As a "New Ivy", the University’s rigorous academics foster a student body that is deeply committed to their scholarly pursuits — creating an ambitious culture that lingers not just during the academic year, but through the summer months. With their newfound free time, many students seek out internships, summer jobs and research opportunities to cultivate career skills. While these experiences help students advance their future goals, this culture of competition can also lead to pressure to have the “perfect” summer — defined by productivity and achievement, according to students interviewed by The Cavalier Daily.
Aarush Penmetsa, rising second-year College student, spent his summer taking Discrete Mathematics and Theory 1 remotely through a local community college. The class is a prerequisite for a course he hopes to take during the year, CS 3100, “Data Structures and Algorithms 2”, which he said will teach him advanced algorithm design and help him prepare for technical job interviews.
In the highly competitive computer science space, Penmetsa noted that pursuing academic opportunities in the summer is viewed less as optional additions to a resume and more as necessary career steps. Even in his first summer between college semesters, Penmetsa said that he feels an intense pressure to use the break to plan for post-graduate opportunities.
“If you don't have a productive summer, it really does put you behind,” Penmetsa said. “I think it is taxing, but it also helps set you up for a corporate [job] … [and] sets you up well for a life in that career path.”
Penmetsa’s perspective mirrors the realities of today’s job market. Watching unemployment statistics rise among recent college graduates, Higher Education Scholar Ryan Craig reported in May that many students now believe a degree alone is no longer enough to secure a job, and that internships, research and other forms of professional experience are more necessary.
Julena Patel, rising third-year Engineering student, stayed in Charlottesville this summer to pursue research at the Paudel Lab, a systems biology lab that studies how cancer cells behave and respond to treatments through computer model analysis. She said she hopes to gain hands-on experience to build her biomedical engineering skills. Simultaneously, she attended information sessions and case prep workshops hosted by consulting firms to apply early for summer 2027 internships.
Due to their competitive nature, the application process for summer internships has moved forward to, sometimes, over a year before the internship begins, which has kept Patel busy even as classes are not in session. According to Patel, juggling multiple long-term projects or goals is typical for the highly driven students of the University.
“I feel like it is really normalized to do something over the summer, something academic — whether it's coursework, research, or an internship, or just something productive,” Patel said. “I think I would drive myself crazy if I did absolutely nothing [in the summer].”
Patel explained that she chose to spend her summer this way because summer allows her to pursue opportunities purely focused on professional advancement. With no assignment deadlines or exams, she can use the free time she lacks in the school year to pursue career advancement and long-term goals.
“I really felt like I couldn't put any time towards [a] lab … during the school year. But I think it's a really valuable experience to [do] experiments and [work] on an actual project that could lead to something,” Patel said. “The summer is a perfect time to do that because there's not as much [free] time during the school year.”
For rising fourth-years who will walk at Final Exercises in less than 300 days, pressures can increase drastically, especially for students in programs that have high internship participation rates like the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and the McIntire School of Commerce.
Lauren O’Brien, rising fourth-year Commerce student, interned for an information services company in New York City. She explained that because of the unpredictable nature of receiving a competitive internship, students should not be so hard on themselves when planning their last few college summers.
“If you're able to just keep on looking at what's [going to] fill your cup … and what's going to interest you, that's going to ultimately help you so much more to be successful, not just your third-year summer internship,” O’Brien said.
Even following O’Brien’s advice, far and few summer gigs can check off all of the boxes for students to have a perfect summer job. While internships can open up more doors professionally, they often involve a greater time commitment, limiting time to travel and spend time with loved ones. Despite her appreciation for her professional internship, O’Brien said that she does miss her former summer job of being a camp counselor.
“[Moving on towards professional internships], you're working a big-kid job. You're in a big city, you're working longer hours — that's a big change,” O’Brien said. “But it's also not having that same community of working your hometown job that a lot of people keep … summer after summer. It is an extra sting to the heart.”
While some students may be able to move into professional internships as they advance through the University, formal opportunities may not be available to everyone. Many heavily sought-after internships amongst students at the University, such as Capitol Hill, are not guaranteed to pay or have stipends below minimum wage. With over 20 percent of students receiving Pell Grants — a federal subsidy awarded to qualifying for college on the basis of family income — many students can be financially locked out of internships because the opportunities may be economically unfeasible.
Besides financial factors, growing connections to peers’ career opportunities with platforms like LinkedIn can drive students to compare their own year-round productivity among classmates. In lieu of this, Penmetsa reminded students that they do not need to feed into competition that does not serve them. Instead, they should be conscious of their own goals and pursue opportunities that actually interest them, Penmetsa added.
“Be aware of what you want to do versus what you feel like you're forced to do based [on] the people around you,” Penmetsa said. “The most important thing is [that] you don't burn yourself out and you don't do too much just because the people around you are doing a lot … reassess yourself and figure out what fits best for you.”
Valentina Fratarcangeli, rising third-year College student, is doing exactly that — striking a balance between work, family and friends. This summer, she worked at a local country club pool while also completing clinical shadowing hours on the side.
“I have all the time in the world to live away from my family, and this is the prime time that I want to be close to my friends from high school … and also my siblings,” Fratarcangeli said. “So, being home is definitely a plus in the summer.”
Still — despite the peace and preferred structure she has for the summer — Fratarcangeli acknowledged that she has mixed feelings for enjoying her break.
“[During the school year] you never get a chance to breathe, and suddenly, when you have a second, you don't even know what to do with your time,” Fratarcangeli said. “You forget about all the hobbies you've had and all the things that you actually love to do … you kind of feel guilty, almost, for just enjoying time of slowness.”
Whether students pursue rest or additional work, they agree that the decision of how to spend the summer depends on what is best for each individual. Patel encouraged students to remember their success is not defined by the selectivity of their summer plans.
“Especially at a competitive institution like U.Va., I feel like it's kind of easy to think like ‘everyone has an experience and I don't, so I'm falling behind,’” Patel said. “I promise you, not everyone has something crazy selective that they're doing over the summer [and] everyone has their own [strengths] to offer.”
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