- Students may receive credit for work done for pay.
- Each internship must have a faculty sponsor. More often than not, a student’s academic advisor will fill this role. As sponsor, your adviser will make sure that the requirements for credit are met and that the work is of a substantial nature commensurate with the acquisition of skills of college-educated employees. Detailed supervision of the intern in his or her job is the responsibility of the intern’s site supervisor.
- Registration in an internship for credit shall be conditional on satisfactory completion of the “Learning Agreement” form provided by the Career Center and the submission of this form to both the Career Center and faculty sponsor. A signed Learning Agreement must be submitted no later than one week into the start of the internship. No internship will be approved for credit after this deadline has passed.
- Work completed during the internship should contribute to the student’s academic or professional development. Work should be of the type that requires a college education.
- Credit awarded for an internship shall correspond to the time spent in work activities. For a typical three-unit registration, the student is expected to work 8 to 10 hours per week for 13 to 14 weeks. Registration for one or two units is possible for internships that require less work time. Summer internships may have a shorter duration with a corresponding increase in the number of hours worked in each week so that the total hours worked per unit of credit is similar to what students complete during a normal semester.
- Students may complete the work for an internship over the summer (or other time when they are not registered) and receive credit during the subsequent semester. However, if a student has never registered at Washington University, they are not eligible for an internship until such registration has taken place. Any internship completed in this way, however, must satisfy all the requirements outlined here. As noted earlier, the Learning Agreement must be obtained prior to beginning work at the internship site. (See 3rd point) Summer work completed for credit that requires the regular participation and supervision of faculty, on-site or on campus, will not be considered for internship credit.
- Internships shall require written work to be reviewed by the faculty sponsor. The assignments shall be specified before work on the internship begins, and they shall be written into the Learning Agreement signed by the student and faculty sponsor.
- The student shall obtain a signed final evaluation form from his or her site supervisor that evaluates the student’s work and verifies that the student has worked upon the agreed-upon number of hours. The student shall submit this completed form to the faculty sponsor. Credit will not be awarded until the faculty sponsor has received this final evaluation form. An evaluation form may be obtained from the Career Center.
- Students may count no more than 6 units of internship credit toward the 120 units required for graduation. Students may not receive more than 3 units of internship credit in any semester. Internship credits do not count toward major or advanced unit requirements.
- Because faculty are not involved in detailed supervision of the student’s work during an internship, internships shall be offered for pass/fail credit grades only. Internship credits, therefore, count towards the maximum of 18 units of credit/no credit units that may be applied toward graduation requirements.
If you are interested in an internship, the Career Center maintains an extensive list of internship opportunities and provides assistance in locating and organizing a good internship experience. The Career Center’s list of internship opportunities can be accessed online. If a student finds his or her own internship opportunity, however, the student must still contact the Career Center to file a Learning Agreement before the internship starts.
