<p>Are there “bad” dorms at UA?</p>
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<p>The school offers guidance in this regard, but as you know, it’s not going to knock on your child’s dorm room, force him to put on a suit, and come to the internship job fair. Your son will have to remember the time he needs to get there, be dressed, and go.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that having to do these things on one’s own is what employers want. If students can’t get themselves to these things, then employers don’t want to employ them…because those students won’t be the best employees. A student getting his fanny there is part of the screening process. Those who can’t get their acts together to be there aren’t likely going to be the employees that they’ll want. </p>
<p>Does your son have procrastination tendencies? Does he lose or misplace things? Does he forget to do things (needs reminders)? Does he have any time management and/or executive function issues? Has he been evaluated for one of the ADHD types (perhaps inattentive?) ? </p>
<p>I guess it matters what “students need to make the effort to find those internship and co-ops” means…
I interpret that to mean UA’s job fairs are extremely lacking and it’s “your job” to go find your own internships. The problem with that is many companies hire interns from job fairs esp in the STEM/business fields.@jrcsmom talks about Auburn bringing in hundreds of employers to their job fairs which is what I expect in a reputable university. UA is falling down on the job in regard to this from everything I am hearing. Having to take an extra year to do a Co op is fine if that works for you, but I would prefer my kids to get their intern experiences in the summer months.</p>
<p>Yes, riverbirch, that is exactly how I view it. We recently went to one of our state schools and when asked about internships, the response was the student had to really put in the effort. </p>
<p>Basically, no we don’t help you with internships.</p>
<p>I would expect that from one of our rinky-dink state schools, but I was hoping for better from UA.</p>
<p>I think it will change and am hopeful that they hire a LARGE team of employees to pound company doors to ensure that they are at UA’s growing internship fairs. My son is at Michigan State and he sends me the list of companies that come for the business career fairs. Every major employer seems to be there and I am continually hearing about kids who graduated from our hs and their great internships. It was the main reason we chose it over other schools since internships lead to jobs.<br>
And seriously with the brain factor UA is getting in their engineering department, the expectations for company recruiting should be extremely high. </p>
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Auburn bringing in hundreds of employers
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<p>I doubt Auburn is bringing in many more employers then Bama is. I live here. The companies that recruited Auburn also recruited Alabama. Auburn has one summer internship fair and it’s in January</p>
<p>Just wanted to share for those that might not be aware that the two terms, co-op and internship, are not typically interchangeable. Co-op opportunities are joint ventures between a university and businesses. Coop students are full-time employees and are guaranteed on the job training, part of that agreement. BC the cooping agreements are formal, that is why you will see more employers recruiting for coops.</p>
<p>This link does a pretty good job of explaining the difference. <a href=“Co-Op vs. Internship: What’s the Difference? – Campus To Career”>http://campus-to-career.com/2010/10/05/co-op-vs-internship-what’s-the-difference/</a></p>
<p>Here is a description from VT: <a href=“http://www.career.vt.edu/COOP/FAQ.html#diff”>http://www.career.vt.edu/COOP/FAQ.html#diff</a></p>
<p>Our oldest is a chemE. In his graduating class, 2011 (not from UA), only students who cooped received job offers. So while ds had multiple offers to choose from, he had friends who chose to not coop who didn’t even receive one. </p>
<p>m2ck can you give us a list of companies that are recruiting at UA for engineering and business?
Mom2aphysicsgeek-where did your son attend school?
