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E-PrinceThe summer before her junior year, Kate Stevick ’09 was guaranteed an internship that came with housing, food and transportation for two months. The catch? Not only was the internship unpaid, she spent $7,999 procuring it.
Stevick was matched ...
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This is weird. UoD is designed for people from lesser colleges who really have no shot at prestigious internships, not for Pton students. (I don't mean this in a cocky a way...seriously, someone from middle-of-nowhere college can't land a UBS internship without outside help, and that's where UoD does a big service for them, but for Pton kids? Do we really need it?)
In the past, students' summer jobs would pay them money. Today they work at unpaid internships, or sometimes even pay for the privilege of working for free. Ms. Kamenetz is correct that a pool of educated but inexperienced laborers willing to work for free will depress wages for the educated but inexperienced who actually seek to make money.
Given the importance of one's first job, it's a sensible career strategy to take an unpaid internship. Young people need to do whatever it takes to build up their resume so they can get on the correct career track. Ms. Kamenetz is therefore wrong to advise young people not to take unpaid internships. (Although if everyone refused to work for free then everyone would benefit: an example of a prisoner's dilemma.)
The new trend towards unpaid internships creates another class divide because rich parents can afford to pay for their children to work for free in expensive cities like New York while children of middle class parents have to work in a paid job which doesn't advance their career. Furthermore, the middle class values of the middle class, who believe in the virtues of "hard but honest work," tend to torpedo the future career prospects of their children.
Actually, unpaid internships are generally considered less prestigious and less likely to lead to future job offers than paid internships, where employers invest actual resources into interns.
While that may be the case, I think a fair number of UofD participants are offered full-time positions at the end of their internship
Wow, what a scam. UoD should be ashamed. As someone who hires entry level folks regularly, unpaid internships are far less prestigious than paid ones. As far as I'm concerned, I'd rather hire a Princetonian who worked at McDonalds for a summer than someone dumb enough to drop 8 grand on an internship.
"As far as I'm concerned, I'd rather hire a Princetonian who worked at McDonalds for a summer than someone dumb enough to drop 8 grand on an internship."
You spend $50,000 a year for an unpaid "internship" already. And this one doesn't even give you actual experience in anything. So college is even more of a waste of money.
Why not just do 4 years as, I don't know, some kind of i-banking apprentice?
Isn't there something wrong when your client says: ‘Are you serious? They’ll show up for five days a week and work for free?’
No, they can't be serious because "working for free" is illegal under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The bigger problem with UoD is not that they charge but that they place students in illegal situations. See http://UnfairInternships.com
UOD doesn't charge for free labor, you get college credit through Menlo College. Most internships today are unpaid with stipulation that you have to recieve college credit so they don't have to pay you. The payment to UoD really goes into housing, transportation and food mostly. Only about a 1k or 2k go to the company, which also supports many philanthropic causes directly. If you recieved your own internship in New york and were going to live in NYU dorms it would set you back almost 6k, so actually UoD is a good deal. I did it, obviously, and it was the best money I ever spent. It is genuine, and really does get your foot in the door.
Alum, I'd like to learn more about this UOD program. If possible, email me at bc888724@albany.edu. I want to see it this is really legit