Peter Vogt, an advisor to MonsterTrak, makes a definitive statement that internships are no longer optional but required. Vogt, who authored the book College to Career Roadmap, makes the point that for college students to prepare themselves for the competitive job market they need internship experience. In the New York Times article Who Will You Be This Summer? the internship is defined not as the summer job past generations held to make money but as a résumé building necessity, contact and connection building, and finding out about your future job from the bottom up. But, because the internship is so necessary today, it is more and more competitive. Unless you have family contacts, April 1 is the date by which you should have your summer “employment” lined up.
In the same way that the internship is essential to the job-hunting college student, so too the summer internship is equally important to the high school student competing to get into the better colleges. As College Basics points out, college applicants must set themselves apart, and one of the ways is to take advantage of summer programs. In its article “Summer Programs for High School Students” College Basics outlines that importance specifically. Another resource, FastWeb, can take you through how to find and apply for summer programs, and Career Explorations lists and links you to summer programs.
But, again, April 1 is too late to be planning—plan now!
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NEWS! CollegeBasics now has a new e-book The Basics for Writing College Application Essays: Simple How-to Steps for Writing All College Essays from the Personal Statement to the Short Activity Essay that outlines every aspect of writing the college application essay. This book explains how to write different kinds of application essays from the short activity essay to the personal statement to scholarship essays and more and offers samples of essays and essay edits. This book can really help you.
