What are your experiences with the Southwestern Company?

February 25, 2005 11:02 PM

I'm curious as to whether any MeFites have done the Southwestern Summer Program.

I did it three years ago and it definitely ranked as a top-five learning experience, but the month I lasted before quitting also ranks as a top-five worst month ever. On the other hand, some friends in my group made tens of thousands of dollars. I'm curious what experiences anyone here has had.
Side Question: If you didn't work for the company, have you bought the books yourself? How much did you end up using them?

posted by BuddhaInABucket to grab bag (3 comments total)

This is from the FAQ on the site:

They money doesn't come "easily" either -- the most successful students work 75+ hours every single week of the summer. Does it work? In 2003, the average first-time participant made just over $105 per day, or $2744 per month.

According to my calculations, that is $9.15 per hour. Beans.
posted by coolsara at 11:01 AM on February 26, 2005

coolsara - your calculation is wrong - you're using the times from the most successful with the average earnings (you'd need to use the top earnings or the average times).

but i suspect they're defining "first-time participant" in some strange way, because i bet a lot of people drop out after earning very little, which would pull the average way down.
posted by andrew cooke at 11:21 AM on February 26, 2005

From the parent FAQ:

The length of a “full summer” varies according to the university’s schedule, but approximately 7 out of 10 first year dealers stay at least 20 selling days.

I bet this is how they define a first time participant: those that last at least 20 days.

I've never done the program myself, but I heard a conversation where a girl was describing the program to a boy. He was pretty sold until he asked about housing. She hesitated, then said there was no housing but that they would knock on someone's door to ask to rent a room. She said she did pretty well, though she know people that were in the $10k/month range. She was awfully cute, though, and had an airhead manner which helped a lot, I think.
posted by Monday at 8:16 PM on February 26, 2005