<p>Recently, I found out my dad was about to hook me up with a summer intern with GE Capital. It's ranked 6th of the Fortune 500 companies (1st in Diversified Financials) and I was wondering how much interning here would help me out for college admissions. I'll only be able to work 2-3 days a week, so I'm wondering if that would affect anything as well.</p>
<p>Yeah I'm wondering this too, I'm going to China to intern at a fortune 200 company (in China not including other countries). We're family friends with the owner and I've met him so I was also wondering how these internships would affect college admissions too.</p>
<p>bump bump bump</p>
<p>It would obviously help.</p>
<p>Working any job is a plus. However, my thoughts are that working at Mcdonalds or as Walmart cashier would be a bigger plus than a h.s. internship at a Fortune 500.</p>
<p>Why? College admissions officers know that Fortune 500 companies have no reason to hire high school students as "interns." Virtually no high school student has the background to be a valuable intern. Usually, the only way that high school students get such "internships" is through family connecitons, not their own hard work and skills. Typically the students get the jobs because their parents do the work of finding the jobs and urging the students to take them.</p>
<p>Exception would be internships such as Inroads, a highly competitive internship for high school students.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, a Walmart cashier or McDonalds server would have to do more real work than would probably most high school student "interns," which typically are in jobs in which they do nothing but enjoy comfortable surroundings while possibly answering phones and watching higher-ups work. </p>
<p>Students doing factory work, construction work, cashiers, etc. also would learn a lot more about life -- including how to get along with people much different from themselves -- than high school "interns" would learn at corporate jobs.</p>
<p>Incidentally, I worked as a department store cashier in h.s., and worked as a clerk in a factory summers during college, and my husband did factory work and construction before going to college and during college summers. We both learned a lot about ourselves and the world. from those experiences.</p>
<p>No disrespected intended, northstarmom, but that is an erroneous post. I heed your point regarding family connections, but at the end of the day, working a cash register at Walmart is by no means considered "more real work" than pushing paper at GE Financial. Both are menial jobs that mean relatively little in the short run.</p>
<p>"but at the end of the day, working a cash register at Walmart is by no means considered "more real work" than pushing paper at GE Financial. Both are menial jobs that mean relatively little in the short run."</p>
<p>Either job can mean a lot in the longterm because they can give a person information about themselves and the world that can help them develop skills and interests that lead to a successful career (which may not be related directly to corporate life). In the short term, the cash register job is likely to have an impact on a store's bottom line. Done well, it could boost profits; done poorly, it could reduce profits. An "internship" given as a favor -- not due to the employee's skill -- is likely to have no impact on the bottom line except that their wages will decrease profit.</p>
<p>A person who gets an "internship" through family connections, isn't likely to be held to the same standards as would a person who gets a job because a business needs employees. The person who gets an "internship" as a favor isn't as like to have to do hard work, truly boring work or anything else that might hurt the relationship of their parents with whatever friend or relative lined up the job.</p>
<p>Still, working some kind of job --including an internship obtained via family connections -- is better than doing nothing over the summer, and is rarer for HPY applicants than is taking summer courses.</p>
<p>Northstarmom I see that Inroads are for URMS only, I was wondering since I'm Asian if there's another competitive internship I could compete for.</p>
<p>Back in the Jack Welch's days, GE was known as a good training ground for future MBAs/management types. Not sure what it is now.</p>
<p>Northstarmom, some jobs may be considered "easier" than others but at the end of the day, what counts is the fact that you actually took on a job; something that requires responsibility, maturity, independence and in some cases, resilience--and colleges would love to see that regardless of whether you're position is at McDonalds or GE.</p>
<p>As an added bonus, I thought some people might be interested in this. I received my internship at Ernst & Young through this program.</p>
<p>All</a> Stars Project, Inc. - Development School for Youth</p>
<p>GE is currently tied with Citigroup for the #1 spot</p>
<p>Forbes.com:</a> Forbes 500s</p>
<p>I'll be with the Financial department of GE and seeing as that's what I will be majoring in in college, I think even watching the higher ups work will still be a very valuable experience. If I'm lucky they might even teach me some stuff. </p>
<p>The thing is not many Fortune X00 companies take in high school students, family connection or not, while anyone can apply to McDonalds and hold a job. For that reason, I think interning at GE would be considered higher than working at McDonalds in the admissions process. Does anyone else have opinions on this?</p>
<p>House I think that 500 list is from 2002</p>
<p>"Northstarmom I see that Inroads are for URMS only, I was wondering since I'm Asian if there's another competitive internship I could compete for."</p>
<p>Working a job, any job would put you ahead of most of the applicants to colleges that consider things like ECs and and jobs when selecting students.</p>
<p>You do not need any kind of "internship". Quotes are because there really are very few true internships for high school students. Most such "internships" are things arranged by parents with connections, and admissions officers know this.</p>
<p>If you want to stand out in the pool of colleges like HPY, then work as a cashier, waiter, supermarket bagger, construction, lifeguard, camp counselor, etc. Admissions officers know that such jobs are hard work, probably were not arranged by parents via connections as ways of polishing kids' resumes, and require a great deal of responsibility because the jobs provide essential services to the employers.</p>
<p>For more application "points" start your own housecleaning, lawn care, babysitting, tutoring or pet care business, and be successful enough at it so you get an income or regular client list that's impressive (such as if you manage to create a daily, several hour-summer childcare service or do lawn care for 25 households). That would show passion and creativity for business or whatever field you may be planning on going into (such as education or veterinary science).</p>
<p>The kind of ordinary jobs available to the majority of high school students also will teach you a lot about the world, careers and yourself, things that will pay off in college (yes, including Ivies) and life in general.</p>
<p>bump bump bump</p>
<p>NSM, you make great points. If I'm doing a summer internship with a politician and a school-year internship with a local newspaper that I've gotten without any parent connections, are there any specific ways I can make that evident? I admittedly have been able to do some pretty cool extracurricular activities through parent connections, but these internships were just from sending in applications, CV's, and portfolios; preparing for interviews; and working hard in general.</p>
<p>I agree with Northstarmom. I dislike the connections thing, and it's quite clear, especially to adcoms, that you got the internship not through merit but through connections.
Personally, having done everything myself without parent connections, I dislike it when students get by with mom or dad's help. For adcoms, it's clear who has more potential: someone who gets by with mom's help or someone who gets by on one's own.
Besides, your internship should be something you enjoy, something you earned for yourself.</p>
<p>Well that's not necessary true, adcoms usually like rich kids because, in the end, they have the connections the kids that aren't as fortunate want to obtain so the kids with parents that are of a higher class alrdy have a leg up.</p>
<p>That's stretching it a bit far, don't you think, aspasp?</p>
<p>It is, but I'm just giving a counterexample, take it with a grain of salt but it's kinda plausible don't you think?</p>
<p>"Well that's not necessary true, adcoms usually like rich kids because, in the end, they have the connections the kids that aren't as fortunate want to obtain so the kids with parents that are of a higher class alrdy have a leg up."</p>
<p>Actually, when it comes to adcoms, most come from modest backgrounds, and are not naturally disposed to like kids born with silver spoons. Wealthy people don't tend to want to be admissions officers.</p>
<p>For instance,William Fitzsimmons, dean of Harvard's admissions, was born working class, and was first gen college.</p>
<p>Some colleges do consider need in admission, and may reject high need students. So for those colleges, the wealthy are at an advantage. However, the top colleges in the country -- the places like HPYS that many CC members aspire to -- don't advantage full pay students in admission, but are trying hard to attract qualified very needy students.</p>