Wanted: More internships for college students

College graduates in New Jersey say internships and practical experience are more important than academic courses or student jobs when it comes to being prepared for the workplace, a new Stockton University poll finds.

But many respondents did not use their school's career services and say colleges can do more.

Of New Jerseyans polled, a plurality — 30.1 percent — chose "getting a better job" as the most important outcome of going to college for them personally. Other options included improving quality of life (20.0 percent), gaining a broader understanding of the world (17.9), learning specific skills (14.7), and personal satisfaction and confidence (12.3).

The report, "Measuring College Outcomes," was released Thursday and based on a statewide poll of 770 adults who graduated from college since 2001 or took at least two years of courses. It was authored by Darryl Greer, senior fellow at Stockton's William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy, and the poll was conducted by the Stockton Polling Institute.

Asked what changes they would make as students, 38.3 percent of respondents said they would find more internships or work experiences; 18.3 percent would change majors, 18.2 percent would study harder, and 16.0 percent would "make better choices about course selections."

Only a few respondents, 6.2 percent, said they would not make any change to their college experience.

The emphasis on practical experience was borne out in other questions: Asked how their schools could have improved their experience, respondents were more likely to focus on practice over academics. A majority chose either increasing hands-on experience or better career counseling over better academic counseling and other academic changes.

Most respondents said their school prepared them, to some degree, for a job and career, with 34.5 percent saying they were "extremely well" prepared and 44.5 percent saying they were prepared "somewhat well" for their job and career.

But some of that success doesn't come from college career counseling services, with many students saying they did not use them. A slim majority, 50.5 percent of respondents, said college career counseling was either "very important" or "somewhat important" to their job or career success.

About two-thirds of respondents said they did not use college career counseling services to help find a job or career; 59.9 percent did not use career counseling to find an internship; 51.4 percent did not use career counseling for help with preparing job materials, and 65.4 percent did not use career services for interview preparation.

Only 16.0 percent said they turned to career counselors for the most useful job advice; 16.9 percent said they turned to other students and 35.7 percent said faculty members provided the most useful advice.

The full report is available here.