Best summer work for college applications (and also self-improvement)

Hi all,

I am currently a rising senior who will be applying to very selective universities in the upcoming school year (ivy league, MIT, Stanford, etc.). I am interested in majoring in finance/business.

Currently, I am being offered two internship/work positions.

Internship 1 is at a large financial/accounting firm (definitely national, if not international). For this internship, I simply sent them a email and they offered me a position. For the position, I get payed around $10 dollars an hour and I do very basic work (copying papers, pasting stuff into word/excel, etc.). However, I am told that I get to experience the financial advisory work involved, it just won’t be very hands-on.

Internship 2 is at a small local accounting firm (clients are mostly local people/businesses). However, since there are only 3 other people in the firm, I will be able to do a lot more, such as be involved in talking/meeting clients, be involved in the accounting and do accounting stuff, come up with ideas for outreach and make the business more efficient, and help make some executive decisions. I will also get paid around $14 an hour. My parents are also friends with the business owner.

I think I would enjoy both opportunities. However, which opportunity do you think is better for college apps?

I realize that I get to do more at Internship 2, but will the large well-known company name of internship 1 stand out to colleges?

Thanks

One of the most important takeaways from these internships is going to be a letter of recommendation. My advice would be to choose which one you think would be able to write you a stronger letter of recommendation.

I would go with the one that offers more exposure and better connections. I think second internship sounds more interesting.

Thanks for the feedback!