<p>"SM, 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? "</p>
<p>It would be evident in your interview and essay as well as your history of creating opportunities for yourself. </p>
<p>I have served on scholarship committees, and committees selecting students for leadership programs, and it's very easy to differentiate the students who got things via family connections and the ones who got things via their own hard work and passions. </p>
<p>I also have sons who have gotten lots of opportunities -- including, like you, internships with professional newspapers -- via their own hard work. </p>
<p>People who serve on admissions committees for top colleges, and people who serve on committees for selective programs tend to have been themselves people who made opportunities for themselves, so they can recognize the difference between students who got things out of their own initiative and those who got things because of family connections.</p>
<p>The ones who get things through family connections tend to do at most what they are told. The ones who get things through their own initiative go above and beyond what's required, and speak with enthusiasm and passion about their experiences. It's clear that they weren't doing the activity to simply polish their resumes.</p>
<p>I never realised working was considered an EC, I just thought it was something you were supposed to do as a kid to pay for what you wanted?</p>
<p>Your best bet is to get a job but also do the internship. While some might say "oh your parents hooked it up" it really doesn't matter. It is still quite impressive to be able to have the opportunity to intern at a fortune 500 company. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.</p>
<p>In my opinion, I think everything is going to help and you should do whatever you can to help separate yourself from the rest. You never know what kind of connections you could make while interning there, who knows if you work hard you could really impress some people and possibly get yourself some very impressive letters of recommendation. With every decision you make and every time you get yourself in the real world you find you are opening new doors and new opportunity, even if you don't see it at the current time. You never know, the customer you go out of your way for one day might just be the person who's interviewing you or offering you a job. Plus, it's almost disgusting talking to some 20 year olds who have never had a job.. they just have no clue how the world works or what life entitles.</p>
<p>Northstarmom, I think you are being far too critical of him getting it through family connections. Many jobs are received through different connections, if you weren't to utilize connections throughout your life I feel it would be quite assinine. The OP has the opportunity to be interning at a fortune 500 company and you are belittling it by stating its only because of family connetions. I think you are being a bit too harsh on the subject and looking over the value of being able to intern there at all. It doesn't matter how it was obtained, what matter is the OP will have experience in that field now. I'll tell you what, I'd take the person with experience due to family connection (who is also a good student) over the student with no experience at all.</p>
<p>But all this talk about internships, its time for me to go interview for an internship as a chemist .. :D</p>
<p>"Your best bet is to get a job but also do the internship. While some might say "oh your parents hooked it up" it really doesn't matter. It is still quite impressive to be able to have the opportunity to intern at a fortune 500 company. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise."</p>
<p>I agree that one can learn a great deal through a job, including a h.s. internship at a Fortune 500.</p>
<p>I also know that such an internship won't be the ticket to success at top colleges. One may get into such a college, but it's unlikely that an internship obtained via parent connections will be what tips one in.</p>
<p>A job as a grocery store bagger however may tip one in, something that many CC members don't realize, opting instead for things like expensive "community service" trips abroad (which also don't impress adcoms at top colleges because the adcoms know that such experiences are basically packaged experiences designed to be resume dressing for people who have money).</p>
<p>I agree with you there Northstarmom, on here regular jobs are almost looked down upon by these students when it couldn't be further from the truth. I think some of the most important aspects of having a job is it really makes you a more down to earth and understanding person. That is what a college wants to see, they want to know you have the skills to succeed not only in the classroom, but also in the real world. </p>
<p>I now understand what you were trying to get across though, not so much saying what he's doing is bad but more along the lines that it isn't going to put him way ahead of the rest, and I agree there. This internship will in no way be a dealbreaker or help your application significantly, but I think it is something that will be looked at positively nonetheless.</p>
<p>look, the issue here is the perception of the adcom. adcom's want to see wha the student did of their own initiative. This is not B-school admissions. the adcom is searching for hints of the student's internal fortitude.</p>
<p>I agree with northstarmom that an internship handed to the student on a silver platter by daddy or mommy's connections is at best neutral, at worst irritates the adcom (who likely comes from the same background as the kid getting a job at Walmart or McDonald's).</p>
<p>I don't think adcom's take to pampered kids well (unless both parent and child are admitted as a team :( )</p>
<p>I agree with burgler's compromise: the internship may not be the thing that pushes your app over the edge, but it can't hurt to take it now that you've been offered it. I'd say that you should really make a point to show initiative in the internship though. As my band director says, "Act yourself into a new way of thinking." If you work hard and get into it, that internship may well become something that you're passionate about, even if it was at first handed to you on a silver platter.</p>
<p>Now, this debate about which type of job is best, the supermarket or the Fortune 500 company, has kind of been going on on this thread, so I thought I might ask a question concerning it. If the applicant has a job that's unorthodox, will that do anything to increase chances of admission? I'm a youth soccer referee, which requires a lot of responsibility and such. Would that be more impressive than being a grocer or would they probably be the same?</p>
<p>I was looking at applying to ug B programs I wonder if that makes a difference. Also, aren't colleges looking for students who are going to be able to donate a lot to the college? If an applicant already has connections to certain jobs/places, wouldn't that already put him/her a step closer into achieving success and donating?</p>
<p>"Also, aren't colleges looking for students who are going to be able to donate a lot to the college? If an applicant already has connections to certain jobs/places, wouldn't that already put him/her a step closer into achieving success and donating?"</p>
<p>All colleges want big donors. For places like HPYS, that means students who are offspring of people who are at least multimillionaires.</p>
<p>Having had a Fortune 500 internship as a h.s. student doesn't mean a student is in the multimillionaire category. Someone who enters college who is dirt poor, but has lots of guts and smarts could be a self made multimillionaire before they are 30. I remember meeting a man who was about 32 who had donated an endowed chair to Harvard. He'd entered Harvard as low income, first generation college, but made a lot of money as a stock broker.</p>
<p>Consquently, a person who's such a go-getter that they track down the owner of a store in their inner city neighborhood, and take a city bus 15 miles to go to that person's home and successfully argue that they be given a job as a cashier could end up being a better bet than an affluent student with connections for a college that was hoping to attract students who'd eventually be able to donate big bucks.</p>
<p>Incidentally, one of my mentees got her first job exactly as I described. Now in her early 30s, she has headed a museum, sat next to Al Gore at a small conference that was open to a small group of influential people, and she's now headed off to Harvard for a very select all expenses paid fellowship. She has outstripped peers who came from well off backgrounds and had connections.</p>
<p>"If the applicant has a job that's unorthodox, will that do anything to increase chances of admission? I'm a youth soccer referee, which requires a lot of responsibility and such. Would that be more impressive than being a grocer or would they probably be the same?"</p>
<p>They'd probably be about the same. Both demonstrate motivation, responsibility, and a willingness to work hard, and typically are jobs that young people find for themselves via their own assertiveness and skills, not through parents' connections.</p>
<p>Also, regarding HS internship over the summer, it might be what you make of it. Just because your parents got it for you doesn't mean you can't make it a very rewarding experience. I think the most "useful" things on college apps are experiences that are meaningful in some way: for example, my sci fair project only got honorable mention at states last year, no ISEF or anything, but I fell in love with fluid dynamics, got 129487129837 ideas for new projects, and wrote about this in an essay. I think that helped me get in more than just having some award or something would have. Similarly, just having the internship may or may not help, but if you end up learning a lot from it or something, it may be very useful, not for the internship per se, but from the experiences gained.</p>