Despite bleak job market, Bulldogs applications down
In a year in which the economic recession has made finding summer jobs more difficult than usual, Yale’s Bulldogs Across America internship program is nonetheless struggling to fill positions.
The number of applications to Bulldogs Across America positions so far is lower than the total at a comparable point last year, Undergraduate Career Services Director Phil Jones said Friday, although he declined to give exact figures. Nearly half the jobs available through the program remain unfilled, he said, even though the selection process is usually “winding down” by early...
“I didn’t find appealing, paid internships in a location where I would have wanted to spend the summer.”
Hmm, many of the most appealing internships outside of Wall Street are unpaid (e.g., White House, D.C. think tanks, some journalism internships). I can see why someone would absolutely want to be in New York or D.C. for the summer, but it doesn't seem wise at all to only consider paid positions.
No, it makes pretty good sense -- we don't all have families wealthy enough to foot the bill for a summer of fun in NYC, and many of us need to make money this summer so we can pay tuition.
Most of the Bulldog programs that were relevant/in cool cities were still competitive. It's the ones in fields Yalies don't really enter that are struggling to attract students to, say, Cleveland for ten weeks.
The Bulldogs Across America programs ARE paid. Housing is free, plus $3000 stipend.
I wonder if the fall in applications is because the economic crisis has deterred people from their idealist hopes of working for a non-profit after graduation. If this is the case, people might be looking for jobs and internships that will lead them towards better paying careers or better grad school opportunities, and since lot of Bulldogs internships are with non-profit organizations, people aren't as interested in the experience they have to offer.
As someone who has done a Bulldogs program, I would strongly encourage people not to choose summer work based solely on location. I was slightly apprehensive about being in Louisville, KY (which I didn't picture as the most stimulating place) for the summer, but since all the Bulldogs interns live together and do activities together, it ended up being a lot of fun and I met some really great people. I learned a lot from my job, but I also learned a lot in general about the kinds of problems faced in parts of the country that are more removed from the big economic and cultural centers on the coasts. From that, I came to see that in many ways it's selfish to want to spend the summer in the place where you think you'll have the most fun rather than in the places where your work will do the most good.
A big part of why this program exists in the cities it does is because these cities want to show talented people that the world, in fact, does not revolve around New York.
It's really a shame that more Yale students aren't willing to try out a city a little bit out of their comfort zone.
Maybe that's bc the positions available aren't all that great. Quality was better in past years.