Rip Off

I chose GE because I wanted to Intern abroad rather than study. Their Student Affairs guy, Alex, was the first person I talked to. He was incredibly nice and very helpful. He made me feel like that's how the whole process would go. There would be webinars to prepare me, yadda yadda yadda. I signed up for the program in July of 2011 to travel summer 2012. I didn't hear from anyone at GE again after the payments started rolling in. I thought "well it's still a long way away. Maybe there's not much I can do right now." They made me feel like I had to secure my spot in the London program NOW or I wouldn't get to go (because of the Olympics). So that's what I did.

After a whole semester of basically nothing happening (not hearing from anyone at GE, not knowing WHEN I would be placed in an internship, nothing), I emailed Alex and asked him what I should be doing right now. He directed me to this portal where there was a million bajillion things of paperwork for me to do. Cool... so I did the paperwork. It's now Spring and I still don't have an internship. This is important because I can't apply for my UK Visa until I have an employer to list on the application...so after waiting and waiting, I FINALLY get my first interview in LATE APRIL. I leave June 8th... this is really pushing it, but it's still doable. I interviewed with this employer and one other employer before being placed in my internship on May 12th...3 weeks before I should be on a plane to London.

I scramble to get all of the ridiculous Visa requirements done, while also taking finals and finishing out my school year, and get everything mailed off to the UK Border Agency 5 days before I'm supposed to leave. I had to pay extra to have it overnighted (GE didn't cover that) and pay to have the Visa rush processed (GE didn't cover that either). I'm not sure why I was made to feel like I needed to jump on signing up for this program LAST JULY if I wasn't going to be able to move forward with anything until the last possible minute. In case you wondering...no I didn't get to London on my originally scheduled flight. I had to pay US Airways another $300 to change my flight, I lost an entire week in London and at my Internship (I asked if I could be moved to second session so I didn't lose any time and they said no). I was not offered to be reimbursed for my flight change or offered to stay an extra week (even though I paid for it) and other people were offered both of those things.

My time in London was fine. I had fun, but I worked a lot. To anyone out there considering interning abroad...think really hard. I prefer working to going to school, but it really doesn't leave a lot of time for just relaxing and enjoying the country you're in. My company was nice enough to give me a week off at the end of my internship so I got to see everything I wanted to see before I left.

Once I got to London, Melissa, my GE coordinator, was pretty good. She was helpful whenever she could be, etc. But most of the time, we were all on our own figuring everything out by ourselves.

If I were you (assuming "you" are a college student seeking an internship for school credit or just wanting to study abroad for school credit) I would go through my study abroad office at my university and do whatever they recommend. I did this all on my own and it was an epic fail.