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THE MICHIGAN DAILY NEW STUDENT EDITION UNIVERSITY THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1994
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Famous, infamous 'U' alums make
their mark across the globe
By DWIGHT DAVIS
Daily Staff Reporter
With the new academic year upon
us, it is time once again to look to the
hallowed history of this great institu-
tion and its long list of illustrious and
infamous alums. With their example in
mind we can forge ahead and add to the
solid foundation they have given us.
Let's start at the top with the most
internationally acclaimed and emu-
lated of all our great alums: Well, that
would be those five guys with the
baggy shorts; but then none of them
have graduated as of yet so they aren't
full-fledged alums. We'll skip them
for now.
Madonna went here of course, but
then she didn't graduate either. And
although she promised her mother
she'd get that degree after her career
was over, I don't know. Skip her.
Mike Wallace went here. He gradu-
ated way back in 1939. Grecian for-
mula keeps him young - and rude.
Skip him.
Anne B. Davis - here is someone
all Michigan people can be proud of. As
Alice she was the glue that held the,
Brady Brunch together while Greg was
trying to date his mother and Mr. Brady
was dating Bobby's gym teacher.
Astronauts! You can't get more
American hero than that. Eight of
them went to Michigan: Theodore
Freeman, Karl Heinze, Jack Lousma,
James McDivitt, David Scott, James
Irwin, Edward White and Alfred
Worden.
Thomas Hayden went here. Then
he was arrested as part of the famous
Chicago-seven in 1968. Then he mar-
ried a movie star - Jane Fonda. Then
he ran for Congress. Then she divorced
him.
John Delorean got his MBA from
Michigan in 1957. He went on to live
the American dream: starting his own
car company, marrying the woman who
mouthed "Baby!" in the WRIF -TV
commercials. He became tabloid fa-
mous after getting busted in adrug deal.
Speaking of drugs, two of profes-
sional sports' most famous drug users
are Michigan men (both are still work-
ing on their degrees I believe): basket-
ball player Roy Tarpley was banned
for life, or two years - whichever
comes first - by the NBA. Baseball
player Steve Howe has been banned
from baseball eight times and rein-
stated nine times. Michigan alums de-
serve nine chances.
Of course all negative stories about
Michigan athletes are singlehandedly
(no pun intended, honest) canceled
out by Jim Abbott profiles. Abbott, the
standout pitcher, threw a no hitter for
the Yankees last year.
Janet Guthrie, the first woman to
race in the Indianapolis 500, graduated
from Michigan in 1960. She's cool.
The current and former CEOs and
presidents of many large companies
went to Michigan. Only one merits
mention by name: Manuel Luis del
Valle, class of 1967, president, Bacardi
Corporation, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Singer Iggy Pop came here for a
couple of years in the mid-1960s, but
he dropped out. Maybe they made
him wear a shirt to class.
The great playwright Arthur Miller
went to Michigan, but so did Tony
Schwartz, the "co-writer" of Donald
Trump's autobiography, "The Art of
the Deal." Alas, a Michigan degree
does not guarantee good taste.
EVAN PETRIE/Daily
Chris Webber is the University's
most celebrated "grad."
Opera singer Jessye Norman got
her Master's of Music from Michi-
gan. She is awesome.
Gerald Ford went to Michigan. He
was the MVP of the 1935 Michigan
football team (the team wasn't very
good).
Career Opportunities
Job marke shines for
many 'U' graduates
By ANDREA MacADAM
Daily Staff Reporter
A brighter future faces this year's graduates
and tomorrow's professionals as the job market
slowly improves. But competition remains high
and success is only available to those who are
prepared.
Rethinking the Future
Since the late 1980s, many students have
been re-examining their career goals, and some
are continuing to do so despite positive projec-
tions for growth in certain sectors.
The number of students applying to gradu-
ate schools has been on an upward swing during
the past few years as more and more students are
opting to stay in school before immediately
hitting the job market.
The 1994 Pre-Law Action Report by the
Law School Admissions Services states that the
number of University students applying to law
school has been slightly declining since 1991
with a 1.8-percent decrease this past year.
National figures have also experienced a simi-
lar pattern with nearly 6,000 fewer applicants for
the fall of 1993 than the previous year.
Lewis Rice, assistant to the dean for student
affairs, cited the weak economy in the past
couple of years as a major reason for the decline.
