are internships meant for community college students "safeties" for undergraduates

Student Lounge College Life
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<p>“I’ve been in pretty ghetto environments – I went to a ghetto, blue-collar high school where 47% of the student body went on to two-year schools and where the dropout rate was 30%. I’m a low-income student from a single parent household. What aspect of a CC student would I lack?”</p>

<p>Humility, self determination, assertiveness, integrity, and many other things.</p>

<p>Saying this as a person who holds an Ivy undergrad degree, and has a doctorate, and takes community college courses for fun. Your image of community college students is wrong. Yes, some may fit your image just as some students at Ivies may be low income and from single parent blue collar families. However, there are many community college students who are wealthy and/or come from highly educated, advantaged households. Some community college students even have sky high stats.</p>

<p>Your assumption that CC students are all losers, and of course employers would prefer you are wrong.</p>

<p>It is hard for virtually anyone to get internships. Many students don’t manage to get any in high school or college. Most high school science students – including ones in highly advantaged schools – don’t have research experience. </p>

<p>If you want opportunities, go to your college’s career services office and get tips from them. Put in applications in your hometown for any job that you might remotely qualify for. Use contacts, to through your college’s alum office and career office.</p>

<p>Also, be prepared to start at the bottom. Many employers won’t hire students for internships unless they’ve done some job – even flipping burgers – before. I know: I used to recruit interns for a Fortune 500 company.</p>

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<p>I think I have the last 3. </p>

<p>(No I’m not really this arrogant in real life but the internet disinhibits me.) </p>

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<p>A small minority </p>

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<p>Well of course I have a job. Who doesn’t have a job?</p>

<p>(Oh I forgot, filthy rich white people who go to four year schools.)</p>

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Wth? Maybe in Iowa, but not on the East Coast. I don’t know anyone in my class who hasn’t done research in high school, except me. I think I deserve to have a CC internship at least as a safety, or I’ll be the most disadvantaged student in my track. </p>

<p>I should actually point out that I hold 3 jobs, 1 paid and 2 unpaid. I have a fourth job that’s an on-call position. Actually I was going to ask about this too – job applications seem to inherently discriminate against those who hold lots of jobs… </p>

<p>Like it’s difficult to explain why I suddenly left my job in Maine to go to school in Virginia to a computer-automated questionaire. And oh if you answer that you’ve held a job for less than 1 year and now you’re looking for another one it automatically deducts you points. <em>sigh</em></p>

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<p>Do you honestly hear anybody with a college degree complaining, “OH GOD I WISH ID GONE TO A BETTER HIGH SCHOOL ID HAVE SO MANY OPPORTUNITIES RIGHT NOW!!!” ?</p>

<p>You’re getting almost as bad as pmvd.</p>

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<p>"Wth? Maybe in Iowa, but not on the East Coast. I don’t know anyone in my class who hasn’t done research in high school, except me. I think I deserve to have a CC internship at least as a safety, or I’ll be the most disadvantaged student in my track. "</p>

<p>You continue to reflect a lack of sophistication. Just like you apparently think that CC students all are low income students from the ghetto, you assume that Iowa has a horrible school system, and every science high school student on the East Coast does research.</p>

<p>You must not know a lot of people or you are swallowing lots of b.s. I am from the East Coast and I know a lot of students on the East Coast. Most didn’t do science research unless you’re counting the type that some do at schools that require everyone to participate in science fair.</p>

<p>" I think I deserve to have a CC internship at least as a safety, or I’ll be the most disadvantaged student in my track."</p>

<p>Your arrogance is appalling. There are plenty of reasons why employers may want a student at, for instance, Tidewater Community College instead of a student at U Virginia. If employers wanted a 4-year college student as an intern, they’d ask for one. Your assumption that of course you’ll suit the employer’s needs better than would a CC student reflects gross arrogance. As I said before, employers often use internships to identify students who are likely to fill the kind of jobs the employers want to fill. Presumably, employers looking for CC student science interns want students who’ll eventually take jobs like being lab technicians, not something that students at 4-year colleges aspire to.</p>

<p>Instead of ranting on-line here, you’d serve yourself better by talking to your career office at UVA.</p>

<p>"I should actually point out that I hold 3 jobs, 1 paid and 2 unpaid. I have a fourth job that’s an on-call position. Actually I was going to ask about this too – job applications seem to inherently discriminate against those who hold lots of jobs… </p>

<p>Like it’s difficult to explain why I suddenly left my job in Maine to go to school in Virginia to a computer-automated questionaire. And oh if you answer that you’ve held a job for less than 1 year and now you’re looking for another one it automatically deducts you points. "</p>

<p>Considering that you’re low income, from the ghetto, and are attending one of the best universities in the land, you could be appreciating your good fortune, but instead, you seem to get a lot of pleasure out of whining, “poor me.”</p>

<p>Are you related to PMVD?</p>

<p>And when it comes to careers and graduate schools in STEM fields, being an American is an incredible advantage. Due to immigration difficulties, grad schools and corporations no longer can rely on candidates from abroad, so the grad schools and corporations do everything possible to support and hire American candidates. As long as your grades are strong, you should be fine. As for doing research, you should be able to do that at U Va – as part of your coursework or eventually as part of your work study.</p>

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<p>My state has a horrible school system too … my state doesn’t have governor’s schools because they apparently like to spend all the money on the latest educational fad and actually proactively inhibit business development.</p>

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<p>At the Thomas Jefferson High School of Science and Technology (just an example of a magnet school), apparently everyone comes out of there with a brilliant research project and an impressive paper. </p>

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<p>I don’t get why they’d ask future lab technicians to do a research project at the DoE?</p>

