Summer Internships
The internship class (PSYC 499) is NOT offered over the summer.
What can you do if you would like to do a summer internship? The answer depends on whether or not you need to receive credit for the internship. Note that you can meet your out-of-class experience requirement without getting academic credit.
OPTION A: FOR-CREDIT SUMMER INTERNSHIPS
If you wish to do a summer internship FOR CREDIT, you need to:
- Find a faculty member who is available to sponsor the internship over the summer. Please note that many faculty members are not available during the summer, so this can be a difficult task.
- Pay summer school tuition.
Because of the difficulty and cost of a FOR-CREDIT summer internship, we highly recommend that summer internships are not done for credit.
However, that doesn’t mean you can’t have an excellent summer internship experience that can meet major requirements by combining CSL with a no-credit internship.
OPTION B: COMBINE NO-CREDIT SUMMER INTERNSHIP WITH CSL
If you choose this option, you can get fulfill psychology out-of-class and general education “Beyond the Classroom” requirements fulfilled through CSL but still have your summer “internship” appear on your transcript and potentially receive funding.
If you wish to do a NO-CREDIT internship you need to:
- Complete the CSL process to earn the BTC gen ed and PSYC out-of-Class experience credit. You can find the details about how to sign up for CSL on that page of our website
- Get the intern site approved for CSL (Spring Semester)
- Sign up for CSL 000 and complete any training requirements (Spring Semester)
- Attend a reflection session (Fall Semester)
- Register for IDIS 099 through Handshake. You can find this on the Career & Professional Development internship page under the “Zero Credit Internships” drop down menu.
This will allow the internship to show up on your transcript, and you may be eligible for scholarships/grants to support unpaid experiences.
OPTION C: DO AN INTERNSHIP WITHOUT IT FULFILLING ANY ACADEMIC REQUIREMENTS
If you would like the internship to appear on your transcript, you can sign up for IDIS 099 without signing up for CSL within the psychology department.
Or, you can just do the internship and put it on your resume even if it isn’t on your academic transcript!
BE AWARE OF THE FOLLOWING:
If you are doing CSL, you will need to use a CSL approved site OR submit and a “new site form” for approval. You are NOT limited to the sites listed on our “Approved Internship List.” However, the sites on this list may provide a starting point for great ideas for organizations that might be interested in a summer intern.
In order to earn CSL credits for the psychology out-of-class experience, the internship you do must be at least 40 hours of work.
Whether you are doing a FOR-CREDIT internship or a NO-CREDIT internship (whether or not you combine it with CSL), UMW offers a number of GRANTS to help mitigate the cost of doing a summer internship (e.g., housing and transportation costs). These grants are designed to support students doing a significant unpaid or underfunded internship opportunity. More information can be found here: Career & Professional Development – Internship Grants Overview
If you have questions about summer internship options, contact the current internship supervisor (listed at the top of our steps for obtaining an internship webpage).