Career questions tagged undergraduate
Do I have a chance in college?
I been asking a lot about college applications and I'm still not sure if I want to reveal my real life story or choose something safe - yet unique to stand out. My unweighted GPA is a 3.3 while my weighted is a 3.7. I haven't done any extracurricular until my junior and senior year due to unfortunate events that happened in my past. But now that I am a senior, I been trying to force myself to grow. I'm currently a student ambassador at one of my schools, and I plan to join Deca.. and I gotten an internship for the same school I'm an ambassador for. Compared to other kids my age - my life feels so.. bleh. I just now started a Youtube channel to add as something I've done. But I'm worried I won't stand out at all. I need someone to be blunt with me, do I stand a chance in college?
How to get a finance internship as a basic undergrad student?
I am an international student doing my bachelors in finance. I learn a lot of new concepts at uni but I am really unsure of how to use them in real life. I want to get my hands dirty with numbers and actually put the concepts to use but getting an internship seems to be really hard. I am fine with doing projects relating to my field of study. Please do share your ideas on how to break into the corporate world as a fresh undergrad and gain as much experience as possible.
How do I choose a college to transfer to after community college?
I am currently a biology major and I plan to work in the research and sustainably field. There's so many options its overwhelming.
How do you become a community college professor?
I've heard that becoming a community college professor is a different process than being a professor at a university, especially a research university. What are things I should do now as an undergrad student to prepare?
Could you make comments and suggestions on my college essay please ?
Hello! I am a high school student from Macau. I will be studying aboard in the US in the fall of 2025 as an international student, and it is quite a challenge for a non-native writer and speaker to write a US college essay. Could you make some comments and suggestions on my college essay please? I know the word limit for the Common App essay is 650, and my essay exceed that, and I will shorten that later, but please let me know what do you think about this essay in general. Thank you very much🙏!! =================Start-of-the-essay================= In March 2023, I watched the re-screening of “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and fell in love with its multiverse setting. One scene, in particular, deeply resonates with me. The scene portrays how a single decision can drastically change the course of one’s life. In this scene, the main character, Evelyn, finds that if she hadn't eloped with Waymond, her future husband, she would have become a famous martial arts actress. Instead, in reality, she ends up running a struggling laundromat. One of my pivotal decisions happened five years ago. It was the summer of 2019, just after I graduated from primary school. It was about a passion that had been with me since childhood. Since I was a kid, I knew I really enjoyed building and inventing things. I spent most of my childhood playing with the tools and parts in my father's construction workshop. Once, because I didn't want to water the plants on the balcony individually, I built an automatic sprayer for plants by cutting a PVC pipe and drilling holes at intervals to water six plants all at once. During primary school, I joined the school’s handmade workshop to continue pursuing my love of creating and inventing. However, I realized I wanted more than just following the instructions of a robot kit manual; I want to create, not just assemble. Therefore, during the summer after I graduated from primary school, I started experimenting and engaging with Arduino, a microcontroller. My first Arduino project was an LCD timer with a buzzer and a force sensor on the seat that reminds me to stand up if I’ve been sitting too long. While working on this project, I experienced a deep and fulfilling enthusiasm that was entirely new to me, and I knew I had truly fallen in love with this feeling. Afterward, I decided to take it a step further. I planned to add a Bluetooth feature and create a mobile app to remind me to stand up through notifications. After some research, I designed the UI for my mobile app using MIT App Inventor. However, I faced a bottleneck while struggling to establish Bluetooth communication between the Arduino UNO and my mobile app. (I had no idea why the Arduino received a number when the mobile app sent a character). Despite my best efforts—spending days debugging, googling, and trying to solve the issue—I couldn't figure it out. My 12-year-old self realized that he could either continue debugging on his own, devoting more time and effort to solving the problem, or seize the opportunity to reach out to the high school teachers and upperclassmen, ask for help, and hopefully make connections with them. I had a lot of concerns. I feared being rejected or not taken seriously. It was such a struggle to take that first step in an unfamiliar environment. After much internal struggle, I gathered my courage and took my Arduino kit (which I bought from Taobao) with me, as the evening settled in, I found myself standing at the entrance of the high school workshop, in front of a sturdy metal door with a small side window. I took a glance through the small side window and saw some senior students working on their projects, some chatting in groups. Doubt filled my mind, I paced back and forth with trembling hands and felt even more like an outsider (though I was, literally). Then, at that moment, I knew that this was a chance I couldn't afford to miss. I gripped my Arduino kit even tighter, and pushed the door open. That evening marks the start of a six-year journey that ignites my passion for electromechanical engineering, physics, math, and science overall. It was then that I met two mentors for engineering: Mr. Lei and Mr. Wong. Mr. Lei guided me through countless engineering challenges. He taught me the fundamentals of programming (namely Processing, Python and C++), mechanical design (Fusion 360 CAD design), and Arduino development. Through the projects he guided me on, he showed me that true innovation requires research, planning, execution, analysis, and, more importantly, the ability to embrace failure. The courage I had to enter that door on that day changed the course of my life, and I recognized it as a power—the power of “jumping out of my comfort zone.” Since then, I have kept the courage from that day as a memento, and it has quietly guided me through the decisive moments in life, whether it was building a website portfolio from scratch, asking for an interview at a PC repair company even though I didn’t know how to fix a computer, deciding to study abroad or delivering a presentation in an essay competition. I remind myself of the power of stepping out of my comfort zone every time I need to make a challenging decision in life, trusting that my future self will appreciate the decision, even if it doesn’t turn out perfectly. Just like the story of Evelyn; in the end, even though she knows that eloping with Waymond means doing laundry and taxes every day, she still finds beauty in that life. =================End-of-the-essay=================
What do I do if I can't pick a college major?