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<p>“At the Thomas Jefferson High School of Science and Technology (just an example of a magnet school), apparently everyone comes out of there with a brilliant research project and an impressive paper”</p>

<p>Sure. But that’s not typical of high schools. That’s a highly select high school that is one of the top public high schools in the country. Most college science students lack such experience.</p>

<p>“I don’t get why they’d ask future lab technicians to do a research project at the DoE?”</p>

<p>I just looked at the internship site. They’re trying to get top community college science students on track to be able to go to 4-year colleges and grad schools in STEM fields. In other words, they’re trying to help such students catch up with students like you so as to add more Americans into the pipeline for STEM professions.</p>

<p>There is a shortage of Americans prepared for those fields, and jobs are going begging because since 9/11 it has become very difficult for foreigners even with STEM backgrounds to immigrate to this country.</p>

<p>As long as you do well at UVA, you’ll be employable in science and tech fields and will have graduate options in those fields. As an American graduate of one of the country’s top universities, you’ll be especially attractive even if you didn’t do research in high school.</p>

<p>There also should be plenty of ways for you to do research at U Va. I mentioned work-study, which is how one of my friends who now heads a department at a med school, got her start in research. There also probably are ways to do research through independent study and in conjunction with some classes. It would be to your advantage, too, to take the time to get to know your professors, particularly those whose research interests are similar to yours. Ask their advice. Offer to help, and be stellar in their courses.</p>

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<p>I’m already using up my work study funds to monitor drug addicts take antidrug drugs in the middle of the night, while I work on lab reports.</p>

<p>I am a volunteer in an evolutionary bio lab but I’m not doing a lot.</p>

<p>I did get an offer to work in a computer catalysis lab but it would basically involve sitting behind a desk simulating explosions in various materials. I mean, explosions are cool, but it’s not organic synthesis. </p>

<p>I work at McDonalds. I also work at UVA catering.</p>

<p>I’m peer teaching for an phylogenetics lab course… basically assisting students in their understanding of basic bio? But I haven’t started. </p>

<p>I might be doing something exciting, as last semester’s chem lab prof hints. Or it could be literally as he says – biweekly meetings doing pen and paper chemistry.</p>

<p>I apply to like dozens of programmes but I’ve been rejected from every exciting research opportunity there is. Linguistics is a passionate hobby of mine but NO apparently you have to be a fourth-year or a psych major to do psycholinguistics or developmental psycholinguistics. Since when do soft science psych majors get priority over hard science neuro majors for such interesting topics? =(</p>

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<p>Nope. I come from an upper-middle/upper class suburban area, and our school was consistently ranked as one of the best in the state. I still know a ton of people that I graduated with who go to CC. I also never even heard of ANY of my friends doing science-related research while in high school. Even now, I’m at a top 20 college and maybe 1 in every 10 people here have done anything significant with their high school education besides getting a diploma.</p>

<p>Stop being so self-righteous, thinking that just because you’re doing this laundry list of things, that you should automatically be awarded this one position in the internship you want. Why don’t you just check the DoE’s website for 4-year college student internships if it’s really that important to you? Honestly.</p>

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<p>“I apply to like dozens of programmes but I’ve been rejected from every exciting research opportunity there is. Linguistics is a passionate hobby of mine but NO apparently you have to be a fourth-year or a psych major to do psycholinguistics or developmental psycholinguistics. Since when do soft science psych majors get priority over hard science neuro majors for such interesting topics? =(”</p>

<p>You seem to have a strong sense of entitlement which may hurt you in many ways including as you seek jobs, internships, and post college options.</p>

<p>The employers have the right to determine what they want in their interns. Hiring interns is a big investment – in terms of time and money. Employers want students who’ll help the employers meet the goals that the employers provide internships to meet. That may mean helping talented community college students be on track for graduate school in STEM fields. It may mean assisting talented juniors and seniors who are likely to enter the employer’s fields. The employer may choose to be more interested in supporting students in soft sciences than students in hard sciences. S/he who has the gold rules.</p>

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<p>Maybe the OP should spend more time developing the academic and social skills that the employers of 4-year college interns would find desirable, instead of spending the whole time complaining of his alleged lack of high school opportunities.</p>

<p>Doesn’t he realize that high school is in the rear view mirror–it’s irrelevant now. Employers are interested in what opportunities he has taken advantage of in college at the esteemed University of Virginia.</p>

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<p>Unfair, when hard science students work harder and have more passion for what they do (in general).</p>

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<p>I’m trying to do that and get a safety.</p>

<p>I obviously can’t get any useful research experience sitting behind a computer in a supposed “research assistant” work study position. Why do they make 4-year students do menial tasks while CC students get to do Fourier transforms on the spectroscopic output of nuclear magnetic resonance machines at the Department of Energy? It seems quite unfair!</p>

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<p>You are so full of crap.</p>

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<p>" obviously can’t get any useful research experience sitting behind a computer in a supposed “research assistant” work study position. Why do they make 4-year students do menial tasks while CC students get to do Fourier transforms on the spectroscopic output of nuclear magnetic resonance machines at the Department of Energy? It seems quite unfair"</p>

<p>You are fed, clothed, and go to the esteemed U Virginia while equally smart and hardworking people in Haiti are dying and starving, yet you think life is fair?</p>

<p>“Maybe the OP should spend more time developing the academic and social skills that the employers of 4-year college interns would find desirable, instead of spending the whole time complaining of his alleged lack of high school opportunities.”</p>

<p>Worth a repeat.</p>

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<p>I’ve seen internships looking for university and community college students where the community college students receive preference. My guess is that this is a condition of their grant, either at the state or federal level. There are also preferences for URMs (SURF is a good example of this). There are many STEM internships that especially look for women.</p>