"It is true that law school numbers fre-
quently reflect the economy," he said. "I think
most people feel that some of the interest (in the
law profession) has decreased."
CP&P'sMariellaMecozzi also acknowledged
that the downward trend appears to be a result of
an uncertain job market for law school graduates.
"A lot of the (law) firms haven't been hiring as
they have in the past," she said. "I think for the first
time in the past couple of years, we have seen entry
salaries for the law profession going down."
While law schools experienced a decline in
applicants over the past few years, the national
number of medical school applicants reached a
record high this past fall with 42,808 applica-
tions submitted. As economic uncertainty grasped
the nation in the late 1980s, more and more
students began turning to professions in medicine
as a source of future stability.
According to a 1993 report from the Associa-
tion of American Medical Colleges, the number
of University applicants nearly doubled between
1989 and 1993 with 629 students this past year
vying for one of the 16,500 medical school slots
available in the United States.
"The profession has become incredibly at-
tractive even despite national health care issues
and the instability of the economy," Rice said.
"There's no question that in the medical profes-
sion there is an opportunity fora very high income
and income is always an issue."
The increasing on-campus recruitment amidst
an uncertain job market is not the only indication
of the University's tenacity. The ratio of accep-
tance rates to law and medical schools remains
high, and well above national averages.
According to the Law School Admission Ser-
vices, 79 percent of University students were
accepted to one or more law schools last year
compared to only 47 percent of national appli-
MOLLY STEVENS/Daily
Students routinely interview for jobs at area job fairs.
cants..
University students who applied to medical
school have also seen higher levels of accep-
tance rates - even in light of the tougher'
competition that has emerged over the past few
years. Last year, 59 percent of University stu-
dents were accepted while 44 percent of na-
tional applicants were offered admission.
Although figures are not available for gradu-
ate school rates, Rice expressed confidence in
the University's ability to prepare students for
this path as well.
"I don't think there's any doubt that the Uni-
versity produces a large number of students that
go on to graduate school," he said.
Getting Your Foot in the Door
And while a degree from a prestigious institu-
tion helps, the University's reputation is by no
means a guarantee for future success. What stu,-
dents do during their four (five) years on campus
counts - and that means a lot more than just
earning good grades.
According to the Northwestern Lindquist-
Endicott Report for 1994, which surveys 264
business and industrial organizations annually,
26 percent of all college hires came from intern-
ship programs in 1993 compared to 17 percent in
1992.
Sixty percent of the employers surveyed plan
to expand their internship programming.
"Internships are becoming increasingly im-
portant," LaMarco said. "Students with experi-
ence have a greater chance for job opportunities,
especially with a company they interned for."
Summers
are meant
for mindless
mayhem
By BRETT FORREST
Daily Staff Reporter
When I was a youngster, summer
meant careening through the neigh-
borhood on my dirt bike, dripping ice
cream down my forearm and swal-
lowing mouthfuls of salt water while
frolicking in the ocean.
But as I get older, summer evolves
into choosing between perspiration-
stained oxfords, dragging myself out of
bed after four hours of sleep and copin
with carcinogenic fumes coughed up
by big-city public transportation.
The genesis of this change in per-
ception is simple really ...
See, there was once an era when
high school was known as the time of
your life - the last bastion of adoles-
cence. However, as a greater number
of people began attending college,
four years at a university became the
pinnacle of experience.
What will be the top of the heap
for our age group, life as a Ph.D. candi-
date? With a dwindling number of jobs
and a rising number of middle-aged
master's degree holders competing for
positions suited to people with an eighth
of their education, times are indeed
tough for the lowly college puke.
Don't believe me? Go out and
look for yourself. At every turn yoi,
will find the same stop signs: at least
five years of experience needed; no
experience, don't apply; more expe-
rience required. The operative word
here is experience.
Thus, the lack of entry-level posi-
tions necessitates that you gain sea-
soning while still in the academic
environs provided by an undergradu-
ate education. It seems the best way to.
do this is through an internship.
Sounds like a good set-up, right?
Rub elbows with the higher-ups. Snag
a couple of free lunches. See how the
real world operates. Wrong.
All internships are good for -
other than introducing you to a field
in which you may have an interest -
is shortening your (what I like to call
it anyway) goof-off life span.
