@Mwfan1921 Yes! My D told me the same thing over break when I asked why she was looking at intern job postings for upperclassmen. She said that she’d read that guys are more likely to apply & swag their way through. She said, “what the heck!”
@elena13 If she’d be interested in broadening her geographic area, there seem to be interesting intern openings at some of the big book publishers like this: https://scholastic.referrals.selectminds.com/info/page3
But yeah, the CNN type stuff looks good, too!
S19 heads back to Denison tomorrow. They will have a one-week mini track camp before classes start, which sounds like a good way to recover from jet lag and get back in study mode. It’s been great having him home, but now he’s looking forward to going back, seeing his friends, getting back into the routine. Denison basically requires that everyone live on campus all four years, and, reading some of the stories here, I think I am glad about that! I have been encouraging S19 to get some letters and emails out regarding summer jobs, hopefully something that’s relevant to one of his potential majors. It’s harder to find part-time jobs here than where I grew up, and it wasn’t practical when he was commuting three hours a day back and forth to high school, but now it is time.
My S16, a senior at Bentley University, just started his 4th internship this week. He is a econ-finance major.
As a rising sophomore he came home and worked a summer job at a marina that he held during his high school years. He is also an entrepreneur, so in addition to his marina job he had his own boat detailing business and made a great amount of money with this alone.
As a rising junior he secured a paid internship in Cambridge for the summer (office job) and spent his weekdays at a relative’s house outside of Boston. (His weekends were at home, we are 2 hours from Boston, in a touristy town on the water).
During his first semester junior year he secured his 2nd internship. He had a 10 hour a week internship in Boston at a large real estate firm plus he had a full academic schedule of 5 classes too. Spring semester he went abroad to The University of Saint Gallen in Switzerland.
As a rising senior he had a 40 hour a week internship during the summer in Downtown Boston at an up and coming start up. The pay was really great and included monthly money toward transportation. This internship was extended into his fall semester senior year where he worked in Downtown Boston two days a week and again took a full load of 5 classes. In November he experienced what it was like to have your position eliminated. It really stunk because it paid so well - but the start up was having a tough quarter and the two interns had to go. Luckily this company was very cordial and gave both interns continued use of the Sales Navigator subscription (LinkedIn) they bought for each intern until this May when they graduate. Then, in December, my S16 landed an absolutely Amazing internship in Downtown Boston for spring semester This week he started at a Capital Venture firm and he is so enthusiastic about this one! He worked 4 days this week and then next week, when classes begin, he will work two days in Downtown Boston and again have a full academic schedule of 5 classes. He graduates in May. He has been applying to full time jobs for after graduation since fall. Nothing secured yet but I know he will land something.
My S16 goes to Bentley, a strong business university, internships are part of the culture at the university. They have a very strong Career Center (#1 in Northeast for many years in several rankings). All students take a series of career development classes (starting freshmen year) that have no credits and are the 6th class to their 5 academic classes. The career development classes are very specialized for each year you are at the university. These extra non-credit required classes teach students how to write a resume, create and utilize a LinkedIn account, interview skills, engage in an elevator pitch etc. These career classes prepared by S16 fully for his search for internships. Worth noting, he never landed an internship quickly. MANY times he applied to 50+ internships and had numerous in person or Skype interviews (second rounds and even third rounds). He persevered and never gave up.
My D19 goes to Bentley too. She is definitely coming home for this first summer and working her high school summer job (restaurant) and she will also be doing the boat detailing business that her brother handed her 2 summers ago. But this will be her last summer here. I know by next summer she will have a fabulous internship lined up for her rising junior year. It’s just what Bentley kids do.
Took a while to get caught up here. Great to see the updates for everyone’s kids. Really helpful to hear about the challenges, though. D19 is in the loving school, but struggling with fit camp.
After a 4-day weekend back in October, I didn’t see her until December 26th. She just did the whirlwind tour of friends for a week, and this week we are in the mountains doing girl stuff. She really misses her core group of girlfriends, all of whom stayed within 2 hrs of home.
@bjscheel LOL, I feel your pain about the tuition payments. Whenever I let myself think about it, boggles my mind. Not sure D19 feels the pain. Graduation $$, summer $$, and low 1st semester book fees encouraged things like eating out and Ubers to local, technically walkable or free public transportation accessible venues. She has started looking for a part-time job.
Landed a summer internship (STEM). The initial app was due in early November and the next two rounds completed by mid-Dec. A second opportunity that was halted once opportunity 1 became final was also STEM, but she’d heard about it from a contact she made while selling Girl Scout cookies at a booth sale last year - a woman wearing a Purdue sweatshirt. At the time, Purdue was D19’s likely. Opportunity 2 would have been local, but a bird in the hand…
She won’t know for a while about next year housing, but is hoping to keep a spot in her “House”. Not guaranteed.
@elena13 Don’t know if D21(?) has any interest in politics, but there might also be some opportunities in that realm worth considering.
@peachActuary73 - Thanks for the update!
Yes, D17 is definitely interested in politics, social justice etc. Her minor is women’s studies. I’m going to message you to get your thoughts. Thx
@SammoJ , I feel your pain. I will be taking S19 to the airport in a couple of hours, and I am not looking forward to it (although it helps that he is!).
S went back to school last Monday for track even though class doesn’t start until the 20th. He’s having a blast with his XC/track friends and had a great race at the first indoor track meet today. Hard to send him back but he was excited to go back and there’'s not much going on back here for him - D21 back to school and most of his high school friends also left early this week! Seven weeks until spring break.
