<p>When did it happen that you can’t do unpaid internships? I thought as S was a sophomore with no professional experience he might have to get an unpaid to start if he was lucky enough to find one. Everything he is looking at says if its unpaid it has to be for credit. As he is looking at things outside his major he isn’t eligible for credit.</p>
<p>idk anything about that. have him look for a paid internship. : )</p>
<p>idk how they can “make” you take credit for an internship.</p>
<p>Idinct,
It was explained to me by an HR executive that apparently it is now illegal to work for free. It is only allowed if school credit is given instead of cash. Tried to get a friends son an unpaid internship in Sports Management with another friends company. Worked out but they were very reluctant without a letter from students professor that this was for credit.</p>
<p>How 'bout we call it ‘volunteering’ instead?</p>
<p>o i c. i guess that makes sense.</p>
<p>or shadowing</p>
<p>I thought maybe there was some secret class that he could get 1 credit for not that he needs the credit. Like “co-op any major”</p>
<p>Some great opportunities in marketing around, but they all have this requirement. Getting a paid one would be fantastic, but 1 in a million with no experience. Argh</p>
<p>I worked for a large financial corporation and we were only allowed to have interns if they could arrange with their schools to get credit for the internship (ironic - the student has to PAY to work for nothing). Otherwise it ran afoul of labor laws (although I couldn’t tell you which ones). We took very few paid interns because frankly, the cost (in training and mentoring time, etc.) exceeded the benefit in the vast majority of cases. We would have loved to have unpaid interns to work as analysts because it was a great recruiting tool and gave us a good opportunity to see what a student could do and whether he or she would be a good fit, but HR said no.</p>
<p>LD, has your son talked to anyone at UA about getting credit for an internship?</p>
<p>No, he hasn’t spoken to anyone directly. I’ll ask him to enquire at the career center. The problem is he’s kind of in between majors. Many majors seem to offer this option, but you have to have a certain amount of credits & declare the major. I thought he might be able to do Business since that is his minor & he has 9 credits, but you have to be a major in CB&A.</p>
<p>I wonder if there is anything in the HC, he has already fulfilled the credit requirements, so this would be extra, & unused towards his degree. He’s got a few of those.</p>
<p>Ah found a possibility, UH400 can be used for internship but there needs to be a project.</p>
<p>I’m paying attention to this thread because we are trying to decide whether to use a semester of D’s scholarship toward summer abroad. If we do, it will be because she expects to internship for a semester and not need it. Even if she just takes one class to cover credit for an internship, it would make sense financially for us to use it toward the summer. </p>
<p>Idinct, is your student looking for a semester internship? Please update when you learn how it is handled.</p>
<p>He’s looking for a summer internship. He’s not going to apply to the HC until he has an offer or a good possibility as the application needs to be specific. It seems like it shouldn’t be too onerous to get it approved, especially since he doesn’t need the HC credit.</p>
<p>Bumping this, as my S just got offered a paid engineering internship for the summer, and I was wondering if anyone had/has any further info about this process to get credit for it.</p>
<p>Son was told by his Mech. Eng’g advisor that he could either get paid for his research but not receive academic credit for his work, or forfeit the payment and receive credit for his research. For one semester, he forfeited the payment and worked to get credit for his research as an independent study under UH 400. His department also gave him a ME elective (3 credits) for the same work. He wrote a research paper to fulfill the requirements.</p>
<p>Thanks Soph… With Co-Ops (and those are paid), you CAN get credit on your transcript for them (or if not credit hours, they are at least listed as a “class”, so to speak). So why would internships have to be unpaid to get credit for them?</p>
<p>I was just wondering if there was some sort of thing you can put on your transcript by doing an internship? Or is there someone my S should notify at UA so that he has this internship officially recorded? Otherwise, I don’t think we will advise him to give up potential $6k in earnings for 3 credit hours! Crazy.</p>
<p>Aeromom, if your son chooses to be paid (and therefore his summer internship becomes a summer job), why would UA record it on his transcript? I have to be missing something here.</p>
<p>Well, here is something from the Mechanical Eng’g website - maybe someone on here has a student who actually recorded an internship on their transcript…or there is a similar process for other branches of engineering? [Honors</a> Program - Undergraduate Programs - Mechanical Engineering - The College of Engineering - UA](<a href=“http://me.eng.ua.edu/undergraduate/honors-program/]Honors”>Honors Program – Mechanical Engineering | The University of Alabama) I’m just trying to understand the process for internships at UA.</p>
<p>Maybe I should have also clarified that my S is participating in an internship program at an engineering company, which has a rather formal program for students, much like a co-op. Call it a summer job, but it is part of an on-going, longer term program for engineering (and IT and Finance) students world-wide.</p>
<p>It is a Labor Department regulation and many states are cracking down and now require payment or class credit. As a publicly traded and for profit company, we require interns to earn class credit. They can’t decline or we could be fined. Check the DOL regulations on internships.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.pdf[/url]”>http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.pdf</a>
I understand the labor laws (I think!)…and this is clearly a situation where he <em>has</em> to be paid for the internship…I’m just trying to understand how UA might view internships for grad and/or honors credit, if at all.</p>
<p>For clarification, my son’s research was not a paid summer internship. He did the Honors by Contract for class credit for an ongoing research project with one of his professors. Having completed the requirements and having received his credits, he is now back on the payroll. </p>
<p>Aero, it would probably be best to start with the dept. chair who can point you to the right direction. Please let us know what your son has learned as there are those with internships who may benefit.</p>
<p>FWIW, my son is doing an unpaid film internship this semester and it’s listed on his transcript as TCF 387 (“TcF Internship”). He had to get his internship approved for credit by the Department. I’d imagine other departments at UA operate similarly. </p>
<p>When in doubt, contact them directly.</p>