Summer Alumni Program, 2019 and 2020

[Reepicheep]

As I understand it, Disney modified their "hiring rules" this year for summer employees so that any American citizen who took part in the college program in a past summer was eligible to apply for a job, even if they were no longer attending university. So, presumably, an American who took part in the Disney College Program (say) ten years ago, and hasn't attended university for the past ten years, was eligible for a summer job at either Disneyland or Disney World. Is my understanding correct, and does anyone know if Disney will do a similar thing during the summer of 2020?

Also, does anyone know the effect this new Alumni Program had on the number of American hires through the Disney College Program? If (as appears to be the case) many hundreds of people were hired through the Alumni Program, there must have been a corresponding drop in hires through the Disney College Program.

My daughter (a Canadian) was fortunate enough to be offered employment for both the summers of 2018 and 2019, through the Disney International Program, but Canadian hires seem to be way down from last year. From what I can determine, around 250 Canadian university students were hired at Disney World in 2018. In 2019, 150 or so Canadian university students were hired at Disney World, and 10 at Disneyland, for a total of 160.

I'm starting to worry about the impact this new alumni program will have on both the Disney College Program (for Americans) and the International Program (for Canadians and other non-Americans) in the summer of 2020. Assuming my estimates are accurate, the drop from 250 Canadian hires in 2018 to 160 or so in 2019 is certainly significant, and I wonder if the drop will be even more significant next year. Or, in a worst case scenario, if Disney would cancel the international program totally (other than for a small number of hires to work at the various international pavilions at EPCOT). And it wouldn't surprise me if the Disney College Program (for Americans) was also cut back in favour of the Alumni program.

Anybody out there have any theories about why Disney did what they did, and what they have planned for the summer of 2020?

 

[Newsies]

Summer Alumni is not a new program, it has been around for at least 15 or so years. But you are correct about the "one-year" rule being lifted for Summer 2019. Anyone who has ever successfully completed a previous DCP was eligible for Summer '19, though the same "one-year" rule applied in previous years. There is no word on whether or not they will lift this restriction again for Summer '20 or not.

The Alumni program has no effect on the Fall and Spring DCPs. Actually, it is a needs based program that fills the spots that would otherwise not be filled during the primary DCP recruitment season. In fact: this year, the Alumni program saw the least amount of spots filled ever, despite the fact that anyone who has ever completed a DCP was invited to apply. In the past, hundreds of people were accepted to the program, and this year, everyone in our FB group was shocked to see that only 10 or 15 people in the group were offered a spot. Hundreds of people were given their NLIC notice on the same day, a few days before the actual deadline to apply.

I can tell you for certain that the idea that the domestic American CP prospects saw less acceptances as a result of this year's Summer Alumni program is absolutely not the case. The Fall program, which was undergoing recruitment during the same time as the Summer program was, actually saw more acceptances for Fall Advantage this year. Disney tends to favor Fall Advantage instead of Summer Alumni, as the training period is the same, but Fall Advantage CMs will be there for a lot longer than the Summer program. I am fairly confident that the International Program is safe for now. It looks like the true case is the opposite of what you're suggesting: the Summer Program is the one they're trying to do away with, not the International Program.