I guess knowing lots of kids in Michigan’s engineering school it is extremely odd to not have an internship and a good paying job right out of school so this is bit concerning to me.</p>
<p>I can’t speak to all of your concerns because my D is not an engineer. I can tell you that for my D, getting into necessary classes isn’t an issue. She just registered for spring classes today, and she got every class she wanted. She also got the times and professors she preferred (of those being offered). This was her 6th registration, and that has been the case for every semester except her first one (when she didn’t get all of her preferred class times). The Honors College priority registration is a HUGE perk. She has three majors and a minor, and will be able to complete the classwork for all of them with no problem. </p>
<p>As for housing, I don’t think UA has any horrible housing, but some residence halls are nicer than others, and what is desirable can vary by student. Some students want the newer suite style dorms and prefer to have their own rooms. Others prefer the social aspects (or price) of the old-style dorms with communal bathrooms and open doors, or want to be on the south end of campus to be closer to the Greek houses where they eat and spend a lot of time. The best way to insure living where you want with whom you want is to deposit early and get an early housing selection time. If you don’t deposit early, you could still end up in a great housing situation, but you could also end up somewhere that would not be your first (or 2nd, or 3rd . . . ) choice. I told my D that I would put down one deposit prior to her hearing from all of her schools, so she needed to select one school from the 3 that admitted her fairly early senior year at which to deposit. I was willing to risk $250 to make sure she was in a good housing situation, because I thought it could have a big impact on her college experience early on. </p>
<p>My D is 12 hours from home, and it hasn’t been a problem. There is no time that you NEED to go to campus. I went to parent’s weekend freshman year, to the spring A-Day game sophomore year, and to a football game last month. I also went for move-in freshman year. My D has otherwise moved in and out on her own. There are certainly kids who only come home just for winter and spring breaks, when most of the dorms close (I should say leave campus, because many don’t go home for spring break). Fall break is too short for a lot of kids who live far away to go home, and many OOS students stay in Alabama for the Iron Bowl at Thanksgiving, so the campus is not deserted. Before she went to Alabama, my D thought she’d want to come home a couple times a semester. She was wrong; she’s very content to be at school.</p>
<p>Frankly the attitude of ‘Alabama has no problems and if you don’t find opportunities it’s because YOU didn’t go to the job fair, didn’t check emails (etc)’, is INSULTING.</p>
<p>I have posted REPEATEDLY over the last 2 1/2 years that I can’t speak for all majors, but I can speak for my son’s experience in civil.</p>
<p>He attended both the fall and spring job fairs his freshman year and the fall job fair his sophomore year. In the fall semester of his freshman year there were <em>3</em> companies registered to recruit civil students (for both professional positions and internships). One of those never showed up at all, 1 left early and by the time he arrived there was <em>1</em> business recruiting for his major (which has 4 classes of approximately 70-100 students).</p>
<p>When he returned in the spring, he struggled to find any companies to talk to as they either were looking for specialities such as environmental which he had no interest in or were only looking for graduating studentss and weren’t recruting for interns.</p>
<p>THERE IS NO INTERN SPECIFIC JOB FAIR AT UA - the job fairs are primarily for graduating students and some of those companies also have internships available.</p>
<p>He specifically returned his sophomore year to talk to the company that he’d met with freshman year (Burns & McDonnell). They did not return to recruit at UA again that year.</p>
<p>Here is one list of the top 100 civil engineering firms. <a href=“The 2015 Top 500 Design Firms | Engineering News-Record”>http://enr.construction.com/toplists/top-design-firms/001-100.asp</a>, you’ll find that MAYBE 1 or 2 companies from this list recruit at UA and not consistently every year.</p>
<p>I have my son’s email password and as he was adjusting to college I made sure to regularly monitor his account. There frankly aren’t frequent job announcements sent through the department. In his first 2 years of classes, he has received may 5 or 6 anouncements for jobs and <em>NONE</em> for full time summer internships. A few were anouncements for graduating students and a few part time positions on or near campus.</p>
<p>I have posted before links to Purdue which hosts an annual job fair specifically for their civil engineering department (which is not significantly larger than the department at UA) which brings in approximatly 80 employers each year specifically for their civil engineering students. Those are not all local businesses…Purdue makes an effort to bring in businesses and it’s reputation is a draw to employers.</p>
