R

ecruiting
season
for

Ross
undergrads

is
essentially
over.

Winter break offered much-
needed room to breathe for
the many upperclassmen who
have secured an internship
or full-time job offer for the
upcoming year. While students
in general are at significant risk
for developing mental health
issues throughout college, each
fall at Ross poses a unique kind
of stress for upperclassmen as
their recruiting schedules and
academic lives strain against
one another.

On
paper,
employment

outcomes
for
Business

students
look
incredible.

Ninety-eight
percent
of

undergraduates receive a job
offer within three months
of graduation, their starting
salaries average at $72,500
and they secure internships
and full-time positions all over
the United States and abroad.
The program clearly provides
students ample resources to
excel in their early careers.

The journey from arriving

on
campus
as
relatively

inexperienced
freshmen
to

achieving
those
impressive

numbers
as
upperclassmen,

however, can be a rollercoaster.
This is especially true during
the
notorious
junior
fall

semester in which students
compete with each other and
aim to land coveted internship
positions.
These
positions

ideally translate into full-time
return offers, and while most
students do end up re-recruiting
as seniors, the pressure to
perform specifically for junior
year internships is immense.

Mind Matters is a student

organization
within
the

Business
School
that
raises

awareness about mental health
and wellness and works to
decrease stigma against seeking
help in the community. At junior
convocation this year, members
of the group showed the results
of a survey administered to
business undergraduates — they
reported a significant spike in
anxiety and depression during
the junior fall semester.

Forrest Cao, founder and

president
of
Mind
Matters,

explained in an interview that
these experiences are common
during recruiting.

“For
students
in
this

situation, the worst thing is for
them to think they’re the only
ones,” Cao said. “We’re trying to
get people thinking about how
this is something most people
deal with. There is a community
that understands and is going
through what they feel.”

I believe some of the stress

that
induces
or
exacerbates

mental
health
problems
in

students is unavoidable due to
the generally difficult nature of
any job search, regardless of the
program they’re enrolled in. But
recruiting at a business school is
uniquely systematic, extremely
competitive and placed at a
crucial academic moment in the
college careers of students.

Of
the
factors
that

contribute to mental health
problems, “issues of culture,
classes
and
recruiting
are

interlinked,” Cao said. The
Business School can do more
to
mitigate
these
negative

outcomes
by
balancing
its

curriculum with its recruiting
schedule
and
increasing

mental
health
resources

available to students.

The most common process by

which Business undergraduates
find
employment
is
the

Business School’s on-campus
recruiting
system,
which
is

highly regimented and combines
an
assortment
of
formal

activities. Students are strongly
encouraged to participate in
activities the Business School
coordinates such as individual
company
presentations
and

networking hours, career fairs
for those applying for a position
in a particular function or
industry, resume drops on the
school’s intranet and a bidding
system for first-round interviews
that take place in the Ross School
of Business Building.

These various events are

condensed
almost
entirely

into the months of September
through November each year and
consume a significant amount
of students’ time. In addition,
on-campus interviews routinely
take place during the same hours
as class sessions and companies
also frequently fly out students
for final round interviews during
the school week.

This process — combined

with the inherently competitive
nature of attending the same
recruiting events and applying
for the same positions as peers —
is a huge undertaking to balance
with existing academic and
personal obligations.

As someone who had not

worked at a large corporation
before or previously experienced
such a stringent sequence of
networking events, the months
during
my
own
recruiting

process last year were difficult.
I frankly had no idea whether I
was asking the right questions
to truly get the best feel for a
company’s culture, attending the
right presentations (since many
occurred at the same time) or
even wearing the right clothes to
fit the mysterious and ill-defined
expectation of “business casual”
attire at my events.

Week by week, I felt a

whirlwind of anxieties over
my qualifications, made tough
calls between completing work
shifts for my part-time job and
attending
endlessly
available

recruiting events and tackled
the biggest career decisions of
my life so far. It was a period
of tremendous learning and
self-growth, but it came with
emotional and physical tolls I
hadn’t anticipated in myself.
I saw my own experiences
reflected in my peers as they
moved through many of the same
decisions, obstacles, realizations
and struggles throughout the
semester.

While
I
was
exploring

my career so intensely, I was
upset to find that the Business
School incorporates its most
rigorous academic experience
into this semester and strictly
assigns the junior fall course
schedules
for
students.
It

plugs
an
entrepreneurship

challenge
mid-semester
on

top of normal coursework and
schedules it in the same week
as a significant number of
on-campus interviews. These
frictions, among others, made
me constantly choose between
dedicating my efforts to courses
and recruiting.

The school itself doesn’t

implement
any
systematic

support
channels
or
follow-

ups about how students can
best approach recruiting and
prioritize their mental health.
The Business School does provide
psychological services from one of
the University’s CAPS counselors
and occasionally emails links to
articles like tips for managing
stress. Cao has also found that
the Business School has been
responsive to Mind Matters’
efforts — it provides space for
the
organization’s
meditation

sessions and is working with
group
members
to
establish

an “Identity and Diversity in
Organizations” session focusing
on mental health.

But
I
believe
the
lack

of
initiative
from
the

administration
itself

demonstrates a passive position
toward students’ well-being.
I encourage the school to
consider its students more in its
program’s structure, reconcile
its recruiting schedule with its
curriculum as much as possible
and continue to boost mental
health resources. The Business
School should recognize the
unique position we are in as
students, as job seekers and
as people throughout these
recruiting seasons and, more
broadly, throughout our time
in an undergraduate business
program.
It
should
build

upon the work its students
are already doing to promote
mental health and well-being,
and
take
direct
action
to

alleviate some of the pressure
on its community of students in
such a critical moment.

