Senior Turmoil

Seniors,

The big day is approaching! Not only has senioritis set in, but the question and fear of what we are doing and where we are going after we graduate, as Senioritis has mentioned, is looming.

From a personal standpoint, is anyone else dealing with the emotional challenge of finding a new place to live? Is Craigslist your new best friend? Are you in any kind of debt from school loans or credit cards? It is true, many of us do want to stay In D.C. after we graduate, however, with the recession many of us are unable to find jobs even though D.C. supposedly has one of the lowest unemployment rates. How can we find places to live if we have bad or mediocre credit scores and/or no current proof of employment?

Yes, for many of us, our parents are helping us out- many of us don’t want to move back home after college. Graduating from college and entering the work force is an awkward stage for recent graduates. We are now stepping into the real world where everything is changing. No more spring break trips to Cancun, and sleeping in until 10 minutes before your class. Also, for many of us, we still aren’t exactly sure what we want to do with our lives; we are sort of in limbo. Many suggest that the perfect solution is to go to graduate school if you are still unsure of your direction and cant find a job, however, this is another very fiscally challenging endeavor and many of us will already have loans to pay off from undergrad. After paying between $60,000-$100,000 to earn a degree, opportunity still isn’t knocking. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were some sort of solution or assistance out there for people like us? Just food for thought…

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33314539

Sick of GW Fees? Me too.

GW has a great number of programs and opportunities that it offers its students, but the University is also notorious for its laundry list of fees. By senior year, most students have been hit with one fee or another, but just in case they haven't GW hits them with one on the way out the door.

The senior graduation fee has been around for quite some time, but it is very unclear as to what the fee actually goes towards.

Help me repeal another University ploy to dig a little bit deeper in our pockets before graduation! Sign the petition to get the University to take action on this issue.

Tell all of your friends to join the Facebook group and sign the petition, and get your parents involved as well! If students and parents can make enough noise, we can check off one less that we have to pay. With your help, we can do it.

Job Crunch

Graduating seniors: whether you want a soul crushing desk job or something else, it appears the country's economic slow down is effecting the entry level job market. The Christian Science Monitor is reporting that students graduating this year are facing a much tougher market than last year's graduates.

"While the number of jobs available for college graduates this year increased by 8 percent and average salary offers rose by 5.3 percent, the signs of contraction are clear, reports NACE. The class of 2007 saw a 17.4 percent increase in job openings – one of the best markets since the late 1990s. This fall it appeared that the situation would remain relatively similar for the class of 2008, with a projected 16 percent increase. But by early spring that number had dropped by half."

The report goes on to say that finance and construction are the hardest hit industries with new positions decreasing by 7.5 percent and 2.8 percent respectively.

This news isn't that bad, sure we don't have it as easy as the class of '07, but the economy has net gained jobs. Also, if you like DC, the government is still hiring/spending like crazy. Be sure to check out usajobs.gov if your interested... there are currently 2,808 opening within 25 miles of GW, many of which are entry level.

The government can be a great place to work. The benefits are awesome, pay is good at the entry level and the positions are very stable. This coming week is Public Service Recognition Week (May 5-11) and there will be dozens of agencies/departments with booths on the National Mall. It will be a great opportunity to talk to organizations you may be interested in working for if you're still in the market.

Does this seem like a good idea to you?

I admit it -- I've been a little busy with school lately, and so haven't quite kept up with all the bureaucratic things I need to do for graduation. For instance, I just took the required graduation survey today. It was fun and exciting, as online surveys tend to be. However, it's what happened next that has me worried.

One of the reasons I'd put off doing this survey was that my printer's dead. That's fine (except for the papers I need to print on it...), but it does mean I tend to put off tasks that require me to print things. Since this survey said I'd need to print off proof that I'd finished it, I did it today at the library. The "proof" they were so intent on me having? An e-mail saying "yes, you've taken our survey." It wasn't more than five lines long -- not exactly a vital source of information.

And why did I need proof of this e-mail, anyway? To pick up tickets for my actual graduation ceremony, which is a separate ceremony from commencement. I checked out the website that lists pickup times and noticed something strange. Almost all of the schools are now allowing students to pick up graduation tickets. That makes sense -- what better way to encourage yourself to do well on finals than to have graduation materials staring you in the face? But for CCAS kids (so, me), pickup doesn't start until Friday the 16th. Given how many kids there are in CCAS, I'm kind of worried about this. My guess is the lines are going to be worse than Disney World. Columbian's website seems blase about the process:

Please allow time to pick up your tickets, as there may be a line.

There may be a line? Have they been dealing with students long? My guess is that this is going to be one long, frustrating afternoon.

Is this the way it usually is? Why is CCAS so late compared to all the other schools? Given that my family is getting in that Friday, and given that I've got other stuff going on that day already, I'm now worried that instead of being able to enjoy spending time with my family and friends one last time before I leave, I'll be in the midst of a bureaucratic nightmare.

The fact that I can't pick up tickets to my own graduation until the day before it happens is pretty unsettling. For the first time, I wish I had picked a different major.