The question every senior dreads, "What are you doing next year?" and why it's ok not to know.

On the merits of gaining some experience before committing to a career path. 

The cycle of stress motivated by external incentive that we learn in college won't help most of us in post-college careers. Instead, internal motivation and creativity will prove important. 

Representing stellar teacher-scholar achievement and potential, five junior faculty members were awarded with the Faculty Early Career Development Program by the National Science Foundation. Itai Cohen, William Dichtel, Tobias Hanrath, Eun-Ah Kim and Cynthia Reinhart-King received the honor for their exemplary research, teaching skills, and leadership abilities.  These faculty members are committed not only to their academic work, but to mentoring students and fostering scholarship.

Imagine teaching English as an adjunct professor for five years, working towards becoming a tenured professor. When your time comes consideration, you wait anxiously to see if you are finally to be chosen for tenure … and get passed right on by. You may believe it will be just one more year of waiting, but the truth is, this guaranteed job may never come. Unfortunately, this is an increasingly common occurrence throughout campuses across the nation.

The recent economic turmoil has already gotten a lot of college seniors thinking about their job options, but recent statistics show that they might need to think harder. The National Association of Colleges and Employers conducted a survey in August of 219 employers that projected a 6.1-percent increase in hiring for the class of 2009. NACE conducted the same survey again this month, and 146 of the original 219 employers responded, revealing that the projected outlook had dropped to a 1.3-percent increase.

According to Edwin Koc, NACE’s director of strategic and foundation research, the organization decided to conduct the survey again because of the recent chaos in the stock market and the credit crunch.

Six weeks into her freshman year in the College of Human Ecology, Laura Morrison ’12 is already planning her next three summers.

Morrison, who has high hopes of becoming a doctor, wants to shadow a dermatologist or intern at a hospital. Increasingly across all fields, a high-profile internship is necessary to secure a top job or to get into the best graduate school, but only in some colleges within Cornell does internship experience count for academic credit.

Outsourcing is abuzz and computer science enrollment has dropped, but in Cornell’s world-renowned computer science department, students and professors alike are confident that this outsourcing trend will not impact their futures.

When asked if outsourcing is a concern that comes up among friends, Noah Santorello ’09, president of the Association of Computer Science Undergraduates, said, “Never. Computer science is not like finance where everyone’s concerned about getting a job when the economy gets bad.”