Pay Up Or Forever Be Unemployed

Being an unpaid intern means you leave the summer behind with but one tangible bit of compensation: the recommendation letter. While this non-monetary reward can't buy you, well, anything, it can in fact help you get a job. Career Services used to keep students' rec letters on file for free and send them out to potential employees for a small fee. It was a nice service, and being as though these documents take up what we assume is insignificant server space and that we pay $45,000+ a year to attend Penn, we took the whole no-filing-cost thing for granted.

Until today, that is. As per an e-mail sent out today, Career Services has announced that is partnering with Interfolio, "the premier web-based credentials file management firm." The service actually sounds pretty good, but it comes at a price. The $19 a year fee won't exactly break the bank, but it looks like your rec letters (yes alums, even the ones you have had on file for the past decade) will be destroyed unless you cough up the dough. Uncool.