Sophomore Caroyln Conley will be spending her summer participating in a paid internship at PNC Bank in Pittsburgh, but said she was "lucky" to receive this position.
"A lot of really talented people really don't have internships for the summer because a lot of companies have scaled back," Conley said. "I definitely think that I was very lucky to get an internship at all let alone a paid one."
Many underclassmen students have had to adjust expectations and alter plans for the upcoming summer because of the current economy troubles.
Companies have drastically reduced the number of intern positions they offer due to cost cuts within the company, Lee Svete, director of Notre Dame's Career Center, said. Companies that usually take five or six interns can only take one this year, he said.
"They've lost revenue. And as a result, their full time and internship budgets have been decreased," Svete said. "Internships have dropped not because of the opportunity, but because of the pay."
Sophomore Brittany Johnson has an internship this summer shadowing a pharmacist in a hospital, but has noticed the economy's effect on the internship market.
"Last summer, my internship was paid and this summer it's not paid, but I have to take what I can get because I need pharmacy experience," Johnson said.
Johnson said she had to adjust her expectations to accommodate the state of the economy.
"I have to take the financial hit now and not make any money this summer and hopefully get into pharmacy school," she said.
The summer job market for students is also suffering because people who got laid off have taken jobs that are typically filled by college students, Svete said.
"It's a domino effect. When people are getting laid off from companies ... they're going out and filling some of these jobs that are hourly rate," Svete said. "Those jobs at the mall aren't there anymore."
Svete's advice to students who can't find an internship or job for this summer is to consider volunteering, which shows work ethic and versatility. A volunteer position will also provide a reference for future jobs, Svete said.
As long as students can articulate what they gained from their summer experience, "employers don't care if you've made $2,000 in a summer or $10."
Troubles finding internships and jobs may have led students to consider other summer options and utilize more of the University's resources.
The Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP), which provides financial support to students wishing to do independent research, according to their Web site, has noticed an increase in applications.
"We had almost twice the number of UROP applications that we had last year," Director of the Institute for Scholarships in the Liberal Arts Agustin Fuentes said.
UROP has not been able to meet the demand because while applications are increasing, endowments are down due to the economy, Fuentes said.
"Everyone's endowment is down. But ours isn't that bad," he said.
Fuentes said he does not foresee having to cut down on the number of grants given and hopes that next year, UROP will be able to give at least what it gave this year.
"We're going to do everything that we can to make sure that doesn't impact our support for students," he said.
According to Sarah Baer from the Office of International Studies, applications for study abroad programs this summer were strong, but acceptance rates were low.
"We received a greater percentage of declines from admitted students than we typically do," Baer said. "I think the reality of paying for the program caused many students to decline."
Svete said the Career Center can help students find summer opportunities. The Career Center has access to more than a million companies on their database and to the entire Notre Dame alumni network, which is "incredible" and "amazingly supportive," he said.
"Our underclass students can come in and meet with a counselor," he said. "We can find out what alumni are in your field and help you contact them."
Svete urged students to be creative, and not to let the difficult economic times bring them down.
"You've got to deal with some rejection, you just can't get discouraged," he said. "Realize it's not you, it's the economy."
"I'm not trying to sugar coat this. It's tough out there," Svete said. "But [Notre Dame students] are still the most flexible candidates that I've worked with in 23 years. And I've been in the Ivy League. I've been across the East coast."
"We're going to be okay," he said.
