The end of the spring semester brings out a ton of mixed feelings in college students. On one hand, it is finally getting hot, which means hanging by the pool or day drinks on the weekend, while on the other hand it also brings about the unfortunate experience that is finals and also the question of what are your summer plans?
This question carries a different amount of weight depending on where you are in your college career. As a freshman, this question brings out the excitement you are feeling about getting your first ever 3 and a half month summer vacation, getting to see and hang out with all your home friends and getting any job that will pay you or give you decent hours.
The end of your sophomore year comes around and you already understand the joys of a long, drawn out summer and the perks that come along with it. This summer is always a toss up when it comes to the activity that will occupy most of your time. Most rising juniors will either get a job that isn’t related to their major, such as working at a day camp, or they will get an internship that will look good on their resume.
The summer after junior year is the “final summer” you will have as a student. Even though this summer should be about shamelessly doing whatever you want, hanging with your friends and going to the beach as much as you can before your summers are full of work, this is not usually the case.
This is the summer where everyone has some sort of internship that is sure to impress future employers and hopefully get you that coveted job you want after graduation.
Junior hearing and speech major, Lauren Straface, remembers the more relaxed summers she had as an underclassman. Now that she’s getting closer to graduation, she has found a job that will help boost her resume for the future.
“I used to be able to take a job whether or not it would look good to future employers, but that’s not really the case anymore. For this summer, I found a job that will definitely help me in the future. I am volunteering and shadowing a speech pathologist at a nursing home,” said Straface.
And finally, if it is your senior year and there is no summer left and there are not any “summer plans” because now it’s you starting out on the rest of your life. At this point in a college student’s life, the question, “do you know what your plans for the summer are yet?” is highly discouraged and could even be considered mean.
As seniors, people range from having had a job since September, to going on interviews at places they like and even to the majority of people who have no idea what they’re doing and don’t have a job yet. This makes for an up in the air “summer plan” of figuring out your next steps, enjoying a break from life and enjoyed your last few weeks of freedom before works begins and the real world starts.
“The summers after my sophomore and junior years I found two different internships that were worthwhile and it’s because of these jobs that I finally feel qualified for jobs that I want to apply to. This summer I will be working as an intern for a staff attorney in Nassau County before I start law school in the fall,” explained Jenna Spelke, senior communications major.
Whatever year you might be and whatever plans you have or haven’t figured out for summer yet, don’t forget that summer is the perfect of the year to get in the relaxation you’ve been missing all year, where weekend trips to the beach are the norm and every day is a great day to hang outside.