Are Internship Opportunities Drying Up for College Students?

[Anonymous]

It's very tough. Last year kid didn't get one. Our area (DC) was hit hard by DOGE, so was hearing even kids who got one had them canceled. Kid wasn't having very good luck this year, then got one through a family connection. It's tough out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My advice is to steer clear of liberal arts majors unless heading into law school or med school or PhD programs. You have to have pragmatic skills to be useful in today’s workforce. The jobs that aren’t going away anytime soon are the client facing roles - sales engineering, territory managers, med device sales, consulting, account management. But to land these roles you also need strong analytical skills, data analysis, etc. The back office support roles (comms, mrktg, finance, hr, purchasing, ops) are being heavily supported or advanced now due to ai enhancements. We still need some entry level roles but not nearly as many.

It’s exactly the opposite with AI^^

My kid is at an Ivy (non-Stem/non-business) and has had a successful internship (one last summer and Fall semester) and one lined up for the summer.

Those connections help. The profs in my kid’s small department love him so they coach him to apply to a lot of those opportunities. It’s where the Ivy pays off.

[Anonymous]

Yes, senior DD at Pomona is taking a gap year because no internships and no grad school in science.

[Anonymous]

My DD with a great resume hasn’t been getting shit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:the big consulting firms (think MBB and "big 4") are hiring about 1/4 of what they hired 2 years ago, and that trend is not likely to change any time soon.

And that may be because they produced slick synthesis instead of value-added original work. I'm currently on the client-side (manufacturing industry). It costs a fortune to generate the primary data these firms get paid to synthesize. Now it is easier to DIY analyze (either inside the client or as a consultant). That doesn't even mean the analysis is good. It just looks fancier. Both on the client side and the consulting side.

I don't believe AI is reducing the need for entry-level workers uniformly. It might, however, be good at creating metaphorical snake oil bottles.

There is also likely a contagion effect. Employers hear that other firms expect to need fewer workers due to AI and they are afraid to be the dumb ones who hire.

Meanwhile, there is not a lot of evidence of cash-providing productivity savings.

https://www.wheresyoured.at/

.

[Anonymous]

DS is a humanities senior at a t15 and has had more trouble landing legal/policy/politics internships more recently than he did as a freshman.

The winds have definitely changed. Especially in DC

[Anonymous]

I think most kids are getting internships through personal connections. Instead of blindly applying on LinkedIn, successful students are finding companies that interest them, figuring out who they know there, and asking for a warm hand-off.

[Anonymous]

Top colleges will start to matter more and more.

DC is at an ivy and there seem to be plenty of summer internships lined up already, many competitive options have not announced offers yet. From engineers to english majors, the paid positions are there. Not a single one is through family connections but the majority were found via faculty or career center connections. Faculty want to help but the students have to do the prep and be on top of it.

In our area, students from the more elite schools are getting paid summer options, regardless of major. Not sure if it is the culture of students at the elite obsessed with investigating many options early in junior year and other schools do not have that culture or what. Furthermore, the elite kids were much more likely to have career-building internships/research after sophomore year and some after freshman year. Resumes build upon themselves: the early birds win.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, senior DD at Pomona is taking a gap year because no internships and no grad school in science.

Are you seriously the parent of a senior applying to grad school? That makes no sense.
PhD is hard certainly in some areas especially if they have no research, 5-20% acceptance depending on program, and more competitive this year.
But what about masters? Some decent ones still have apps open!
There are so many Top-50 masters programs in the sciences that have 30%-50% acceptance rate. Surely from Pomona with a good GPA could get into a T50 masters in a science discipline. Most have not announced acceptances yet! Or did she only apply to the very top masters with funding (often below 20% acceptance) of which many are out (MIT, ivies, etc are wrapping up admissions soon).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My advice is to steer clear of liberal arts majors unless heading into law school or med school or PhD programs. You have to have pragmatic skills to be useful in today’s workforce. The jobs that aren’t going away anytime soon are the client facing roles - sales engineering, territory managers, med device sales, consulting, account management. But to land these roles you also need strong analytical skills, data analysis, etc. The back office support roles (comms, mrktg, finance, hr, purchasing, ops) are being heavily supported or advanced now due to ai enhancements. We still need some entry level roles but not nearly as many.

It’s exactly the opposite with AI^^

My kid is at an Ivy (non-Stem/non-business) and has had a successful internship (one last summer and Fall semester) and one lined up for the summer.

Those connections help. The profs in my kid’s small department love him so they coach him to apply to a lot of those opportunities. It’s where the Ivy pays off. [/quote]

This, and other similar elite non-ivies.

[Anonymous]

Getting into the top schools is going to matter more and more. Japan has seen this pressure develop over the last few decades. Recruitment for internships and 1st jobs is getting far more competitive.

[Anonymous]

To everyone who claims that attending an Ivy League or top school matters more than ever: within those institutions, the so-called networks or secret societies aren’t merit-based—they’re filtered and exclusionary. Are we really telling kids to grind through high school just to get into elite colleges so they can socialize and beg for jobs through networking rather than earn them on merit? No wonder no one cares about classes anymore; students are too busy chasing internships and job leads. And honestly, how do you convince kids that college is about learning, innovation, and helping humanity? That narrative sounds like total BS.

[Anonymous]

My kid is at VT and has had 3 offers for this summer. No connections, just applied. Her good friend already has one lined up for the summer as well. they are out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To everyone who claims that attending an Ivy League or top school matters more than ever: within those institutions, the so-called networks or secret societies aren’t merit-based—they’re filtered and exclusionary. Are we really telling kids to grind through high school just to get into elite colleges so they can socialize and beg for jobs through networking rather than earn them on merit? No wonder no one cares about classes anymore; students are too busy chasing internships and job leads. And honestly, how do you convince kids that college is about learning, innovation, and helping humanity? That narrative sounds like total BS.

That is not how the ivy helps. I have two at different ones, no hooks. The professors help connect every student. Certain companies preferentially recruit at ivies and a few other top schools. There are many opportunities for funded research or other programs that help their resumes build fast so that they can compete for summer internships as sophomores. They do not need to be in certain cubs and definitely no secret societies needed to get the advantages of an ivy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think most kids are getting internships through personal connections. Instead of blindly applying on LinkedIn, successful students are finding companies that interest them, figuring out who they know there, and asking for a warm hand-off.

Just wanted to report that my DS just landed an internship and I think the personal connection definitely helped. He reached out to an alum via LinkedIn at a company where he wanted to work. The alum happened to be very high up in the company and agreed to a "coffee chat." The alum must have liked DS because after talking the company and careers, the conversation switched to campus bars, and sports. The alum passed his name to the head of recruiting who then passed him onto a hiring manager which led to the offer.