<p>Thanks M2CK! We appreciate all of your efforts.</p>
<p>Thank you M2CK for the update. I wish Travis Railsback would have compared the Career Fair numbers of a school like Georgia Tech to the UA numbers. It seems like if you are trying to pull your engineering program up that you should emulate a great program.</p>
<p>I’m not going to go back and reread this entire thread at the moment, so I can’t speak for what anyone else said, but I know what I said and I did not post anything about there being ‘hundreds of employers’ at Auburn’s job fair, what I said is that the Auburn chapter of ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) hosts <em>2</em> annual job fairs specifically for their civil engineering students (which is still a true statement).</p>
<p>To be fair to the career center, those job fairs are not hosted by the career center at Auburn (and thus not included in the statistics above), but are hosted by the majors professional organization.</p>
<p>My son has been a member of Alabama’s chapter of ASCE since his first semester and there is still no equivalent at Alabama.</p>
<p>I don’t know how many employers they bring in because they don’t have a list online, but I can send a quick email and ask. I do know that the ASCE chapter at Purdue brings in <em>60-80</em> employers specifically in the field of civil engineering.</p>
<p>I also know that my son would definitely rate the job fairs as poor, but he’ll probably never be given the chance to do so because after attending 3 consecutive semesters and discovering it’s a waste of his time, I doubt I could convince him to go to another. (And don’t get me wrong, the job fairs are going to work for some majors - perhaps mech-e and computer science students have much better results there, but there are limited opportunities for civ-e students there. The job fairs also have more limited options for students seeking internships and there is no internship specific job fair at Bama (and there is a specific internship job fair at Auburn, but once again I have no idea how many employers attend).</p>
<p>The email above mentioned the co-op office and I have posted repeatedly that the co-op office is <em>AWESOME</em> and I strongly encourage all engineering students to consider doing a co-op. The co-op office brings in a good representation of businesses for all fields of engineering (including civil). My son attended the co-op interview last semester and is currently working a co-op, but not all students/parents want to consider a co-op. </p>
<p>I know that my son attends Bama and has had some great opportunities there, such as with Alabama Action Abroad, but I also know that if there is a weakness I’m not one to overlook it. Perhaps it’s my business experience with the continuous improvement initiative, but perfection doe not exist…no matter how good you are, you can always be better. Identifying a weakness about the school is not the equivalent of ‘talking smack’ about it, but many posters here feel attacked each and every time they say something less than 120% positive - more than a couple have sent me PMs.</p>
<p>I think it’s essential for students and parents to understand any situation in full to make the best decision for them. I have never said that students who attend Alabama can’t get an internship (although that almost verbatim what we were told by a prof in the civ-e department during our initial visit), what I have said repeatedly is if you want to find an internship, expect to do a lot of leg work on your own. I did so and my son had an internship…after his freshman year. But students/parents expecting to have a lot of assistance from the school and wind up disappointed are going to wind up with a much more negative impression than those that are aware they need to invest a significant effort.</p>
<p>And some majors may have better luck with the job fairs at the career center, but as far as I’m aware none of the engineering departments at Bama holds its own specific job fair. And some majors may get better communication from their department about opportunities. But I think it’s important for students considering a field such as civil to know there are limited opportunities that are going to be available to them and they may need to consider a co-op or REU or other option to gain experience, so they can determine if this is the best fit for them.</p>
<p>@jrcsmom </p>
<br>
<br>
<p>This is what you posted:</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>So, yes, you did post about there being hundreds of employers others’ job fairs, “including Auburn.”</p>
<p>I copy/pasted your entire post into my email to Travis so that he could see exactly what the posted complaint was so that he could properly address any legitimate concerns. I didn’t cut & paste so that nothing would be taken out of context.</p>
<p>He does want UA to provide an excellent job fair experience, so he does want to know if UA is doing something wrong or inadequate. </p>
<p>Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!</p>
<p>Many schools have it where internships and other experiences - if you can find on your own, can be a big help. </p>
<p>Some parents do have unrealistic expectations - one person may say ‘awesome’ because it worked perfectly for their s/d. </p>
<p>Some find that based on their experiences with other colleges/universities - their students and they can find the strengths and programs that fit their particular student’s situation.</p>
<p>I believe many freshmen and sophomore students may have more challenges finding experiences in their field (be it internship, co-op, summer work, etc). Sounds like the go-getters (and some with the help of networking with family/friends) are having success. We did with our DD who worked 7 weeks last summer in a civil eng intern slot; DD is studying civil eng (she actually is going to specialize within civil eng with the design program at UA).</p>
<p>A freshman/sophomore student at UA who comes in with a lot of dual enrolled or AP hours may be ready sooner for opportunities too.</p>