S went back a week ago and started classes Monday. I’m very glad he likes it so much there and seems to have a lot of great friends. However, I’m a little bummed about how busy he will be this semester and I will probably not see him much. They did rush all through the fall so guys could get to know different fraternities. Then pledging started this weekend and will keep him very busy for the next seven weeks. Then they all go on spring break together. So I guess I can’t complain because he’s very happy and having great experiences. I just miss him. Supposedly they have a good amount of “forced” study time with their pledge class - so hopefully grades won’t suffer.
I have DS for 10 more days. I’m trying to savor it. I’m veering between loving the time with him and yearning for that empty house and one fewer person to consult with on food choices. So hard to keep the fridge stocked!
Kiddo is set to do a play at Edinburgh Fringe Festival this summer and work the festival, so that’s August. June and July will just have to figure out themselves. I don’t think he can arrange an internship for that time. If it’s anything like the past month they will be spent in the basement writing.
The apartment search will begin in earnest after he gets back. I’ve been websurfing. I keep getting hung up on the exchange rate. 750, that’s not a bad monthly per person cost? Oh, wait, pounds, that’s really 975 per person and doesn’t include utilities, tax, broadband or TV license.
So it ranges between 800 pounds per person excluding utilities in the center of town/campus, to places costing as little as 350 on the outskirts of town. And I haven’t found anyone who could tell me what utilities, council tax, broadband and TV should usually cost. We did the “what the dorm costs divided by 10” for his budget because we’re assuming that the landlord will probably airBnB any property even vaguely near town during the summer months. They’ve firmed up as a pair looking for housing and will be searching north of the badlands but not in the center.
There is only one fraternity in St. Andrews, that’s the Jewish fraternity. DS says they give the best parties and he’s semi-jokingly considering converting so he can become a member.
Unexpectedly, D19 decided that she wants to spend her winter recess with us. She was planning on either staying in the dorms or spending time with friends in Boston or NYC, but because we didn’t get to spend much time together over winter break she decided to spend the recess with us at our new place. We are VERY happy, of course.
@ninakatarina I’m not sure that you actually have to be Jewish to pledge to AEPi. Of course, if your S pledges, he’ll have a large number of well known frat brothers, including Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Gehry, and Zuckerberg.
S19 is talking about looking for internships but not sure he’s actually done any searching. I don’t think he knows what he wants to do actually.
D16 was a teaching assistant at a summer school as a rising sophomore, then stayed on campus in a summer research program as a rising junior (that was a great program), then did summer independent research (funded by college) as a rising senior. I can’t see S19 inside during the summer. Maybe he’ll get some kind of field research or outdoor job.
@ninakatarina , that’s so great your son’s going to do a play at the Fringe Festival! We’ve been in Edinburgh twice when the Festival was on, and it was lots of fun. Will you be able to go and watch?
My husband seems to think we will be able to afford to go, but he also thinks he’s buying a pop up camper, redoing the downstairs bathroom, tiling the back patio, getting a new stove, refacing the kitchen cabinets and putting a new stair rail up. One or more of those things has got to go.
@ninakatarina keep an eye on flights to see if any specials come up that you can nab. I’m sure you know, but you’ll need to book accommodation well in advance too. Edinburgh is fun at festival time*, but boy is it packed.
actually I think it’s fun at any time but that's another story :)
Speaking of remodeling projects, I’ve mentioned a few times that we have been remodeling our kitchen (knocked out two walls to open up our living room and dining room to the kitchen) for the past year. In fact, we started at the beginning of February last year, which was a little bit of a distraction during all the college admissions stress. Well, it’s 99% finished and we survived both the college stuff and the remodel, barely . Thankfully, my husband was able to do all the work but we did have someone come in to sand and stain the floors. Here’s one view in my profile pic.
@elena13 Nice! We do remodeling ourselves too and “survive” is the key word. Now DH wants to redo the girls’ bathroom. And do it when there’s a period of time neither are going to be home so it’s a surprise.
DD drove back yesterday as she had rehearsals starting, but classes start tomorrow. Break was fun and busy but she was happy to go back. She got some good time in with her boyfriend over the weekend so she was content with that and all set to get back to college friends again.
Audition for Into the Woods on Thursday which she is excited and nervous about. She’ll be happy to get any role/ensemble or backstage involvement as a freshman. She’s more nervous this time because the music professors will be there and she won’t compare to the vocal majors.
My mom’s Christmas is this Saturday so she’ll be back already (do love having her close enough). Worried about Friday’s ice & snow forecast but hopefully it will be clear enough by Saturday mid-day for her and others to travel.
Talked to S19 last night and he still likes his writing class with the infamously brutal professor. Says it is tough because it’s about re-writing and ripping apart their one-page pieces over and over again. But he says it’s very interesting and makes you think much more deeply about words, language and structure. Yeah! Physics 1 and differential equations have gotten not exactly easier but more manageable. He has a study group and a system for learning the material. His days seem packed honestly. Like his older sibs, he has an affinity for volunteering for stuff. He is helping organize a 30-foot tall ice sculpture which involves packing and wetting down snow over the next few weeks. Then he is getting chainsaw certified to help carve it :-0 . There’s 5 other things he’s involved in, but that was the most humorous. The New Hampshire winter is not living up to its reputation unfortunately; unfortunately since he is keen to ski and loves winter. Snow has melted out too much and nordic trails are closed this week. He skied all last week so he’s not completely missing out.
So I guess I can’t complain because he’s very happy and having great experiences. I just miss him. Supposedly they have a good amount of “forced” study time with their pledge class - so hopefully grades won’t suffer.
. Thankfully, my husband was able to do all the work but we did have someone come in to sand and stain the floors. Here’s one view in my profile pic.