Should I say that I am student on the interview if I am on academic leave?

Question

I have been invited for the interview (paid internship) this week. I am a bit confused about whether should I say that I am student of X University (technically, I am, but not actively enrolled, but I enjoy all the benefits of being one, and I have the status on the university website and the student ID and etc.) while being on the academic leave.

I am talking on a bachelor's degree.

The reason I am asking this because:

• I don't want end up like the author of this question.
• I know the likelihood of the question("Can you tell me a little about yourself?") coming up is high, so should I try to hide that I am in this tricky position or not and face the situation where they may ask me about my studies and it may end up in a bad position.

P.S the job add in the requirements tells that I should be either majoring in CS or in other field OR experienced, so I don't know whether that will be a problem.

Answer 1

Don't leave anything to imagination, say it in full.

"I am a student of X university and currently on academic leave. I'm suppose/ planning to resume my classes / course on Y date."

Given that you have a valid student ID, registration and leave approval, there's no reason to be afraid of lying, because you are not.

Now question is: whether the company will agree to your "student" status - that depends on the company (policies) and there's nothing you can or need do about that. State the facts and let them decide how they want to interpret the facts.

Answer 2

You need to honest and straight forward with them.

The issue you have is that if you are perceived as dodging and weaving around an answer it might just be easier for them to go with another candidate.

Now if they perceive that you were in danger of academic probation, or that you are trying to decide if college is for you, they may decide that your odds of graduating in the next few years are low. And if the goal of bringing on interns is to see if they may be good employees, they are probably not interested in non-students.

They may not care that you have an college email address and an ID. Most schools don't disable them for 1+ years after your last class, and I have never known for an ID to be confiscated. Unless they can scan the id and tap into the university database the ID doesn't tell them if you are an active student this semester. Many universities scan the ID before a sporting even, or when entering the library, or using the gym. They want to stop non-students who still have the ID.

Many of these internship programs ask students To prove enrollment. They do this by asking for a printout from the university system showing their completed classes and current enrollment. This is usually done as part of the application/interview and then again on the first day of work. They also do this if they have a GPA requirement, or one for number of credits, or enrollment in a specific class.

You don't want to risk being dismissed from the internship on the first day because you successfully dodged their questions, only to discover they really want to focus on active students.