Internships Abroad: Unpaid, With a $10,000 Price Tag

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“We’ve seen so many people do internships who would otherwise not study abroad because it’s too expensive,” Ms. Merson said. “A lot of students think, ‘An international internship is a really good idea, and I’m going to make sure I can afford it.’ ” She added: “We’re seeing proportionally far more first-generation college students doing internships abroad than doing study abroad, because it’s such a good strategic choice and such a good return on investment.”

That doesn’t even make any sense. The example given in the article cost $16,000; that’s about the cost of a study abroad program for a semester (it of course depends on the program and what it includes). One of the summer internships is nearly $10,000, which is about the same as the all-inclusive cost (tuition, room, and board) for a 6-8 week summer study abroad through SIT. 8 weeks with CIEE or IES is cheaper. If students can’t afford study abroad they can’t afford an internship abroad, either.

“There’s a very small percentage of students who can afford it, who can afford to work for free in London for three months,” she said. “These companies provide a great opportunity and they charge for it. You might have the luxury of going to work at Wimbledon and not being paid for it.”

They’re not working for free; they are paying to work. The idea of an unpaid internship in and of itself was silly to me in college because even if I wasn’t fully qualified for the job, I am still performing some kind of labor, so I should get paid (aside from the fact that I absolutely could not afford to do an unpaid internship. I needed to feed and house myself over the summers). But paying for the privilege of working for someone? How many of these kids get to actually go to work for Wimbledon? If you have the cash to pay $10,000 for a summer internship you could just take a trip to Wimbledon.

I studied abroad, but I had to do it during the academic year when I could use my financial aid to pay for it.