[dbaugh]

This is falls in line with one of the fundamental problems with college and that problem is that success is college is skewed towards those whose parents, or whomever, pay their way as opposed to those who pay there own way. Some kids are financially independent during schools so they MUST have a paying job. This means that they can't take an unpaid internship to get a resume boost. They have to stick with their bar tending or wait staff job to keep making it. Most kids like this are working 20 - 30 hours a week. This doesn't leave a whole lot of time to build up the resume in any real way. Kids who have to work don't have time to go out and join clubs and take "leadership" positions within them. Since leadership positions and work experience in the field is what employers look for these kids are at a disadvantage. Now take a kid whose parents pay for tuition, rent, books, etc. He has the time to work for free and become the president of the student union because he doesn't have to wait on the drunk college kids 8 hours a night on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

[brettnak]

I've actually always thought that employers who learned that a candidate put his or herself through college thought more highly of that person. Being able to show up daily and get through the trudge would be, to me, hugely more telling than a 'leadership position' at a club or a student union. Though, maybe that's just my lack of school spirit showing.

[dbaugh]

I do think the "leadership" bias is only really apparent in large corporations. I do think that small companies tend to value skill and hard work more, however I find, being in school right now, that it is the large corporations that are recruiting students at job fairs and not smaller companies and start ups. I think students who work, and and learn skills on their own are better off looking for jobs on their own outside of official recruiting. At least for people going into tech.

[pmiller2]

I do think the "leadership" bias is only really apparent in large corporations.

I don't know about that. I think it's more impressive myself to see that someone worked his or her way through school than to see tons of extracurricular activities. In fact, unless they're professionally relevant, extracurricular activities don't rank very highly at all on my list of things I'd like to see on a resume.

Edit: Of course, I should add, I don't work for a major corporation, either.

[eru]

Amen to that. Also for companies job fairs can look a bit disappointing.

[asif]

What would the alternative be? Require all students to pay their own way, thereby disincentivizing parents to work hard and save for their children's college education?

On the other hand, there are a lot of intangible benefits to be had by paying your own way through college; benefits that will never be recognized by those born with a silver spoon in their mouths.

In other words, I don't see this as a fundamental problem. It's just the way it is.

[dbaugh]

I agree with you. I guess I was simply stating the way it is.