Rising Juniors/Seniors: Have They Secured Summer Internships or Are They Still Looking?

[Anonymous]

Does your rising junior or senior have an internship? What’s their major and when did they start looking?

Have a rising junior here. He has not applied to many opportunities. Maybe like 10-15. He began applying late March. He does have an interview tomorrow for a part time unpaid internship (15 to 20 hours a week). It’s a local establishment that doesn’t really advertise its internships so hopefully not much demand/competition. The school does offer a grant of ~$3k so he can use that as his pay. Hoping he can find a part time internship or job to supplement or a full time internship. Told him to utilize his career center and try to work their contacts as he hasn’t been leveraging them at all.

He plans to apply for more internships this week. Looking at a wide variety of industries/functions. Hospitality, nonprofits, local/state government, campaigns, financial services+ comms, human resources, research/policy, etc.

[Anonymous]

Does anybody know the percentage of rising sophomores/juniors/seniors who actually get internships?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anybody know the percentage of rising sophomores/juniors/seniors who actually get internships?

No idea on percentages. But I don’t think it’s that difficult for a rising junior or senior to secure an internship IF they leverage their career center (some schools provide/fund paid internships JUST for their students— getting an internship via this channel is much easier than going through the general pool), apply in mass volumes, start the search early, secure referrals, network, etc.

For rising sophomores, internships seems to be somewhat more rare, but I have seen exceptions.

[Anonymous]

Mine is a sophomore looking for one in media, so far no luck. I’m Trying not to get crazy about it.

[Anonymous]

The key is to have a good resume tailored to the job description. Make it very clear how the student is a good for the job. Then see if you have some connection to that organization to get a foot in the door. My DC rising junior shotgunned applications via LinkedIn last year and eventually got something. But this year as a rising senior leveraged connections - literally a neighbor down the street. Saved a lot of time.

[Anonymous]

I heard the time to apply for internships is in the fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I heard the time to apply for internships is in the fall.

I think this is true—some even open in the summer— but only for certain types of internships (e.g., investment banking, consulting, some software engineering, really desirable companies where the internships span functions).

[Anonymous]

I'm freaking out that my rising senior hasn't secured an internship yet. (Internally freaking out-- I know it doesn't help him to see me freaking out-- I think he is pretty demoralized already and doesn't need me to add to it.)

He applied to many places but evidently not enough. He is super friendly and loves to chat with people so if he could just get an interview I'm sure it would go well. But he has had zero interviews.

I don't think he did the shotgun blast of applications, but instead considered each employer individually and wrote cover letters specifically targetting that employer. His GPA is OK but not great-- like 3.3.

He is thinking that he will instead get the ball rolling with getting a co-op position during his senior year. He knows he is supposed to have a real internship this summer, but I'm feeling like it may not happen and instead he will be waiting tables. It's not the end of the world-- it's just tough to see him struggling so much, especially as I'm sure he would be a great employee.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard the time to apply for internships is in the fall.

I think this is true—some even open in the summer— but only for certain types of internships (e.g., investment banking, consulting, some software engineering, really desirable companies where the internships span functions).

+1 my son applied to a ton of internships as a sophomore, data science major, but didn't start until winter break and nothing worked out. He worked retail last summer.
Started applying for rising senior internships as soon as school started and had a great internship secured by winter break.

But my freshman, environmental science major, didn't start applying until winter break (because she didn't feel a ton of urgency, would have been fine to do another summer of camp counselor). Found a lot of jobs got posted in February with March and April deadlines. She accepted a full time natural resources management job last week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm freaking out that my rising senior hasn't secured an internship yet. (Internally freaking out-- I know it doesn't help him to see me freaking out-- I think he is pretty demoralized already and doesn't need me to add to it.)

He applied to many places but evidently not enough. He is super friendly and loves to chat with people so if he could just get an interview I'm sure it would go well. But he has had zero interviews.

I don't think he did the shotgun blast of applications, but instead considered each employer individually and wrote cover letters specifically targetting that employer. His GPA is OK but not great-- like 3.3.

He is thinking that he will instead get the ball rolling with getting a co-op position during his senior year. He knows he is supposed to have a real internship this summer, but I'm feeling like it may not happen and instead he will be waiting tables. It's not the end of the world-- it's just tough to see him struggling so much, especially as I'm sure he would be a great employee.

This is a good idea. I used to hire interns for my team and we had three terms -- summer, super competitive, normally only hired rising seniors, and then Fall and Spring which had far fewer applicants and were usually filled by seniors open to taking a semester off or new grads.

[Anonymous]

My current sophomore just received 2 solid paid offers. The school recommends starting the search in the fall but he procrastinated until February. He also had an internship last summer that was really great but I think he applied winter break. Most of the kids start even earlier. For the summer before senior year he intends to apply in September because that is the most important summer and he doesn’t want to take any chances. While job hunting myself, I noticed some prestigious firms have already listed 2025 internships!

[Anonymous]

Kid I know had his secured by fall. Investment banking, so highly competitive and applications have to go in early.

[Anonymous]

One alternative to consider is summer study abroad programs that include an internship. My DD's college listed a few of these programs in their study abroad info.

I'd hired an intern a few years ago who had done this and had some interesting experience to talk about.

Basically you do some pre-summer academic work, a few weeks of classes once in-country, get placed in a 6-8 week internship while continuing to have regular meetings, social events etc, maybe have to write a paper.

The one DD considered was in Ireland, the student I hired had done hers in France. DD ended up getting a good local internship so ultimately didn't do it.

Too late for this summer but something to look into for younger students for next year.

[Anonymous]

People need to realize the larger institutions use AI to "read" resumes to even get to an interview, so it is really important for kids to use the schools "tester" to make sure their resumes are scoring high.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm freaking out that my rising senior hasn't secured an internship yet. (Internally freaking out-- I know it doesn't help him to see me freaking out-- I think he is pretty demoralized already and doesn't need me to add to it.)

He applied to many places but evidently not enough. He is super friendly and loves to chat with people so if he could just get an interview I'm sure it would go well. But he has had zero interviews.

I don't think he did the shotgun blast of applications, but instead considered each employer individually and wrote cover letters specifically targetting that employer. His GPA is OK but not great-- like 3.3.

He is thinking that he will instead get the ball rolling with getting a co-op position during his senior year. He knows he is supposed to have a real internship this summer, but I'm feeling like it may not happen and instead he will be waiting tables. It's not the end of the world-- it's just tough to see him struggling so much, especially as I'm sure he would be a great employee.

This is a good idea. I used to hire interns for my team and we had three terms -- summer, super competitive, normally only hired rising seniors, and then Fall and Spring which had far fewer applicants and were usually filled by seniors open to taking a semester off or new grads.

Thank you so much for this feedback! It means a lot!