College town vs. big city ??

[teachermom2834]

Any thoughts on this? I have been pondering lately.

My two oldest boys both looked at colleges in small (sometimes very small) towns but ended up in big cities (Atlanta and Tampa). It is just kind of how things worked out. They were raised in smallish cities and only even traveled a few times to major cities so they really didn’t have much experience. Very little experience driving, navigating public transport, or even with the street smarts that come with familiarity in urban areas. Personally I am more drawn to the small city, college town thing.

Yet, I am amazed at the job opportunities/internships that have been available to them in these major cities. They are business majors so I realize that it might not be the same for every field. My eyes were not really open to that as a big advantage but it has been. Both have had good experiences and made decent money while in school and both plan to stay in their college city after graduation because they see very clear career paths. The jobs/internships would not have had an equivalent in the smaller towns and cities we looked at colleges in.

I just wondered if anyone else had any thoughts on this. If your child went to college in a place with less economic opportunity did they find summer internships out of town? Was placement facilitated by the school itself? It seems from browsing job descriptions that most companies are more inclined to bring in local students for these positions. 

I realize not every career field requires experiences outside the academic setting but for my business inclined students I do wonder what things would have looked like elsewhere. Their job experiences have been a big part of the overall success of their college choices. 

Just wondering if anyone else has any thoughts on this. 

[regentrude]

It has not been my experience that internships have to be connected to the city the college is in.

My DD went to college in Chicago; her internships were in Oregon and at Argonne Natl Lab (which is in Chicago, but the application process is national). She now works in the career office of a uni in a major city, and they are placing their students nationwide for internships.

I work at an engineering school in a small town. Our students do internships all over the country. 

[teachermom2834]

8 minutes ago, regentrude said:

It has not been my experience that internships have to be connected to the city the college is in.

My DD went to college in Chicago; her internships were in Oregon and at Argonne Natl Lab (which is in Chicago, but the application process is national). She now works in the career office of a uni in a major city, and they are placing their students nationwide for internships.

I work at an engineering school in a small town. Our students do internships all over the country. 

Does your school facilitate these internships for your students or are they on their own to find these?

[Arcadia]

9 minutes ago, teachermom2834 said:

Does your school facilitate these internships for your students or are they on their own to find these?

 

Link (Career Services at CalPoly https://careerservices.calpoly.edu/) is one of the locations my husband was sent to interview students for internships. The college help but there are not enough engineering internships to go around. So if students want to up their chance of getting an internship, they have to apply beyond whatever Career Services has. My husband also interviewed students at UCLA Career Center https://career.ucla.edu/OCR/About-OCR as well as other colleges’ career center.

When my family was at CalPoly, there was the thought on how would the interns afford housing during internships if they were commuter students at CalPoly SLO. Rent would wipe out a good portion of the internship stipend. Home address doesn’t affect the decision on selecting the candidates of course. There were students applying for Silicon Valley internships who are from Silicon Valley so those would probably have stayed with parents unless they were offered an internship elsewhere. UCLA has a similar cost of living to Silicon Valley so we don’t think any of the students would be surprised by how much rent would cost during internship.

[regentrude]

44 minutes ago, teachermom2834 said:

Does your school facilitate these internships for your students or are they on their own to find these?

The school runs a career fair every semester where companies come to recruit. I understand that's where many internship contacts for the engineering students are made. Our physics majors find their own opportunities (it's called REU, not internship); these programs are nationwide and competetive, so there's really nothing the college could do to facilitate.

Edited May 31, 2019 by regentrude

[Matryoshka]

46 minutes ago, teachermom2834 said:

Does your school facilitate these internships for your students or are they on their own to find these?

I think that depends on the school, whether city or rural.   Dd was looking at RIT in Rochester NY; they have companies come in from all over the country and I think even internationally for coop positions.  She looked at University of Rochester in the same city, there she would have been on her own to find any relevant work experience during college - they're more research-focused.  She ended up going to a school (in a very small city but near a large one) that encourages but does not require coops - most of the companies that come to the coop fair are local, but I think all US-based.  Dd found her first coop there (local, and in the 'burbs), but her second one is in Germany.  They told her she'd be on her own to find an international coop, but she did find one on her own fairly easily.  Having had practical experience at the first coop helped make her a lot more competitive, I think.

[catz]

My kid is heading to college in a midsize city (250K population, about 650K in the surrounding metro in total).  Students  do certainly have internships and settle there after graduating.  Actually that city is making a lot of the top of the lists for growing businesses and millennial post college top ten lists.  But they also regularly head out to larger metros across the country.  There were a slew of e-mails on the parent board of students looking for temporary summer housing for internships across the country.  

I think most well regarded colleges these days have good placement offices, but it's certainly a good thing to ask about.  I know people from all sorts of rural LACs that have had great internship and post grad placements.  

[Pawz4me]

DS23 did one part-time, private sector internship during the school year (while taking a full class load). I seriously doubt anything remotely near the quality of that internship would have been available in a small town.

[easypeasy]

My oldest is in a big city for college, but doesn't plan to stay there to work afterwards, so it will be a moot point.

The next two are music majors, and this is something we've been discussing repeatedly: the small town vs the big city options. In most instances, it seems a no-brainer that a big city would provide more performance opportunities for them and more connections... but some of the specific programs at some of the small-town schools have amazing artists come and "stay a while" to do performance classes with them for weeks at a time, which would be amazing experiences...

So, we discuss. And discuss. And discuss. 😄

[katilac]

On 5/31/2019 at 7:50 AM, regentrude said:

It has not been my experience that internships have to be connected to the city the college is in.

My DD went to college in Chicago; her internships were in Oregon and at Argonne Natl Lab (which is in Chicago, but the application process is national). She now works in the career office of a uni in a major city, and they are placing their students nationwide for internships.

I work at an engineering school in a small town. Our students do internships all over the country. 

But she has business majors. I think that it would tend to be more likely that internships are connected to the city the college is in if: 

• the student is not a hard STEM major 
• the college is not highly selective and/or well known 

The OP talks about regular jobs, too, and jobs during the school year are of course influenced by the location of the school. Even engineering majors can often have  part-time jobs during the year (in addition to formal internships and co-ops). I know this is very common at dd1's school; engineering majors can get a job as soon as they want one, well before they're actually useful, lol. I think the companies are basically trying to get 'first look' at some of the students and maybe build some comfort with/loyalty to their company. 

I definitely think that being in a decent sized city is a huge advantage for business majors. Cross-country internships do of course exist for business majors, but they are not nearly as common as they are for engineers and such. And having even low-level experience at a solid company is a huge advantage for business majors, so being able to get a job during the school year is important.