Q TIPS:
Quick and Quintessential Career & Job Tips
Job-hunting tips from the August 15, 2005 issue of
QuintZine.
A growing breed of undergraduates on college campuses is the independent or "nontraditional" student, reports
Boston.com.
Public and private universities, many of which did little for these students in the past,
are scrambling to accommodate them because their numbers have become far too large to ignore. Broadly
defined as financially independent, working adults, nontraditional students age 25 and up now make up
38 percent of postsecondary enrollment, compared with 28 percent in 1970, according to US Department
of Education estimates. On many campuses, they have become the majority. Only about a quarter of the
nation's 14.9 million undergraduates fit the "traditional" mold of enrolling right out of high
school, attending full time, and relying on their parents' purse strings.
Lack of high-school standardization, grade inflation and the new "teaching from
the test" teacher mentality brought on by education reform incentive programs is causing
a "dumbing down" of higher education, according to college professors who teach entry-level general-education
courses. This is particularly true among those who teach science, math and writing classes.
Are high school graduation requirements and college board scores enough to ensure college
readiness among high school graduates?
According to a recent survey by CollegeGrad.com, 87 percent of college
students or recent grads would be willing to accept an internship at lower pay than other
jobs in order to gain resume experience.
With the increasingly competitive job market, students are searching for every edge to land
that first job. Internship experience can provide that edge. "Students should think of internships
as an investment in their career future," said Brian Krueger, president of CollegeGrad.com. "Not only can
internships provide students with recognized work experience in their field, but a successful internship
can be the ticket to locking down a job offer early in the final year of college."
The results of this survey show that entry-level job-seekers are willing to make that investment.
Students may find it unnerving to put financial ease on hold. But successfully completing internships
while working hard to make ends meet (picking up a second job if needed) can pay large dividends in
the future.
Many employers are looking for some type of real-world experience among their college recruits.
"Internships can be the single best differentiator in achieving job-search success," Krueger says.
"If you were a good employee, the opportunity often exists to work for
the company you interned with."
A growing breed of undergraduates on college campuses is the independent or "nontraditional" student, reports
Boston.com.