<p>Auburn’s ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) <strong>DOES</strong> host 2 jobs fairs per year specifically for civil students. This is directly from their website (which I have posted here before): “Career Fair Every year, ASCE hosts an annual career fair for graduating seniors and students interested in internships. This year, ASCE is hosting a career fair in both the fall and spring semesters! Companies from all over the southeast come to Auburn to recruit potential employees. The career fair will held at the Hotel and Conference Center in the fall. Check back for updates.” (<a href=“http://www.eng.auburn.edu/organizations/ASCE/careerfair.html”>http://www.eng.auburn.edu/organizations/ASCE/careerfair.html</a>)</p>
<p>I haven’t been able to quickly find a list of employers that attend, but I find it difficult to believe that they’re hosting 2 job fairs annually with only the 3 employers that recruited for civil students at UA in fall 2012.</p>
<p>Before I hear – ‘complaining here won’t do any good, you need to talk to the right people’</p>
<p>My son is a member of Alabama’s ASCE chapter and I told him if he talked to the chapter president and got a room reserved and established a process that from 500 miles away I would contact evey civl engineering company I could locate and sell the stats of the students and invite them to attend. But he didn’t have the time available last spring and then opted to do a co-op sofor our family it’s no longer a priority. But someone DOES need to step at Bama and make this happen. </p>
<p>I agree with jrcsmom’s post above. There are many benefits to UA and my son has thrived academically there, but i too think they are behind many other schools in this area, at least for engineers. </p>
<p>My son also struck out on finding local summer internships on his own (and he worked it pretty hard) and went the co-op route. The co-op office is pretty good; but they were very limited in the jobs available outside Alabama. He ended up with an Alabama coop job which is ok but he would much rather be back in Atlanta. </p>
<p>This is something OOS students should take a hard look at and be aware of if they want to find internships or co-op opportunities in their home city or state. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but especially with no local connections, summer internships/coop positions may not be attainable.</p>
<p>To be clear, if he had to do it all over again he would choose 'Bama for a myriad of reasons. But that doesn’t negate what is stated above.</p>
<p>^^ I have to agree with jrcsmom on this as well, and my child is not an engineering major, but is in the business school. My D has never had any luck at the career fairs. First, they’re from 11 to 4, which tends to be the time when she has class. By the time she has been able to get there, employers have left or the lines are so long she doesn’t get to talk to the company reps. At each career fair she’s gotten to speak with maybe 2 or 3 employers, and not necessarily those she’s interested in (there have never been that many employers in her areas of interest). The career center does hold events where they’ll critique your resume or conduct mock interviews, but my D hasn’t really gotten any leads or contacts with employers in our area (or anywhere, to be honest) through the school. I think in some business fields (like accounting and MIS), it’s much easier, but those aren’t the areas my D is majoring in. Like GAMomto4’s son, my D would definitely choose Bama again in spite of this, and we knew going in that finding a job in Chicago or the midwest would be tougher coming out of UA than it would be coming out of one of the midwest flagships. </p>
<p>I agree that UA needs to get more companies recruiting at its career fair and to encourage those companies to recruit for a variety of positions. I remember walking up to companies I was interested in only to find out that the recruiter was only recruiting for a specific program in the Southeast. Ive also ran into situations where the advice given about career searches was not relevant to certain industries or areas of the country. For example, being told that a business casual dress code means that men need to wear a sport coat to work. I would’ve really liked there to be more presentations on topics such as online applications, benefits negotiation, tax advantages, contracting, non-compete agreements, etc. </p>
<p>What all students need to do is to understand what kinds of skills they should have to be successful for certain types of positions as well as how to find, apply, and interview for such positions. I learned a lot about searching for positions by applying to lots of positions, interviewing, and developing both my technical and interview skills as time goes on.</p>
<p>One thing I should also mention is to consider working in the Southeast or other regional cities early on in your career. Sometimes the compensation packages in such areas can be very attractive compared to those offered in places like NYC, LA, and Chicago. One can always relocate in a couple years when they have more work experience and are thus qualified for a larger number of positions.</p>
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<p>I posted a list awhile ago…I’ll see if I can find it.</p>
