<p>I am a freshman at WPI right now. My GPA will probably be a 3.5 in Robotics Engineering/CS major this semester. I have some prior experience, although it was in a small tech-focused business (cousin's company). I had a mediocre 1st quarter (~3.33 GPA) but plan to study harder a.</p>
<p>In this competitive job environment, what would be considered a competitive GPA for a freshman and how tough is it for a freshman to get a technical internship. I am not a genius by any means but am a reasonably intelligent person. I have contacted the Career Development Center and am planning to arrange mock interviews and have a reasonable resume, although it isn't as extensive as some other students.</p>
<p>If I do not get an internship, I would have to consider other options. How competitive is it to do research (even with minimum stipend) in a related area. Is it worth doing summer courses to boost my GPA. I might just I just want to make some $$$ and build a professional resume for an engineering career or grad school.</p>
<p>I imagine it would be VERY competitive for a freshman to get an internship. Most companies look for juniors since they will be one year away from graduation and the occasional sophomore. </p>
<p>In terms of a competitive GPA, really the higher the GPA the better it is. However due to the economy many companies are slashing their internship programs so the competition will be stiff. Go ahead and shoot your resume around and see if any company is interested. While it isn’t absolutely necessary to really do anything for your freshman summer, I think it is never too early to build up valid experience. An alternative option would be to take 1 or 2 summer classes and research with a professor.</p>
<p>Try checking with smaller, local companies in your area–even in this economy you never know what they might be able to offer esp over the big name companies since you are a freshman. You might also consider looking into an REU at a college or university. Good Luck!</p>
<p>I’m a freshman this year in EE/CS at a large state university. I landed an internship in software. If you have prior experience that shows you are a self-starter and are willing to take initiative, you can definitely get something, regardless of age.</p>
<p>load up on courses and pwn the competition in your field when you apply sophomore year. plus if you rack up enough credits you can accelerate graduation. even you don’t want this, on your resume it makes you a rising senior (graduating winter) ie make companies less skeptical.</p>
<p>A coworker’s son at UMass Amherst got an internship with IBM the summer after his Freshman year. For jobs, a lot may ride on your location. Last spring I saw a lot of companies looking for interns but the area had a ton of small businesses. The Boston area typically has a lot of organizations looking for interns but housing can be a real problem.</p>
<p>The competition for REUs can be tough and they usually want juniors with high GPAs.</p>
<p>Did WPI have a career day? Also checkout indeed.com for leads.</p>
<p>Internships may be difficult because they tend to look for juniors. Ditto with REUs. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t apply. An alternative would be working in a lab at your university over the summer.</p>
<p>I think that getting an REU is more competitive than getting an internship. REUs typically look for junior level students because they usually require a stronger coursework background. I think that your best bet is working at a large firm because they usually look for interns to do the grunt work i.e. updating and writing up documents. It may not be the most interesting work but it’ll get you foot in the door.</p>
<p>Seems to me that most of the engineering students who receive internships after freshmen year are CS, CSE, COMP, CPEG majors.</p>
<p>As for REUs, it depends which program you are applying to. Most like 3.5+ for you to be competitive. I was in a REU this past summer where I worked with a rising sophomore. But like what is already mentioned, they would prefer students who have finished junior year with high GPAs. Other students in my REU program came from small-name schools with 3.75+ GPA, some 3.9-4.0.</p>
<p>Why are companies slashing their internship programs in this economy? Doesn’t it make more sense to expand up on it, and get free help? With only the best workers/most competencies students eventually receiving offers?</p>
<p>It costs time and money to train interns and it’s something that is easily dropped when you’re asking your remaining employees to increase their workloads to compensate for the people that were laid off.</p>
<p>most career fair I went when I was a sophomore didn’t take my resume because they want only juniors or seniors with specific courses taken. I would say it’s hard for a freshman to get an internship without connection.</p>
<p>The majority of freshman at Georgia Tech have internships - some even intern in the summer before their freshman year starts (they’re offered jobs from alumni during the interview process). </p>
<p>Companies like freshmen because they can be brought back for 3 or 4 semesters later. With a senior, you spend a month or two training him, and can only get about a month of productivity out of it. With a freshman, you can spend a semester training him, then get productivity out for several semesters into the future.</p>