2012-01-15, 08:48 PM
Oh! Huh. I'd question whether every available internship worked that way, but, I do understand what you mean now. I got blind-sided applying to my internships too. I just had no idea one way or the other, that you needed to apply super far in advance, so I only started looking for an internship a month in advance. I'm sure you can imagine my shock when my teacher hands me a list of internships with all these, "apply 6 months prior" tag lines on them. :C So I feel for you there. They don't do a very good job of communicating in the California college system I guess.
Knowing what I know now, I'd still suggest you not get a campus job. Even toning down your academics, it sounds like that wouldn't be conducive to a pleasant semester, and I'd wager that it won't give you much of a competitive advantage in anything except college store discounts. If you think you can count on getting your internship class for the fall '12 year, then I say, start applying for those internships now. That should be plenty early and hopefully you'll beat out for competition for the fall '12 internship cycle.
Knowing what I know now, I'd still suggest you not get a campus job. Even toning down your academics, it sounds like that wouldn't be conducive to a pleasant semester, and I'd wager that it won't give you much of a competitive advantage in anything except college store discounts. If you think you can count on getting your internship class for the fall '12 year, then I say, start applying for those internships now. That should be plenty early and hopefully you'll beat out for competition for the fall '12 internship cycle.