Thursday, May 21, 2009

The Economics of Senioritis

Ah, late May, when the students look at you with rapt attention glazed and vacuous eyes, wondering "when, oh lord, when will it all end?" And "can I take any more economics lectures before I slip into catatonia?"

But perhaps it is entirely reasonable:  Benjamin Chimenti, a student in my international economics course, has attempted to make sense of 'senioritis' from an economics perspective.  I think it is fantastic and asked him to let me share the result.  [I especially like it because I can convince myself that it is not my stultifying lectures that are causing the vacuous stares] Enjoy...

1 comment:

John Sechrest said...

While the paper is interesting... and shows that he was paying attention at some point, it totally misses the real issue.

The real issue is that seniors do not seem to calculate that there are a whole lot of them that all go on the market at once. All of them do the work (sort of ) and all of them pass the OSU process. But the key is to be remarkable. To be something that stands out to the professor or to other people who companies will ask about the student.

Getting in this blog is an example of remarkable. It is the collection of remarkable things that the seniors do that put the in the place to be recommended into interesting opportunities.

When they think that the only think they came to OSU for is knowledge and not relationships, recommendations, and opportunities to be remarkable, then they slip into the mass of glazed eyed interviewee's who don't get invited to the interesting interviews.