<p>I'm currently a rising senior in high school and I was wondering how significant summer internships are for college admissions. I will be doing a paid internship at UBS in the investment banking department in Los Angeles this summer for about a month, and it seems to be a very top-shelf type of deal. It's in the office of a senior VP, and apparently I will be sitting in on a board meeting or two as well and do things of that nature. I was wondering about how big of a deal it will to be to college admissions departments, and whether it will be a significant boost to my application, or will it just look like a semi-significant extracurricular? </p>
<p>For what it's worth, I intend to go into finance in college, so I'm applying to ivies and business schools like Stern at NYU and Mendoza at Notre Dame. </p>
<p>Any feedback would be very helpful, so thanks for any responses!</p>
<p>They tend to work better as job references, but its certainly one of those nice things to have. Schools tend to value volunteer work and service more than work experience, while employers tend to value internships and other practical experience over service. </p>
<p>While you are there be sure to connect up with this VP or anyone else who will mentor you. Just present yourself as a hardworking student that wants to be like them and collect some email addresses. It always helps to have some connections.</p>
<p>I disagree with Mitch, I believe work experience goes much further than volunteer/service work. At high caliber schools, every single applicant has volunteering on their application. Very few applicants will have a paid internship closely tied to their intended major. It is definitely impressive. Come up with a good title for it; “Assistant” won’t look so special.</p>
<p>I think it depends on how you approach the internship. If you take it seriously, work hard, connect with your mentor, ask questions and then use the experience in your personal essay to explain or describe or bolster your interest in finance, it could become significant. Getting a letter of recommendation from the mentor would also provide a significant boost to your application. If you don’t do anything in your internship beyond taking notes at board meetings, then it’s a semi-significant EC.</p>