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?

”

