March 29th 2025
A bit of advice for seniors as they make decisions, and also for juniors as they attend college fairs.
Speaking to my senior in chemical engineering last night she shared how she's mentoring younger students. I asked her what advice she would give to those seeking internships and connections in college.
She said it's really brutal right now for internships with all the federal funding cuts & many of her peers are very stressed out and don't yet have a summer opportunity.
Here was her advice:
1. Write that email and attach your resume. Highlight skills and adaptability. Make sure you point out that you can water plants as well as create solutions in a lab & that you are prepared and know how to do high-level research.
2. Follow up with a phone call as loads of students are deeply uncomfortable making phone calls. Show you are a communicator.
3. Show up to office hours and other opportunities to meet with professors. Frequently. This needs to be as important as attending class. Every week.
4. Find mentors on campus whether they are professors, academic advisors, or juniors and seniors who are successfully navigating this process. Seek mentorship out of the gate in college.
5. Create a LinkedIn profile this spring. Keep it up to date and use it to reach out.
For SENIORS making decisions this spring: where will you have the most access to professors? They may not be able to provide you an internship if their funding dries up, but they may write you a letter of recommendation that gets you the job you want in another lab or location. You need to get to know them right away because ideally you will be hunting your first internship on winter break. Do not wait until spring break.
And parents, there's often a case for showing up to campus a few days early to get a job and to get settled in and to meet people. It feels like there's less room for students to have a rocky start.
We paid $500 to let the above '21 pandemic student start early in an adventure program. It was worth every penny. She met professors, had a job making ranch dressing for 5,000 at 5:00 a.m., and met a friend who remains a close friend to this day. (She lasted 2 months making ranch dressing before she got a job in a chemistry stockroom. Today she is TA-ing undergrad chem labs.)
And just because your student can skip classes due to those dual enrollment classes in high school doesn't mean they should. Coming out of the GPA gate strong at college can be a game changer especially for differentiating yourself in the job market. It also creates more bandwidth to take time for activities, internships, & clubs.
Clubs: A Fortune 100 internship that our student held one summer was solely due to a very niche extracurricular activity. It had nothing to do with her GPA, research, the honors college, or anything else. It was solely related to an activity that the CEO of the company also engages with. HR told her that activity was the reason they called. Leave time for your student to do the thing they love & encourage them to go deeper with it.
But if you do have all those extra HS college credits, or you're at a college that doesn't charge more for taking more classes, consider adding a minor.
Last bit of advice for seniors: Call the alumni office and ask to be connected with a couple of alumni for your chosen major. See who reaches out. Pandemic HS grads had to be creative about figuring out their right college.
Now more than ever, think outside the box. Leverage your personal skill set.
For JUNIORS attending college fairs: ask the college rep to connect you with a professor or senior for the program you are interested in at x college. See which schools follow through.
And please do career research while in high school. Have a sense of what you want to do with your life, at least a little. Changing your major is fine. What I'm speaking to is procrastination in high school that keeps you from any career research. Making a decision in spring of senior year is hard enough without adding on the complexity of not knowing what you want to study or possibly do with your life. All of that can and probably will change, but some reflection now might save some readjustment later.