​Is pre-professionalism a prerequisite?

On the to-do list carried around by each Duke student, the pursuit of a summer internship accompanies a litany of classwork and extracurricular engagements to which students are obligated. In the wake of financial recruiting and on the tail end of consulting applications, many of Duke’s juniors already boast coveted positions in prestigious firms. Yet, the worries of summer employment plague more than upperclassmen: first-years and sophomores also feel the anxiety of improving their resumes with shiny internships. Today we ask to what extent pre-professionalism negatively competes with our intellectual and professional growth at our liberal arts institution.

Your Duke experience risks becoming instrumentalized in the pursuit of a pre-professional track. In medicine, law, banking and consulting, first-years and sophomores see, particularly in the latter two, the security, money and glitz sought by mentors and upperclassmen friends. This is not to say this is true of every pre-professional student. For some, a variety of cases to work on in consulting has great allure. For others, the pursuit of immediately profitable careers is a necessity. Midway through last semester, we discussed how the financial pressures of attending a school like Duke contribute to our drive to go into post-graduation careers that pay well. But more often than not, as we argued last year in “You Jump, I Jump,” most students see these four paths as well-trodden and surefire ways to become “successful.” However because they are also highly competitive fields, even for Duke students, tunnel vision overtakes us in their pursuit.

It is a shame to think pursuing a stable pre-professional job after graduation has to compete with service work, altruism and cultural experiences—the essence of Duke’s liberal arts education. The job search overrides for weeks at a time our intellectual and professional growth in these formative years. Programs like DukeEngage and Peace Corps and campus events like Lunar New Year and Night of Swing take back seats to securing an internship or summer research position. While on Duke’s campus, we focus on the extracurricular activities and experiences that are tangibly connected to furthering our career prospects. When we go further down these roads, we soothe ourselves by saying there will be time and freedom to be altruistic or passionate about something “when I have the money.”

What are the counterbalances Duke has to promote its fundamentals against the rising tide of pre-professionalism? First, the new Duke Experience class could and should connect first-years to professors who have chosen to continue in academic communities, giving students a taste of what their upperclassmen friends cannot really offer. Additionally, pairing undergraduates with graduate students would offer students a “five-plus” mentor to discuss long-term questions with, pushing students to be skeptical of the tracks they thought they would be on at Duke. Finally, the myth of a “perfect resume” must be debunked and the pursuit of passion projects promoted as what really sets students apart. Duke must endeavor to bolster the student who is really intrinsically motivated, helping them to translate their passions into careers. The Duke student who has made cultural experiences or service projects a big part of their undergraduate experience should be rewarded for making this time of their lives stand out from their careers after graduation.

We should hope that Duke increases its attentions to mentoring and inspiring students—supporting and promoting paths outside of the “Big Four”—just as students should talk themselves onto the path less traveled. The liberal arts education aims to educate students in a variety of competencies and an untempered devotion to pre-professionalism inhibits this aim.