I have many subjects/fields I am interested in and I can't narrow it down. What if I did an interdisciplinary/design-your-own major? Will that look okay to employers?
Best college program as a double-major undergrad transfer student?
I’m currently a third-year undergrad student, double majoring in Criminology & Film. I currently have 90 out of 120 credits to graduate at my current university but I have to withdraw and find a new school for personal reasons. I'm currently double-majoring in both Criminology and Film. My criminology degree falls under my university's “Justice & Law” degree, criminology being one of the concentrations (“International Terrorism” & “Legal Studies” being the other two). My film major falls under their School of Communication, as a degree in “Film & Media studies”. I was wondering if someone out there could help me find a school with classes most similar to what I’ve been studying already. I'm looking for a school that offers a Bachelor's in both Criminology & Film or something similar. I feel very overhwled! The best case scenario would be to find a school that will let me retake the least amount of courses/credits in order to graduate, since most transfer students are required to take extra courses that extend their graduation date. Any help is appreciated!
Older student career questions
Hi, I'm a 37-year-old undergraduate graduating next spring, and I'm uncertain about my career trajectory. I got into EE for power systems but developed an interest in analog IC design after taking one class last year. I've had two internships in power systems so far, one of which just offered me an excellent job offer with excellent pay for my medium-COL city. I'm very excited, the company is great, my coworkers are friendly, and the work-life balance is pretty good with 2 days WFH but occasional >40hr weeks. The only problem is that it's a little boring, with lots and lots of copy and paste from Excel. So I'm torn - I wanted to get an MS and go into analog ICs, but I feel like I'd be an idiot to renege on this offer. I mention my age because I need to get my life on track ASAP - I've been a waiter my entire life, and I have zero retirement or assets. I want to start saving for retirement and buy a house, so I don't know if spending another 2 years in school even makes sense at this point. So if you were in my shoes, what would you be thinking? I'm leaning towards the tough but realistic decision of giving up the dream of analog and just getting into power for the immediate good job and start catching up to my peers on retirement and home ownership. I don't even know if analog is right for me anyway, since I've only taken one class so far (I'm taking 3-4 more this year). The question is pressing because a friend just reached out to me to try to recruit me as an intern into his company that does analog IC design for defense, and I only have a few days before that window closes.
How can I schedule my classes to make this work?
I am Class of 2028 and I want to join AFROTC while also balancing pre-med, is there anyone with a similar experience?
What should we look for in a college as a History major?
Hi, I’m trying to help my son figure out his path to and through college. He is a history buff and his goal is to get a PhD Or doctorate in history. During our research we found a lot of Grad programs and I’m wondering if there are any specific programs or courses we should look into for undergrad to start the way. Any feedback would be appreciate! Thank you!!
How do I pursue internships while attending college?
I am planning on being a STEM major in college and want to ensure that I get real-life experience in my field while still attending college. How do I achieve this?
What are some of the academic resources available to international students, in order to succeed at college? How can pursuing A.I. as a minor at undergraduate or graduate level benefit upcoming generations?
What are some of the academic resources available to international students, in order to succeed at college? How can pursuing A.I. as a minor at undergraduate or graduate level benefit upcoming generations?
What are some key tips to achieving a 4.0 GPA in engineering undergrad ?
Going into engineering this fall, and wanted to know what are some tips for doing well in the program? I have about seven classes first semester so I am a bit worried. #Spring24
Should I apply for internships without having experience?
I'm a freshman in college and am very eager to start doing internships and co-ops to find out what branch of computer science I want to pursue. The only problem is that I don't have experience yet but have some basic understanding on how different programs such as java, SQL and python run, which makes me feel discouraged.