School of Arts and Sciences

How to Earn Academic Credit for Your Internship

Here are the steps to earning academic credit for your internship:

  1. Students are responsible for locating and applying for their internship opportunities. You will find some suggestions for locating an internship on this site.
    Locating an Internship (PDF)
  2. You must have a faculty sponsor. A sponsor can be any full-time faculty member in Arts and Sciences. It can be a professor with whom you have had a class, or someone with whom you would like to work. Most faculty members are happy to work with a motivated student who is seeking mentorship, even if they have not been previously acquainted.
  3. You must download and complete an Academic Internship Learning Agreement (PDF), (or you can pick up in the OEL office in B-4 Thaw Hall).
    1. Complete Section 1 with your personal information.
    2. Your site supervisor must complete and sign Section 2. This section should include detailed information about your work responsibilities and how you will be supervised.
    3. Your faculty sponsor must complete and sign Section 3. This section should include detailed information about the academic assignments you will complete and submit to your sponsor in order to earn your grade. Assignments may include a reflective journal, a portfolio or other presentation of documents, pictures, or videos, created at the internship site and/or an integrative research paper. The assignments should reflect and connect academic learning and your internship experience, as well as highlight your accomplishments.
  4. You can earn from 1 to 3 credits for the internship depending upon the number of hours per week you work at the internship site and the number and type of assignments required by your faculty sponsor. You must work at least 10 hours per week at the internship site for a total of 40 hours over the semester to earn 1 credit (a total of 80 hours for 2 credits; 120 hours to earn 3 credits). However, the credits/grade earned is a combination of the academic work you complete during the internship as well as the hours "on the job." The credits you earn will be elective credits and you will receive an "S" or an "N" grade.
  5. Go to the Office of Experiential Learning (B4 Thaw Hall) to have your Learning Agreement approved. You must submit a completed Learning Agreement form before the end of add/drop of the term in which you are doing your internship.
  6. After your Learning Agreement is approved, you must register for one of the internship courses, (internship courses.doc) which require special permission from the OEL for Academic Internships, or from a professor for departmental internships. You will need to pay for the internship credits as you would for any other credits.
  7. Take your closed class permission form and your registration or add/drop form to the Registrar's Office, G1 Thackeray Hall, and register. Be sure to keep copies of your Learning Agreement and other forms for your records. You must follow the regular University registration and add/drop schedule for registering academic internship credits for the term in which you are participating in your internship. Credit cannot be awarded retroactively.
    • You must complete satisfactory work at the internship site. Your supervisor will be sent an evaluation to complete regarding your performance, to be reviewed by your faculty sponsor.
    • You must complete satisfactory academic work for your faculty sponsor for him/her to evaluate. Remember that the credits earned are tied to the amount and type of academic work completed during the internship.
    • Your faculty sponsor submits your grade.
    • You cannot be paid for an internship for credit.
Top