A

s
a
high
school

student, when I began
my college application

process, I knew I was part
of a larger group. So many
people around me were first-
generation college students,
and
we
often
struggled

together. Upon my acceptance
to the University of Michigan,
that
large
group
quickly

evaporated.
The
people

around me were suddenly
from long lines of college
graduates, and I began to feel
out of place. My new found
friends commented on what
an oddity I was, braving the
big scary school without a clue
what I was getting into.

According
to
the

University’s own statistics,
only
10.6
percent
of
the

students in 2013 were first
generation, of which nearly
half reported their parents
had actually still attended
some college but received no
degree. Other top universities
also
have
first-generation

student populations of less
than 20 percent. In fact,
according to The New York
Times, “The proportion of
freshmen at elite campuses
who are first generation — 11
percent Dartmouth, 12 percent
at Princeton, 14 percent at
Yale, 15 percent at Amherst, 16
percent at Cornell, 17 percent
at Brown — nearly matches
that of their low-income Pell
grant recipients.”

The fact that these numbers

have reached one-fifth of the
national average might tell a
tale of a deeper problem. These
statistics show that there are
clearly some more obstacles
keeping the majority of these
students out of universities.
According to a 2010 study by
the United States Department
of
Education,
50
percent

of
college
students
were

first
generation,
defined

as students whose parents
had
never
attended
a

postsecondary school. That
is, never pursued an education
beyond high school.

As
a
first-generation

student, the challenges of
pursuing a higher education
are already difficult as it
is. Now, throw in the most
prestigious public institutions

of learning in the country
and make these students a
minority group, and it is not
doing anything to help the
situation. The University of
Michigan must take steps in
the right direction and act
as an example for other top
colleges to follow.

In
recent
years,
the

University has made such
steps, especially with the
introduction
of
both
the

HAIL Scholarship and the
Go Blue Guarantee, which
was introduced last year.
These scholarships provide
financial
help
to
in-state

students
who
come
from

diverse backgrounds and are
not able to pay their own way
without taking on massive
student debt.

As a first-generation student

and someone who finished
high school and applied to
college as a homeless student,
I can sympathize with the
struggles involved. There are
no parents to ask for college
advice and often no older
siblings to ask either. If you
are lucky, you might have
gone to a big school or had an
amazing college counselor to
work with. If you were like
me, you were homeschooled
until
high
school,
where

your graduating class was
26 students and neither your
parents nor your school was
much help. Some parents still
think today’s world is the
same one they grew up in half
a century ago when you did not
need a college education to be
successful; you simply had to
work hard. Nobody seems to
understand the questions you

might have or the anxiety one
might feel. The people around
you will often hold a higher
expectation of you then you
have been accustomed to.

Thankfully, the University

has recently done good work
looking out for their extreme
minority of such students.
Programs like Comprehensive
Studies Program and Summer
Bridge
Scholars
Program

give students a chance to
acclimate
themselves
to

college
life
before
being

thrown into the bumbling
confusion that is freshman
year. These programs offer
students a continued support
network
throughout
their

college experience, including
specialized
teachers,
GSIs

and small class sizes. Being
placed among a group of
students who are in a similar
position as your own does
wonders to help with the
adjustment that is needed,
though,
in
my
personal

experience, it is not always
the best route to take for
yourself.

The federal government,

too, has implemented many
programs
throughout
the

country to help students like
me. I had the pleasure and
honor of working with a group
called
TRIO
Pre-College

during
my
college
search

and application adventures.
They work with students in
situations similar to mine to
help waive application fees,
proofread essays and even
take
students
on
campus

tours. I am glad to have been
assisted by them and look
forward to helping programs
like theirs in the future any
way I can. Without them, I
wouldn’t be able to hold the
proud title of a Wolverine.

There
is
still
a
long

way to go to make sure all
students feel welcome at our
university, and all colleges
for that matter, but progress
and
positive
change
are

being made. This situation
often goes unnoticed and
underappreciated, and I hope
I am able to shed some light
on the subject for all to gain at
least a simple understanding.

Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
4 — Friday, January 12, 2018

DAYTON HARE

Managing Editor

420 Maynard St.

Ann Arbor, MI 48109

tothedaily@michigandaily.com

Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890.

ALEXA ST. JOHN

Editor in Chief
ANU ROY-CHAUDHURY AND

ASHLEY ZHANG
Editorial Page Editors

Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s Editorial Board.

All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS

STEPHANIE TRIERWEILER | COLUMN

Carolyn Ayaub
Megan Burns

Samantha Goldstein

Emily Huhman
Jeremy Kaplan

Sarah Khan

Max Lubell

Lucas Maiman

Madeline Nowicki
Anna Polumbo-Levy

Jason Rowland

Anu Roy-Chaudhury

Ali Safawi

Sarah Salman
Kevin Sweitzer

Rebecca Tarnopol

Stephanie Trierweiler

Ashley Zhang

Prioritize mental health in recruiting

First generation students, a minority

Stephanie Trierweiler can be

reached at strier@umich.edu

“I encourage the
school to consider
its students more
in its program’s

structure.”

Lucas Dean can be reached at

lbdean@umich.edu

LUCAS DEAN | COLUMN

“The university
must take steps in
the right direction

and act as an

example for other

top colleges to

follow.”

WANT TO JOIN OUR TEAM?

Come to The Michigan Daily’s mass meetings!

Mass meetings will be located in the newsroom at 420
Maynard on Jan. 16 and 17 at 7 p.m. Hope to see you there!

— President Donald Trump speaking to lawmakers in the Oval
Office about including immigrants from Haiti, El Savador and

African countries as part of the bipartisan immigration deal

“

NOTABLE QUOTABLE

Why are we having all these people
from shithole countries come here?

”