Professional

In the final plenary meeting of the year, University senators summarized committee progress, passed a resolution in honor of Provost John Coatsworth’s upcoming departure, and questioned the reputation and academic quality of the School of Professional Studies—a school that, amid its rapid expansion in enrollment, now accounts for nearly 50 percent of all the graduate degrees awarded by Columbia.

Sure, you might be able to bang out a cover letter in your pajamas at three in the morning, but there’s no place to hide during an interview. Interviews are perhaps the most nerve-wracking part of the job or internship application process because you have come across as sophisticated, eloquent and, well, an adult, to hiring managers and prospective bosses. While we admittedly can’t teach you how to temporarily disable the sweat glands in your palms, we here at Spectrum have some tips to help you ace your next interview.

Balancing academics, extracurriculars, and an internship all at the same time can seem pretty daunting to most students. This is why many choose to intern over the summer and focus on academic and extracurriculars during the year. Although June may seem like an eternity away in the heart of this never-ending winter, starting early on your internship/job hunt is always a good idea!

Many students at Barnard and Columbia start off their college experiences as pre-med students, but wonder, “Is pre-med what I actually want to do?” While Gen Chem, the required introductory class for all students on the pre-med track, is often overflowing with people desperate to get off the waitlist, courses of higher levels, like Gen Chem IV, often have way fewer students enrolled. However, others don’t find out until much later on in their college careers, and, by that time, even though they are normally able to easily change majors or tracks, they feel as if they have wasted time doing something they don’t love. To help everyone out there still trying to figure out if they really want to be pre-med, here is a list of tips and tricks that will hopefully provide some guidance in whether you should pursue the pre-med track.

Congratulations! Your blood, sweat, and tears have landed you a place in one of the most prestigious universities in the country. I hope you enjoyed that brief celebration, because now it is time to focus on the actual reason you’re here: finding a job. This can be a daunting task, but Spectrum is here to help! The résumé is a key tool in this process, so here’s an outline of what we recommend to include:

Attending CU is incredibly expensive. From tuition to housing to the general cost of living in Manhattan, expenses can pose a burden on many students. However, Columbia and Barnard both partner with the Federal Work-Study program to provide financial assistance to students who demonstrate need by paying them for part-time work.

Many of you have asked us whether it’s wise to get an internship your first semester at Barnumbia. Between classes, popping in and out of interest meetings to find which clubs suit you, and making friends with new people, adding a job or internship to your load if you do not absolutely have to may not always be advisable. Here are some key questions to ask yourself before you make the commitment.

When you apply for a job or internship online, there’s usually a box that asks for your cover letter (even if there’s not, most employers still ask for you to submit one). You might be tempted to ignore the box and just let your résumé speak for itself, but it’s important to give your potential employer as much information as possible about yourself in a super brief, but impactful manner.

When interacting with people who have the power to potentially employ you, you can’t help but ask the age-old question: What do I wear?? You want to dress to impress, but you also don’t want to be the person who wanders into a room full of casually dressed people in full Western business attire.

In addition to testing, preparing, and submitting the actual application, some schools (med, law, you know how it goes by now) will ask you to interview. The type of interview is really dependent on the program—sometimes you can do it over Skype or the phone. But for a lot of fancy-pants programs (especially med schools), you’ll oftentimes have to travel to the school in person.