charles Gibson,” and “Nightline,” as well as on ABC News Radio and ABCNews.com.

Students selected as bureau chiefs will receive on-site training at ABC News headquarters in New York.

The network hopes its college initiative will provide greater insight into the lives of the prized demographic of 33 million 18-to-25-year-olds living in the United States.

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Bear Stearns Takeover Leaves Business-School Students Scrambling

Student Loan Girl — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 19:13:00 GMT

BearStearns CEO, Jimmy Cayne, seems to have been the only former Stearns employee to make it out of the JPMorgan Chase buyout relatively unscathed — at least in non-CEO terms — walking away with $61.3 million in sold shares. Even though, in his own high-priced executive world, Cayne took his buyout at a massive loss: Just a year ago, his entire Stearns portfolio was valued at almost $1 billion.

Former Bear Stearns employees, along with Cayne, saw the value of their shares plummet 85 percent in the buyout to a mere $10 a share. Bears Stearns shares were trading at about $67 two weeks before the buyout and as high as $170 a year ago.

Now add to the list of people adversely affected by the Stearns debacle, business-school students whose full-time job and summer internship offers from Bear Stearns have recently been rescinded, according to a BusinessWeek article by Alison Damast (“Bear Stearns Rescinds Job Offers,” April 3, 2008).

A spokesman from JPMorgan Chase won’t disclose how many job offers to soon-to-be college graduates and MBAs have been affected by the dissolution of the firm, at least 12 students at New York University’s Stern School of Business have already received their unhappy phone calls from the company.

According to The New York Times, the final count of rescinded job and internship offers will tally in the dozens (“J.P. Morgan Said to Withdraw Bear Job Offers,” April 3, 2008).

Students Left Out in the Cold

When JPMorgan announced its takeover of failing Bear Stearns on March 16, the status of the student jobs and internships was still uncertain. It wasn’t until April 2 that students who were offered positions in the investment banking, sales, and trading and research units of the former company were notified about the fate of their job and internship positions.

Over the next few weeks, as the school year draws to a close, these students will be frantically trying to nail down offers for replacement positions.

“I’m not sure what we are all supposed to be doing now with the few weeks before start-dates, but I would imagine that, like me, the other 25 or so students who were to start as associates are all in a mad scramble to figure out what the future holds,” one student told BusinessWeek.

In the meantime, students who had their full-time job offers rescinded will be allowed to keep their signing and relocation bonuses and will also be able to use JPMorgan’s career-service resources.

And for those students who will no longer be interning with the company this summer, JPMorgan has offered a full 10 weeks’ pay if they find a new summer position with a nonprofit organization instead.

To Fear or Not to Fear the Economy

Although Bear Stearns is the only investment firm so far this recruiting season to withdraw already-extended job offers, fears about the current state of the economy and its effect, in particular, on the financial-services sector have left business-school students and administrators wondering about the security of jobs and job offers with other firms.

To some, the rescinded Bear Stearns offers recall the results of a similar economic downturn in 2001, Damast writes, when several companies that had hired students were forced to scale back.

Tom Kozicki, board president of the MBA Career Services Council, says he believes the Bear Stearns situation doesn’t necessarily foreshadow what lies ahead for the financial industry, but is definitely something business students need to keep in the back of their mind as they prepare for this particularly shaky job market.

“It sounds like the shoe has dropped. I think it’s unfortunate, but I don’t think it comes as a surprise to most people,” Kozicki told BusinessWeek. “The economy is shaky, [Fed Chairman Ben] Bernanke has indicated that he thinks we are going into a recession and I think that students need to be prepared for some uncertainty in the market.”

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Student Internships: Pay to Get Paid What You’re Worth?

Student Loan Girl — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 17:06:00 GMT

Yesterday I came across this great piece about students paying search firms to find them internships. I thought, “Get real. Who’s going to fork over their hard-earned money just to work for a single summer somewhere?” The answer: apparently a lot of people.

Today, a good internship is hard to find, especially when there’s so much competition at Ivy League and other schools across the country. In addition, that internship could open the door for your high-paying dream job or help you network your way to a position that you love.

Nine Grand for An Unpaid Internship?

“Students pay from $6,499 to $8,999 to have the company find them an eight-week summer internship, plus housing in dorms at universities, some meals, transportation to work and activities for a summer,” according to the March 6, 2007 article by Emily Fredrix called “Students Paying Internship Search Firms” in the Pocono Record. I about died when I saw that students are paying up to $9,000 just to get an internship, most of which are unpaid.

Fredrix reported that “About three-fourths of all college students have had internships or some type of professional work experience by the time they graduate, said Phil Gardner, director of Michigan State's Collegiate Employment Research Institute.” In fact, the article stated that internships were no longer an optional but a required component of a graduate’s resume these days: “‘It's just one of those things you have to have before employers will even consider looking at your resume,’ he said.”

Most students realize how important internships are, however, there is still much debate regarding students doing the search themselves or paying a company to do it for them. Phil Gardner mentioned above does not advocate paying to get an internship, since he believes that college career centers are adequate, the article stated. “‘A student doesn't have to do that, in my opinion,’ Gardner said. ‘It just tells me that they're not going and using their resources.’”

Gardner’s position is supported by the view of another career professional referenced in the article:

“Laura Kestner, director of Career Services at Marquette University in Milwaukee, said no one should pay to find an internship. Looking for an internship helps students develop skills, she said.

“ ‘We're advocates of teaching students lifelong job search skills, so there's no reason you should pay someone,’ she said.

“But she is working with a firm that helps employers recruit interns, Chicago-based Brill Street and Co.”

Apparently, It Pays to Pay

University of Dreams, the company who charges up to $9000 to place students points out the benefits of utilizing a paid search firm to land an internship, according to the article:

“University of Dreams uses its staff's personal contacts at 500 companies to get students internships with employers they couldn't otherwise get into, said CEO Eric Lochtefeld. For interns, that's better than sending in a resume and hoping, he said.

“‘Does any college student really, sincerely believe that their resume will stand out or get better consideration than an actual introduction would provide?’ Lochtefeld said.

“In four years, the company has placed 1,800 students in companies such as Paramount Pictures or MTV Networks, both divisions of Viacom Inc. It has slots this summer for 850 students, he said.”

Here Are Some Companies That Can Help You Find Your Internship, For A Fee:

http://www.fasttrackinternships.com

http://www.internprograms.com

http://ceri.msu.edu

http://www.brillstreet.com/

So, what is a student to do? That depends on what you want and when you want to have it happen. Paying to get that great internship or to get on the internship “fast track” may be just the thing to start your career off right. However, it may be best for you to search and network for yourself. You decide.

The Education Finance Advisors at NextStudent can help you figure in all your college expenses so that you get the student loan that best suits your needs. Don’t get caught short. Go to www.nextstudent.com for all your student loan needs.

Check back here next Friday for my next blog on Campus Life.

Student Loan Girl

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