College Program Question(s) - Non-Alumni Advanced Internships

[DisneySaint]

Allright, I'm going to try to word this as simply as possible, so bear with me. Status report first:

My name is Joey. I am a Junior at Louisiana State University majoring in Communication Studies and minoring in Sociology. I have one year of school left and plan to graduate in December 2005. I can not / will not leave the state until I graduate because I am recently engaged to my girlfriend of 4 years and do not want to leave her nor school (this information will be relavent later).

I recently found out that the WDW College Program has removed the CP Alumni requirement for many of its advanced internships. Unfortunately for me, I didn't even find out about the CP until late in my college career and, even so, I likely would not have left my girlfriend to go to Orlando for 6 months.

Immediately when I found out there was a college program, I practically DROOLED over one position ... "EPCOT Communication Coordinator". This position was everything I dreamed of and more, but, of course, it involved leaving my girlfriend AND having to be a CP alumni.

Well, I recently went back to the WWW.WDWCOLLEGEPROGRAM.COM website and noticed that that positions' alumni requirement has been REMOVED! :sohappy: BUT - I am left with two problems: I am not leaving my fiancee and I am graduating next year. Now, I also heard that you can do these internships the semester AFTER you graduate.

Here is where my questions comes in:

(1) The EPCOT Communication Coordinator position is no longer on the website. Instead, there is one called Magic Kingdom Communication Coordinator which lists the exact same responsibilities. Now, I wouldn't mind that, but EPCOT is my dream job location - is it possible that it will come back?
(2) Would you reccomend just doing my original plan and moving to Orlando immediately after I graduate and get married in December 2005 without doing the advanced internship - OR - do you think taking the internship would be a good idea to do (i.e. graduate, get married, move to Orlando, and take the internship for a semester)?
(3) How good is an advanced internship for getting your foot in the door for a professional level position at WDW? I don't want to waste my time and, especially, loss of wages to do something that will get me nowhere (especially since I'd have graduated already).
(4) Compared to the CP, how hard are the advanced internships to get into?
(5) Can I live at home with my fiancee (then wife) while doing the CP?
(6) If I wanted to do the internship in Spring 2006, when should I go to my first interview?

Thanks so much for any help you can provide. I am going to the informational meeting on campus at LSU later this month, but I wanted to at least have a good idea.

Joey

 

[DisneySaint]

Ok 16 people have viewed the thread and no replies yet! Even if you can answer just 1 of my questions, please do so. I really need help on this!

 

[WDWKat26]

Allright, I'm going to try to word this as simply as possible, so bear with me. Status report first:

My name is Joey. I am a Junior at Louisiana State University majoring in Communication Studies and minoring in Sociology. I have one year of school left and plan to graduate in December 2005. I can not / will not leave the state until I graduate because I am recently engaged to my girlfriend of 4 years and do not want to leave her nor school (this information will be relavent later).

I recently found out that the WDW College Program has removed the CP Alumni requirement for many of its advanced internships. Unfortunately for me, I didn't even find out about the CP until late in my college career and, even so, I likely would not have left my girlfriend to go to Orlando for 6 months.

Immediately when I found out there was a college program, I practically DROOLED over one position ... "EPCOT Communication Coordinator". This position was everything I dreamed of and more, but, of course, it involved leaving my girlfriend AND having to be a CP alumni.

Well, I recently went back to the WWW.WDWCOLLEGEPROGRAM.COM website and noticed that that positions' alumni requirement has been REMOVED! :sohappy: BUT - I am left with two problems: I am not leaving my fiancee and I am graduating next year. Now, I also heard that you can do these internships the semester AFTER you graduate.

