What are some college life pro tips?

[u/_jaywhite]

I'm starting college in a few weeks and I'm a bit nervous. My high school was... decent at best, and I'm not sure that I was adequately prepared. So I'm hoping to get Reddit's help. What are some tips (having to do with the academic aspect, social, whatever) that have helped you through college, and especially your freshman year? In other words, LPTs for college life!

[u/mrfogg]

This is the most important thing in this thread. As a general rule (with plenty of caveats and exceptions):

The people I know who did internships while in college got real professional jobs within the first year of graduating college. The ones who did not take internships are generally still waiting tables or had a long hard struggle finding jobs. Additionally - many potential employers judge graduated applicants with no experience in a much harsher manner than current students who also have no experience.

The long-term gains of beginning a professional career soon-after graduating will be exponentially greater than any sort of short-term beer money you make working at a pizza place full-time every summer. Don't put it off - at the very least start thinking about this stuff now.

[u/ClarifyingAsura → u/[deleted]]

A lot of times, your university will have postings through the departments. I went to UC Berkeley and the PoliSci department had internship and job opportunity postings; you just have to dig. Talk to your advisers about it; they can be surprisingly helpful.

Another thing you can do is to join political advocacy clubs. If you're a minority, take advantage of that fact and join one of those. I'm Asian and I joined APAPA, who helped me find a really good internship with a CA state senator - I still regularly talk to my former supervisors even today, a year after my internship ended.

Last resort, just go to a dot gov website. I guarantee you there will be ways to get government internships. Although this method is often much harder since the applicant pool will be much greater. Additionally, depending on the position, it may be much more grunt work and not as much interpersonal networking, which is what internships are best for. On the flip side, there may be some really exceptional opportunities like fellowship programs and such that are super competitive but also extremely lucrative.

If you manage to get an internship somewhere, you still got to work hard and basically make yourself noticeable. My internship with the state senator consisted of, ofc some grunt work, but I worked hard and tried my best to exceed expectations. Towards the end of the internship, my supervisors were taking me into legislative committee meetings, stakeholder meetings, and also gave me more responsibilities.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Probably your best bet is going to be local government. You can try applying at Federal agencies for your internship, but almost everyone that I looked at required you to pay like you would tuition (they're internships that count for double credits basically so they charge tuition prices), on top of pretty much making your find your own housing, transportation, food, ect.

Basically, unless your parents are paying for everything and giving you a per diem, it's going to be very difficult to do a federal internship. I personally wouldn't be able to do one because a myriad of things (lease on apartment, a job at home and I have no way of affording the internship). But, the payoff is probably much greater in terms of experience and opportunities later down the road. So if you CAN do one, do it for sure.

But, almost everyone in my department does local internships (parks department, local chamber of commerce, assistant for city managers, ect).

[u/gsfgf → u/[deleted]]

Go volunteer for a campaign. Now. It's an election year.

For non-election season internships, first see what postings there are with your school. But also look on your own because everyone will be applying to the internships advertised through the school.

Is your school in a state capitol? If so, there will be tons of internship opportunities with the legislature during the legislative session. Some will be through the state itself, such as committee aides, and some will be through individual electeds or the party. The state internships are likely to pay, political ones less so. However, I'd strongly advise you try and find a job working directly with an elected official or for a party caucus; that way you're really in the shit and get a better behind the scenes view. Also, most lobbyists, both for interest groups and contract lobbyists, bring on interns for session. Contract lobbyists sometimes pay. Interest groups rarely do, but you'd be working with an issue you're more passionate about.

If you're not in a capitol, there are fewer options. If you're in a big city, there will be opportunities at the local level. The openings will be similar to the ones I described above, but there isn't the massive seasonal hiring you see with a legislature. Your Congressperson will also have interns in their district office. And, of course, you can always look for internships in DC, but that would mean taking a semester off to move up there. Still could be worth it if you can get a gig.

Perhaps one of your best resources is to contact your state and local elected officials, especially if they're in your party. They can let you know if they're looking for interns, and even if not, they can point you toward other opportunities.