The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/career/)
Cornell students interacted with admissions representatives from across the country at Cornell Career Services’ Postgraduate Fairs to gain insight on graduate life and applications.
When the Supreme Court decided Biden v. Nebraska, which declared President Biden’s loan forgiveness program unconstitutional, I am sure it was to the frustration of many around the nation and especially here at Cornell that loans are expected to be repaid. While borrowers groan at their financial constraints, there are few who ask why they have these loans at all. Yes, an obvious answer may be that they cannot afford to pay $88,150 a year, the cost of a Cornell degree. But that only answers the surface level question; it does not address why one needs a Cornell degree, or any degree for that matter. The deeper question being proposed is what the purpose of a university is.
“The Uniform Code of Military Justice specifies court martial for any officer who sends a soldier into battle without a weapon. There ought to be a similar protection for students, because students shouldn’t go into life without information about the real world.”
Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed that this is a paraphrased quote from the famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Patrick Winston, who is clearly better at coming up with introductions than I am.
A couple of weeks ago was Ivy Day; the day when most of us received a decision that changed the course of our lives forever. It has been exactly a year since I have received the fateful email from Cornell Admissions in my inbox. That day set me on a path where I first discovered that the world is bigger than my bubble in Southern California and life became more than getting into college. It was the first time I genuinely felt lost because one of the biggest chapters of my life had finally closed. Even throughout all of the celebrations and congratulations, I was still left with the biggest question: What next?
Golden Globe winner Tyler James Williams visited Cornell on Saturday as part of a Multicultural Community Fueled Activities Board event.
Why is the reward for acceptance to an Ivy League school working 70 hours a week at Goldman Sachs? Shouldn’t the point of going to Cornell be to earn a decent living doing something less burdensome, even if it involves taking a pay cut?
How does speedrunning Cuphead tie into résumé building? The point of all experiences for creating your résumé is not the prestige or name-recognition of your most recent internship. Rather, the goal is to show transferable skills from your past involvements to your prospective ones.
There are few requirements for students at Cornell besides a freshman writing seminar, two P.E. classes and the swim test. And while I — like many other students — appreciate the flexibility and customization of the curricula for students here, I want to propose one additional, minor requirement. While some may believe that there exists a tradeoff between taking college classes and pursuing more practical, professional experience, I believe we should have a university-wide requirement that bridges the divide between the two. This could take the form of a fieldwork requirement. Every student, regardless of which college they are in, must take a part-time or full-time internship during one of their eight semesters at Cornell that explores a potential professional field of interest.
Some of you still have a couple years before you need to figure this out, others of you already have – the return offer signed, sealed and delivered. But how many of us will answer this question the same way as we did in kindergarten? Our misspelling hands scrawling on our first homework assignments, writing down the reasons we wanted to be firefighters, astronauts, artists, secret agents, veterinarians, movie stars, the President, our fathers and mothers. Not once did you hear trade analyst, consultant, HR representative. Yes, that’s probably because half those words weren’t in our vocabulary yet.
“In the remote model, people seeking freedom and autonomy in their jobs will become happier,” Haeger said. “The alternative is true for people who really thrive on the face to face.”