Here is where my questions comes in:

(1) The EPCOT Communication Coordinator position is no longer on the website. Instead, there is one called Magic Kingdom Communication Coordinator which lists the exact same responsibilities. Now, I wouldn't mind that, but EPCOT is my dream job location - is it possible that it will come back?
(2) Would you reccomend just doing my original plan and moving to Orlando immediately after I graduate and get married in December 2005 without doing the advanced internship - OR - do you think taking the internship would be a good idea to do (i.e. graduate, get married, move to Orlando, and take the internship for a semester)?
(3) How good is an advanced internship for getting your foot in the door for a professional level position at WDW? I don't want to waste my time and, especially, loss of wages to do something that will get me nowhere (especially since I'd have graduated already).
(4) Compared to the CP, how hard are the advanced internships to get into?
(5) Can I live at home with my fiancee (then wife) while doing the CP?
(6) If I wanted to do the internship in Spring 2006, when should I go to my first interview?

Thanks so much for any help you can provide. I am going to the informational meeting on campus at LSU later this month, but I wanted to at least have a good idea.

Joey

Wow! Sounds like you have a dilemma really going on! BTW, congrats on getting married! :sohappy:

Okay let's see what I can do for you here. I am also a communications major and my sister did a CP Advanced Internship. Ok here goes:

(1) I know you really wanted to work at Epcot, but i'm not sure if the position will be opening again anytime soon. Whether it was filled by another CP on an AI, you really don't know.

(2) Hmm...I think they're both good ideas, but I think what is most important is what your fiancee thinks about the situation.

(3) Advanced Internships are a GREAT way to get your foot in the door. My sister did one and she is an Elementary Ed major, and she worked for the YES program, she made some great contacts there and also got some great work for her resume. But, there are some people who do AI's and get stuck at places where it's not as nice, for example I had a friend whose GF did an AI and ended up serving ice cream all summer. I met another girl who was doing an AI as a waitress. If you know what you want to do, and you really want that Magic Kingdom Communications job, then go for it! It would be a great experience and like I said above, look great on a resume.

As for the next 3 questions, I don't think i'd be the best person to answer them. You can always call Disney, and keep checking up on www.wdwcollegeprogram.com, do they have any phone numbers on there that you can call? If so, do it! Hehe I hope I could help out a little bit!

 

[DisneySaint]

Thanks so much for taking a swing at it; very helpful.

 

[togasports]

(1) The EPCOT Communication Coordinator position is no longer on the website. Instead, there is one called Magic Kingdom Communication Coordinator which lists the exact same responsibilities. Now, I wouldn't mind that, but EPCOT is my dream job location - is it possible that it will come back?
(2) Would you reccomend just doing my original plan and moving to Orlando immediately after I graduate and get married in December 2005 without doing the advanced internship - OR - do you think taking the internship would be a good idea to do (i.e. graduate, get married, move to Orlando, and take the internship for a semester)?
(3) How good is an advanced internship for getting your foot in the door for a professional level position at WDW? I don't want to waste my time and, especially, loss of wages to do something that will get me nowhere (especially since I'd have graduated already).
(4) Compared to the CP, how hard are the advanced internships to get into?
(5) Can I live at home with my fiancee (then wife) while doing the CP?
(6) If I wanted to do the internship in Spring 2006, when should I go to my first interview?
Joey

Okay I am going to take a stab at this.
1. Epcot prob got filled but may be availible when you are looking to apply. Also MK is pretty cool as long as you arent in fantasyland Stroller hell.
2. Taking an AI would be the experience of a lifetime. I know a few Industrial Engineers and people in Ride and Show Engineering that were AIs that got jobs from it
3.Answered Above. Also It looks great on a resume that you worked at Disney
4.AIs are harder to get into. But since you are towards the end of your college career you will probably have a better chance. It also depends on each individual Internship Hospitality internships are really hard. Engineering internships are tough but not as bad as Hospitality. I am not sure about communications.
5. AIs do not have to live in CP housing. They can but they don't. So you could get an apartment for you and your fiancee and that would be fine. Check the thread about that in the other parts of the forum.
6.You would prob start to apply around August-November. Sometimes earlier. I would check a couple of months early to see if the internship you want is on the site.

I hope that I have been some Help.

 

[DisneySaint]

Thanks so much, it definently does.
When I go to the presentation later this month I will ask the Disney reps themselves, of course, but I definently just wanted to know how worth it the AI is. It's seeming more and more worth it by the day.