With the holiday season kicking off it's also time for quite a few students to start getting ready to go to college, much like in August.

[More]

I am fortunate enough to coach on a high school sports team that routinely attracts the foreign exchange students. This year we have five on the team, representing Germany, Sweden, Mexico, Czech Republic and Italy. It is absolutely fascinating talking to these students to not only get their perspective on American culture, but to also hear how they begin to change their opinion of their home country.

[More]

This can also be found in our Resource Center (check it out!) and was originally found on ehow.com. It's got some good ideas for making the most of your college years!

[More]

One of the beauties of going to college is you get to (have to?) study some often times obscure subjects. And while you may often say "why on earth would I need to know THAT?", it does make a great conversation piece. Personally, I took an entire course on King Arthur and the stories about him. Have I ever used it? No, but it was interesting and every once in a while I can pull out some crazy facts to, uh, impress (that's a good word for it, right?) people.

[More]

I read this article today and have to share it. If you've read this blog before you'll know I'm a big advocate of getting involved in something when you're on campus, and this just goes to prove that there truly, truly is something for everyone out there.

[More]

We want to hear!
Are you just starting to look? Have you been looking for a long time? Are you just starting college? How many schools did you visit? What did you like or dislike about your visits? What did the schools send you and what did you like or dislike about that? Did you like your admissions counselor? So many questions....

[More]

For students who are, and who are about to be college students: this blog is for you. You are one of the most marketed-to generations (closely followed, I believe or maybe even tied with, your baby-boomer age parents). This actually means very, very good things for you.

[More]

Erin in our office came across this article on Monday, and I had to pass it along: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32265981/ns/us_news-weird_news/

It's about a recent graduate (April '09) who hasn't yet found work in her field and is suing the school for $70,000 because she claims the career services office "hasn't tried hard enough to get her a job".

Now, I've worked in a college that had a very good career services office, and I heard this complaint all the time. But, when I would ask if the students A) went into the office to see what resources were available and B) followed up on their info they submitted to the career services office or C) returned any phone calls/emails from the career services office the answer was usually "no". I wonder how much of this happened here?

Usually when I write I take the side of the student... if you read this blog regularly you'll be familiar with that. But this time, I just can't. Being familiar with the verbiage used in advertising for career placement I know that they do not *promise* a job upon graduation. Sure having a degree makes you "more employable" but no one can guarantee that you'll land your dream job right out of college. (From my experience you probably won't.) The words used on the Monroe College website for Career Advancement are "The Office of Career Advancement helps with career assessment, resume writing, job search and strategy, employer recruitment and placement, interviewing skills, and other job search guidance." (Note: doesn't say "We'll find you a job!)

It reminds me of when I started working in admissions I took a telephone call from a student (or someone setup to pretend they were) calling to ask about what kinds of salaries we could promise you'd get if you got a degree from our college. I told him that we couldn't promise what kind of salaries employers of our alumni paid as every company has a different pay sale, but I would be happy to direct him to the Bureau of Labor Statistics to see what some general ranges were for various fields. No no, he didn't want that, he wanted me to tell him exactly what he would expect to make after attending our college. (After this insistence I wondered what on earth was going on... this couldn't be a potential student!)

Either way... most schools offer career placement ASSISTANCE. This doesn't mean they find a job for you and call you to tell you when you start. They can help provide some opportunities if they are available (they can't make job openings appear where they aren't...)But you still need to present a good resume, attend the interview (imagine that!), do a good interview, and all the other proper steps included in finding a job. And the career services office is typically one that you need to also reach out to them: they don't know that you need help with your interviewing skills until you tell them that. And if you never return their attempts at contacting you... well... not much to say about that.

Despite being clear about the services provided in Career Services (or whatever each school calls it) my experience says a lot of students don't really know what to expect from them, or how to use them properly.

Moral of the story: head down to your Career Placement/Services/Assistance office and get to know them. They'll be happy to see you, and it will pay off for you in the long run! (Do this even if you're just a freshman- they can help with part time work too, and it's never bad to have a polished up resume sitting around!)

I heard this quite a bit when I would hand out schedules to students at orientation: "WHY do I have to take College Success?" (College Success was what the school I was at called the freshman class everyone had to take.) It became the class that everyone loved to hate.

[More]