Speaking from experience, corporations will recruit in city schools and very large state flagships or very large privtes for the simple reasons that in a city, they can hit several schools without much travel time and expense and large flagships ( or very large privates) because there are thousands of students in one place.
Kollegeguy -that was my concern. Thanks
Also -I am wondering after reading some of the replies here- does recruitment matter? Many of the CC kids seem to find internships without recruitment?
Veruca, my kids never did internships. One worked every summer. The other went to music festivals every summer and worked. Both went to urban colleges.
@veruca It really depends on a lot of factors. Is your child looking at engineering majors? If so, there are many programs that require internships, so they are instrumental in locating them. If another major, then internships are always available in the summers. My son did one at his university one year and had housing covered. My daughter has done two in NYC and I had to pay for housing. Let me tell you, NYC is very expensive! Fortunately I found someone in Brooklyn who charges me $200/wk, and she provides all meals for my child, so she has truly been a godsend!
No not a future engineer. She is only a sophomore in HS so we have plenty of time to figure it out. We were touring colleges for the first time with her this week and none of them were in a large city- so I was wondering about how it all worked.
Back in the dark ages -I went to nursing school -they were throwing jobs at us and internships weren’t necessary. So I don’t know much about it.
@veruca - check out school’s career center, ask them what companies recruit on campus and their placement rate.
@veruca you can find internships WO recruitment, just have to network and look and use resources at your school
If it’s a rural school with good connections and a solid reputation, location won’t matter much. The logistics, as far as moving/interviewing, can be a bit trickier, but the opportunities will still be there.
For what it’s worth, I had multiple internship opportunities and job offers upon graduation at my rural Arizona school. Granted, I had to travel about 100 miles to the company I interned with, but it was well worth it, in my opinion. The perks of going to a rural school can greatly outweigh the minor logistical inconveniences (assuming the idea of going to a rural school interests you in the first place!).
Do your homework to find out what type of opportunities the school offers students. Where do they typically go? What is the job placement rate?
There can be an advantage to having summer internship in the college town if living off campus with a 12-month lease. However, ya never know where you’ll end up… .so I don’t think it’s a significant factor in the college search.
My son has worked for the same company starting the summer after his sophomore year - he’ll graduate next month. During the school year he works 10 hours a week, sometimes remotely, sometimes commuting to work an hour away. During the summer he works a regular 40 hours week. His school is in a small city in a very rural state. I think a lot has to do with how good the career services department is. I was very impressed with his colleges career service department, and he’s my third college student.
My 3 kids have not experienced where, location wise, a student attends school matters as far as internships go. They have had diverse internship locations depending on their desires for specific experiences.
In other words, being in an urban environment does not mean better or more internships.
@morris, I’d have to disagree, being in say, NYC, you could look and go on interviews all year long during school, AND the employer will have heard of your school ( like NYU, Fordham, Columbia, etc) that is definitely an advantage over going to a school in the sticks. The is a reason people live in or near big cities, more opportunity! College is no different. That doesn’t mean you can’t find internships going to a rural school either
Both of my kids preferred to attend college in or near a city, but for different reasons. #1 wanted to go to school in a “major league city” (as in sports). #2 wanted to go to school in a “real city” in the East, to have access to NYC if she didn’t actually attend college there. In neither case was this interest in urban life due to internships or jobs. It was a matter of life-style.
Of course that (and other reasons) is why you should go to a school, I am just saying access to internships is greater if in a city, it just makes sense. Look at Stevens Institute for example…located right across the river from Manhatten…good school, but many ranked higher. Then look at starting salaries for undergraduates and it is top 10 in the country…the reason being is almost all of their kids are interning in NYC and then being hired. Proximity helps a lot.
I think the school matters more than the location. The elite schools have no trouble placing internships. Indeed some internships, investment banking, are mostly attained from elite schools, regardless of where they are located.
D1 went to school in the middle of upstate rural. Got a n internship at Goldman Sachs and then JP Morgan and finally an offer in the investment banking division.
Of course certain schools are the exception, and IB is also different, but there is a whole world of actual productive industry outside of IB people doing god’s work as Mr. Blankfein put it so eloquently
So kohllegg you apparently have a bias, stating that there is " a whole world of actual productive industry outside of of IB people." Do you have any understanding of the finance world other than what you get fro the press??
It depends on the industry, too. For a lot of fields, DC is pretty special when it comes to year-round internships. They happen all the time for kids in town. If you want to be in the fashion industry, being in NYC is going to give you access to a whole different experience.
My son chose rural colleges for both undergraduate and graduate school. In both cases he had no problem securing summer jobs/internships through his schools’ placement service, through professors or through alumni connections. Over 4 summers, one was on campus, one was in a nearby city, one was across the country and one was on the other side of the world. Some paid enough to cover living expenses, some were a stretch, but all were positive resume builders. He found his first real job after graduation through a posting at his college’s career center and after graduate school ended up going back to the same firm.
@morris, I worked on Wall Street for 20 years…IB is a scam industry