How common is it for CS graduates in freshmen year to land an internship at UMD?Mine has been applying to a lot of internships with no luck…any advice?Thank you!
“CS graduates in freshmen year”…? A first year grad student or a freshman undergraduate?
If you are talking freshman year undergraduate, I will tell you my son (already graduated - MechE) didn’t get an internship until sophomore year. However, he honestly didn’t put a whole lot of effort into trying that year. He went to the fall career fair and was a little discouraged that companies showed preference for upperclassmen. His friends that did get internships got them from the spring career fair, but my son didn’t bother going to that, so had he done so, he might have had better luck. His internship as a sophomore came out of connections from the programs he was involved in at school.
I do know it’s absolutely possible though. One student that was in the ACES cybersecurity program (a few years ago) got an internship as a freshman, and he reported that several students in that program had also secured internships as freshmen. I’m not sure if the specificity of their coursework in cybersecurity or their participation in ACES made it easier or it was just a good year opportunity-wise.
Has your son checked out Careers4Terps? https://careers.umd.edu/careers4terps
As an alternative to an internship, something equally “productive” for experience would be research. My son always related research with the kind done in English or history classes, so he didn’t look into it as a freshman. When he finally did get involved, he regretted not looking into research sooner since that’s where all the hands-on action is! Share this link with him/her https://cmns.umd.edu/undergraduate/research-internships to see what options are available. Maryland is really great about getting students involved in research even as freshmen!
Also, forgot to mention that if your student is female (you didn’t specify) there are additional resources available to help her make connections and learn about opportunities. She should check out https://mcwic.cs.umd.edu
@maryversity …thank you so much for your detailed reply!My son is a CS undergraduate freshman…he is also part of the ACES cyber security LLP. I will share with him the research link andhe does hope to hope to go to the spring fair…so hopefully he has better luck.Are there internship positions available that late?Thank you again so much!I really appreciate you taking the time to reply.
I’m glad to help. Make sure your son has someone review his resume - very different than what you might expect since STEM field resumes are more project-based. The career center has drop-in hours the week before the career fair.
Also, tell your son talk to his profs - they really love to mentor students!
Here is a listing of the current openings listed for undergrads https://umd-csm.symplicity.com/students/jobboard/49b9cb2a46ac0924ef9dcf2dbcb42819
Best of luck to him and tell him not to get discouraged. It’s a process. The ability to land an internship freshman year is NOT an indicator of future success, I promise.
Also, on a related matter, QUEST does have a built-in internship, so if your son has any interest, he should check it out …see copied/pasted info (doubt links will work directly so you may have to copy and paste yourself)
Attention prospective QUEST students!
Are you filling out your QUEST application and finding that you have questions about QUEST and/or the application? Well, you’re in luck! Our QUEST recruiting team will be hosting an online Q&A session for prospective students on Thursday, January 31st from 6-7:30PM.
If interested in participating, please register at go.umd.edu/questqanda PRIOR to January 31st. After registering, you will receive an email with directions on how to log-on to the online chat on January 31st.
Don’t forget! Our application is due on February 4th at apply.questumd.com.
@maryversity …Thank you so much for all the info and your very kind words!So thankful for people like you who put time and effort to help strangers…Very grateful!Thank you again!
Absolutely my pleasure - other parents did it for me, so I am just paying it forward…