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My experience as a relatively recent college student who did few internships during college looking for work in the recession has profoundly changed the way that I look at education in America.

I attended an Ivy League college on the East Coast and graduated sum cumma laude; as you can guess, that meant I had to spend a lot of time studying. In the summers, I took classes in the difficult Asian language I was studying. Once I was out on the job market, I found that my high GPA really made no difference. It would be easy for me to get in a graduate school of my choice at this point, but unfortunately that's not what I want.

Being turned down for so many jobs--in fact, not even getting a response from most of them--made me rethink the way I did college. My school was very expensive; I now think it would have been smarter to attend a cheaper, less academically challenging state school. I could have still succeeded in my classes *and* devoted time to internships that would have given me the connections and experience to find a job more quickly.

How did I eventually find a job? I lived with my parents and interned for free at a non-profit.

posted 3 years ago
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