<p>No one is saying that there are no problems. Certainly, some areas of E may not have as many opportunities as others. </p>
<p>And, yes…complaining here does no good. When I’ve had an issue, I’ve gone to the Dean or dept heads. I know that complaining to parents does no good. </p>
<p>Even tho I don’t currently have a child in Engineering, I will contact those “in the know” and find out what I can. </p>
<p>"Starting in their Junior year, all AEM (Aerospace Engineering and Materials) majors follow the same menu of core classes, together as a cohort. These classes are taught in only one semester (either Fall or Spring), so yes, if you miss that semester (due to a co-op, e.g.), or fail (horrors!) then you would need to wait that out until the next opportunity. "</p>
<p>@Aeromom This is exactly what I meant by a “different story”. We were told on our tour by one of the professors that they recommend you start a co-op at a particular time, either Spring before your soph year or Fall of Junior year (not a 100% on if that was the right order). They did say it was doable but there were particular classes taught at particular times. </p>
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<p>@laralei </p>
<p>We took a similar approach last year, and while I wouldn’t recommend it for the faint of heart, it worked out beautifully for our son. He ended up in Blount with a bunch of fellow honors engineers (a lot of overflow from that group) and has had a wonderful experience. Plus, it’s cheaper than the suites.</p>
<p>" This is something OOS students should take a hard look at and be aware of if they want to find internships or co-op opportunities in their home city or state. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but especially with no local connections, summer internships/coop positions may not be attainable. "</p>
<p>Actually, I was thinking if he did an internship, hopefully in the summer, it would probably be in AL, and graduating from there, he would more than likely end up working somewhere in the south, at least initially.</p>
<p>It is something I have discussed w/ DS, but it is the apparent lack of UA assistance in obtaining internships that is concerning. I have broutht it to the attention of the recruiter for our area, so waiting to see what she has to say about it. </p>
<p>DORMS: Are all freshman guaranteed dorms on campus? If so, I am thinking we will wait with that. I can’t justify spending money needlessly when it is in short supply. </p>
<p>Yes, @laralei, all freshmen are guaranteed on-campus housing because, unless they’re local, they’re required to live on campus.</p>
<p>@luciethelakie Did your son go in blind and end up with his roommates or did he find them on a facebook group?
Son is going to go the traditional dorm route and I’m thinking he shouldn’t go in blind at UA.</p>
<p>@riverbirch, my son didn’t enroll and pay his housing deposit until mid-April. At that late date, he was advised he’d have a better chance of getting honors housing if he went in “random,” since he didn’t know anyone to “pull him into” a larger group. Like a lot of guys, he had no interest in trying to find roommates on FB. In late June he was assigned to Paty Hall, a traditional all-men’s dorm and pretty much the last place he wanted to live. He was assigned another Honors College student (a business major) as his roommate, but he went ahead and submitted his name via the online room request change selector, choosing “honors” over “suites” and then we waited. </p>
<p>We were prepared that he’d likely start in Paty and, if he wasn’t happy, he’d put in a request for a room change after he got to campus. We read about other students getting reassigned (they likely chose “suites” over “honors”) and checked the system daily and made frequent calls. Finally, in July, my husband reached someone in Housing who told him she could switch our son to Blount Hall (home of the Blount Initiative) and place him with other overflow honors students, but that the honors suites were full. We took the offer, he was assigned to a room with another honors engineer that shared a private bathroom with two other honors engineers, who all seemed like much better matches than the original roomie. </p>
<p>He ended up with three terrific guys, who all get along well, and in a living situation that was much more social than the honors suites, which are really private apartments. I’m sure it doesn’t work out as beautifully in every case as it did for my son, but choosing not to succumb to the pressures to pay deposits we were not ready to make did not hurt him in the end. (He had signed the Common App agreement and was still making a decision about which school he would attend until well into April.)</p>
<p>The other benefit was that Blount is $1,000 a semester cheaper than the suites. Unfortunately, all the official honors housing is in the very expensive suites. Thus, you’ll find honors students all over campus, in every type of dormitory. Some because they need to conserve money, others because they prefer traditional style dorms or were looking for something less isolating or located in more desirable parts of the campus (for whatever reason).</p>
<p>My advice is to use the roommate match service and be very specific about what he’s looking for if he can’t find somebody he really likes to room with.</p>
<p>Hope that helps!</p>