summer internships for college students

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, is your kid maxing out with the career services office and asking each professor for help?

OP here. Yes, my kid is in the career office frequently (and did so virtually over winter break), and has asked multiple professors (including 2 for whom he does research) for help. I’d assess the career center as minimum help/competency (if DC were consulting, finance or stem focused, I think the career center would be a lot more helpful - I follow the career center and see the postings) and the professors were nice but useless (advice along the lines of: “I could extend your research into this summer,”or “check the department website for opportunities”). DC has also reached out to several alums for informational interviews and has gotten polite responses but only one seems to be following through. DC is applying to orgs like think tanks, govt affairs divisions of various companies, policy type jobs, etc. Internships looking for writing / research / analysis type roles.

Meanwhile in my opinion, it would he so much better for DC as a person and future contributing member of a work organization to be spending this large chunk time (meeting with career center, scouring websites for job ops, putting together “fresh” cover letters and working up writing samples, talking to me and friends for advice, trying to set up informational interviews) focusing on their classes, their sport and extracurriculars!

Well, they will keep on keeping on and hopefully get at least an interview to boost their spirits. I like a PPs advice to focus on smaller orgs - I will suggest that DC try to start focusing efforts there since they’ve already done a large number of “bigger orgs” apps.

My DS is also a junior and looking for an internship. He just landed his first second interview. He's had the most success in getting a first interview through connections with alumni. I don't use Linkedin so I'm not exactly sure how it works, but he's told me he looks for people within the company who graduated from his college, and then he'll send them a message. Some alum have ignored his message, but he's had a pretty good success rate on setting up "coffee chats." Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mine hasn’t started college yet but this really sucks.

Let them know to start applications early.

DC is a math/CS major, and they started applying at the end of summer 2025 for summer 2026 internships.

Ugh, wish I knew this. Thought most internships opened up in Oct!

My DC is a junior, CS major, still looking for an internship. I told him to treat the internship search/application process like it's a job.

I have a CS major too. Your student is probably already aware, but this seems to be a very popular compilation of CS-related internships.
https://github.com/vanshb03/Summer2026-Internships

Thank you! I will let my student know, just in case! Has your student found an internship yet?

Yes. He was fortunate since its the "important" summer prior to senior year. Applied early. Able to get research and internship the prior two summers which I think really helped.

[Anonymous]

All full pay posters= internships.

[Anonymous]

Is your DC using Handshake? that seems to be popular.
To all the people saying “why not just work a regular job” I will say because you need to get your foot in the door with an internship or there’s nothing there after graduation. People are looking for experience. My cousin graduated in business from Penn State and worked regular hosting/waiter jobs in the summer. He couldn’t find a thing after graduation. He’s now working in high end retail, but probably only because all the stores where he lives are high end. My kiddo did unpaid research last summer just to get experience and it’s paying off this summer.

[Anonymous]

It’s rough!
My kid worked all four years of high school (summers and school year) in retail abc camps so she has that experience covered. The pressure to get an internship is real as is the competition.