Once you take a position as a
inten, you relegate yourself to a never-,
ending string of summers chock full of
paper filing and shoe licking in an
effort to situate yourself in a favor-
able light once it comes times to enter
the real world.
See, if you have an internship one
summer, then bum around the next,
you place yourself in difficult straits.
Potential employers will wonder what
heinous acts you committed at the
first job that prevented you from se-
curing one the following vacation.
So take my advice and altogether
avoid these frivolous demonstrations
of personal enterprise.
I am not saying you should plant
yourself on the couch with remote
control in hand for the entire four-
month vacation. (Although, now that
I consider it, that might not be hal f
bad.) Nor am I knocking ambition.
I merely believe that every college
student should be allowed three or four
glorious summers of mindless, menial
- otherwise purposeless - mayhem.
If someone actually chose to en-
gage in a mentally stressful vocation,
so be it. But that teacher's pet should
not be permitted to butt in line ahead
of everyone else come judgment day.*
There are solid reasons for letting
it all hang out during the summer-
time. Unwinding from the stress of
academic pressures allows the ener-
getic student to maintain an even strain.
If scholars wait on tables, or work retail,
or pay dues on a farm for a summer,
their worlds gain a certain balance.
There really is no need to rush
things anyway. Once you graduate.w
from school, there will be more thar9'
enough time to punch the proverbial
time clock.
Also, an internship tends to wear
down the half-time employee. When
autumn arrives and classes commence,
the full-time student has less enthusi-
asm for the academic challenges that
lie ahead.
What the well-balanced contem-
porary college student needs is a low-.
octane string of McJobs that enable
the pupil to earn cash to spend on the
all-important down time.
With the number of static posi-
tions on the wane and the pressure to
grab an internship on the wax, the
fite csts a Trk shan ns Tenatpd Af
I
Reporter's Notebook
Diving headfirst into career
planning without a helmet
By DWIGHT DAVIS
Daily Staff Reporter
If you're like me, you are in college
to avoid thinking about a career -not
there to find one. Any mention of any-
thing with the word career in it has me
ducking for cover. Career planning and
placement offices are to be scouted for
trap doors and then strategically
avoided. If a job lair is on campus I'm
off campus. They won't get me I say.
But as the end approaches (four years
go by in flash, five even quicker) the
sinking feeling in my stomach is whis-
pering in my ear: "They don't want to
get you, stupid, you've spent fouryears
avoiding your own shadow and now
you're about to become another unem-
ployed college graduate."
In a panic I made an appointment
with Jennifer down at Career Plan-
ning & Placement in the Student Ac-
tivities Building. The office didn't
look as bad as I had imagined it. I told
Jennifer, who I of course knew was an
agent of the dark side, that although I
was there in body my soul was still
my own and she couldn't have it.
"To avoid thinking about it is not
the answer," she smiled. In my weak-
ened senior state I knew I was no
match for a professional job counse-
lor. I meekly gave her my soul.
"We are in the business of teach-
ing the process of decision making"
she smiled again. I'm a college stu-
dent. I don't make decisions, it's in
my loan agreement.
Ignoring my outburst she told me
that the first thing I needed to do was
some self assessment. Oh I can do
that was before I'd seen the light and
that if she would just give me a job I
would go quietly.
"I can't find your job for you, but I
can help you learn the skills you'll need
to find your own job." She didn't smile
this time, she looked determined.
She told me about more work-
shops that her office offered that fo-
cused on job search strategies includ-
ing the vaunted job search triathlon
where in three hours you learned not
only job search strategies but resum6
writing and interviewing techniques
as well. It sounded very tiring.
OK, you winI'll doit,justdon'task
me to network. I hate that word.
"Networking is the best way to get
a job," she said nonchalantly.
Don't employers come to campus,
why do I have to go look for them?
"On-campus recruiting is only one
component of a job search," she re-
proached, stiffening slightly and
reaching under her desk for a... whip!
No I was mistaken it was only another
brochure. I relaxed a little and she told
me about "Resume Express" which
matches student resumes with employ-
ers who are coming to campus or have
requested resumes from their office. I
also learned that starting this fall the
entire on campus recruiting schedule
will be online and thatevery seniorwill
be given 1,000 points to bid for inter-
view slots.
"The more you bid the better your
chances of getting an interview." She
was smiling again. Didn't she realize
that she had abstracted my future and
now she wanted me to hid on it?
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