"Why Grinnell," a continuation

The most important factor to getting a job out of college in places like NYC finance, or similar, is getting summer internships. All the first round interviews are on the phone, and they will reimburse students for travel costs if they make it to final rounds. While Eastern schools have an edge with great internship support and ivies have employment fairs that include internship opportunities, it is very possible to get an internship on your own with a little research. My sister, who graduated high school in 2011 and college in 2015 went to a women’s college that was a feeder for a lot of PhD programs and had a career office that focused on that… but, she - without connections - was able to get an internship in NYC every summer from freshman year on and explore several fields while doing so. She also had friends that went to many of the schools listed here, as well as many that went to ivies… it didn’t matter which school her friends went to… it mattered having internship experience… those that had numerous got better jobs coming out of school than those that didn’t, pure and simple. She majored in psychology and linguistics and works in a top firm in the financial industry in NYC now, she has a friend that went to ivies that didn’t do as many internships, who took economics, who now is a recruiter. No school hands you internships or jobs… the students have to do the footwork to get them regardless. If you go to an excellent school, get good grades while you are there, and get internships, you will find a job.

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The term “job placement” is misleading… no school places you in jobs, students need to seek out internships and do footwork wherever they go to school.

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You don’t need school connections to get summer internships, which is what he’d need. He’ll need to look up the internships for the firms he is interested in, and apply… a school neatly having all of those links on a job board for you is only minimally helpful. Then, he’d need to prep for the first round interviews - on the phone - and do well; there are typically 3 rounds of interviews. There are ways to spin everything in an interview… the fact that he might be the only Grinnell candidate applying in a pool of students from schools where there are hundreds of similar applicants could be an edge. A school should be a good fit for him now, a place where he will be happy and thrive academically. If he does well at school and knows how to use google to search, he can find an internship, and later a job.

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Entry-level Analyst and consulting roles do not require an MBA or years of experience… they hire from the pool of students who were motivated enough to research and get summer internships. And, MBA programs like for students to get some work experience before coming… so, I am confused by this thread.

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It’s early April and my first born still hasn’t 100% decided on where he is going to attend college in the fall. It looks like it will be Grinnell. The process for the past year has been a great learning experience for me and my kid. Background- we moved to a new city/school before his junior year (just as we were starting to look at colleges). As a result, this bright, driven student had to start over and had to prove to the students and teachers that he belonged in their AP/dual credit courses as a junior. Some things were really difficult and I think anyone in HS guidance counseling should take a hard look at the struggle of the new kid and also put it side by side with depression anxiety of their student body. I think there is an opportunity to help a lot of kids, but I digress.

No big breakdowns for this kid, the stress of new school with highly competitive kids just made him work harder and taught him that knowing the culture of a school is just as important for some things as intellect.

This is my first post- ugh- I was trying to finish through edit and ran out of time.

Continue…
To start out we looked at two fantastic state schools with honors, big research and better weather. We looked at two mid-sized Jesuit schools with medical schools (he’s interested in premed and has attended catholic school his entire life), D1 athletics, research for selected first years, and are both in larger cities. We looked at a small private school that wasn’t Jesuit nor with selective admissions or medical school. And then we looked at Grinnell.

I’ve read all the articles that where you go to undergrad (esp. for non business majors) does not correlate with success. Grinnell was going to be the most expensive choice after merit aid, no need based available for our family. The state universities were very generous and the private schools were a little less expensive. My son was really taken with the fact that this was a selective school, but one that wasn’t a big reach for him to attend.

So- why Grinnell after all of this background information? My son, for the first time, will be missing a faith component woven in as part of his education. I noticed it right away when at admitted students day faith wasn’t mentioned when the administrators talked about the parts of developing a full person.

The people we met when we visited twice day May have been a little quirky, but that wasn’t what anyone led with. It was diverse in many different ways, but each student knew that they had some success in high school and that is why they were here and that is what they have in common. For my son, ‘you like robotics? We have the maker lab. You play a sport? You should try out for the team. You like board games? Oh yes, that’s totally cool here. You want to major in a foreign language too, a lot of people do that.’ When we were at the other schools there was a vibe (at every single one), that if you think you are premed, you probably aren’t because we weed out 50% of those. At Grinnell, they already know that they have admitted kids who have the grit to do what they want to do, and now, no matter where you come from or what thing you bring to college that you think makes you different, it’s all good here. So go to Mass if that’s your thing, wear the clothes that make you happy, study things that make you think about something you have never considered before. So when my conservative friend’s say - your son is going to Grinnell? It’s pretty liberal. I say, absolutely and he is going to love it.

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parentingfullhouse Thanks!

@parentingfullhouse, please share your thoughts as your son’s journey begins. Grinnell is on my daughter’s short list, and we’d love to hear how it goes!

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So far, so good. New Student Orientation is broken up in a couple of categories. International students, fall athletes, and leadership groups arrive a week before everyone else. My student arrived on the regular New Student Orientation and move in day. Parents can stay an extra day for a president’s reception and some group discussions. I really enjoyed the Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll talk from the office of student affairs (I think that was the dept). It was a bit of a preview of what they were going to talk about with the students as well. The students all took an online “class” this summer about topics like alcohol, consent and drugs. I had read on a forums page that there is a significant drug presence at Grinnell. This parent presentation was very informative and eased my concerns. First, in the anonymous survey that went along with the online class, only 12% of students had said that they had used marijuana in the past month. Then, the deans went on to talk about what they talk about in the student’s version of Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll. The students who were accepted this year are some of the brightest accepted, the top of their HS classes, the hard use of drugs and alcohol would make success more difficult.

My student’s roommate is an international student. I was able to meet some of the friends that he has met so far. Lot’s of diverse experiences and interests. The class size is just over 450 people. I have no reservations about Grinnell at all and I can’t wait to hear about the critical thinking that such a school with inspire in my student. The students do not get their class schedules until they arrive on campus. My son got exactly the classes he wanted, as did all but one of his new friends.

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