New Paltz: small town, big dreams

Walking in New Paltz main street

The IIB journey starts in New Paltz, a small village in Ulster County, NY, about one hour and a half to two hours to New York City. If you’re coming in the Spring term, I highly recommend you to bring a lot of warm clothes and jackets because it is really cold and snowy (about -12 to -4 celsius degrees everyday).

Here I will write the best recommendations for you while being in New Paltz…

Start before it starts

In New Paltz you will study for about two months, which is the easy part. The hardest part is to get an internship! You should really be prepared to work hard, manage stress, be flexible and sometimes let things go. Before coming to New Paltz, after you finish all the application process for the IIB program, I encourage you to start looking for several internship offers in Indeed, Linkedin and other job posting webpages so that you have different options to present to Jeff in your first weeks. Yes, you need to start working hard in the internship search from week 1, well even before coming.

Work hard

I need to tell you that things will not be easy, and even though you think you have a great curriculum and everybody will be willing to work with you, do not get too overconfident. In NYC a lot of networking and recommendations needs to be involved, that is why Jeff will be helping you all the way.
You will dream big in New Paltz, a lot of things will be passing trough your mind and you will be willing to get the best internship ever. Yes you can get it but you must work hard! Do a lot of internship offers search, apply to the ones you feel you are a good fit, always improve your résumé, create networking with professors and classmates, and never stop doing the best of your efforts.

Do not worry for things you can not control

This is my best recommendation I can give you. Always do your best, give everything that is in your hands to make things work, but there are a lot of thing out of your control and worrying about them only stresses you more.

Main Course

Enjoy the calm city

Go for a walk in the nature, go to the skii trips with other SUNY New Paltz Students, take your time, relax and get ready for the speed of the city. My favorite place in New Paltz is main course, it has amazing brunches, delicious salads and breathtaking desserts.

And of course… enjoy, take photos, write down your experiences and be happy!!!

I'm a Mexican Marketing student. I was in the IIB program for the Spring term 2019.