Eighty-four percent of U.S. college students reported they had completed at least one internship by the time they graduated, according to a 2007 survey by Vault.com, a career information Web site.
Career advisers have lauded internships as a great way for students to explore their professional interests and gain confidence by applying their academic abilities to their future careers.
Marie Spaulding, an AU academic adviser, said she thinks internships are crucial.
"Students are able to get experience, add more to their resumes and, more importantly, explore the different areas where they may want to work," she said.
While internships can provide good experience for students, especially if they are being compensated for their work, the costs associated with some internships may make it harder for economically disadvantaged students to acquire them and ultimately for those students to compete in the job market.
Becca Brighton, a sophomore in the School of International Service, said she will have an unpaid internship, take classes at AU and commute to the school from her home in Fredericksburg, Va., this summer.
"I am lucky in a sense," she said. "My parents are paying for my tuition and anything that I need to supplement I can do easier than most students, but at the same time, it's hard for anybody because you are basically volunteering for a summer and paying to work."
Brighton said she had attempted to get another paid part-time job, but that it has been difficult to find someone willing to hire a college student on a temporary basis.
While 71 percent of the students who took the Vault.com survey said they had been paid for their internships, nearly 30 percent of the students surveyed did not receive any pay. Even for those who do get paid, the costs can be high because internships are often located in areas like D.C., where living expenses can easily eat up all of a student's earnings. This situation can present a challenge to students, but the experience can be especially beneficial when the economy does not fare well, Spaulding said.
"The reality is that the job market is really tight so that the students who have experience are probably going to be farther ahead when it comes to getting a job," she said.
Some academic institutions, including Columbia University, have created stipends for students to offset the expenses of internships. Even at schools like Columbia, where funds are available, the stipends are usually only able to fund a select number of students. For instance, between 2005 and 2007, Columbia awarded 15 or 16 internship stipends per year through the university's Parent Alumni Internship Fund, according to Columbia's career center Web site.
Spaulding said this option is not available at AU because the university does not have the funds to offer stipends to students.
Some organizations, including NBC and ABC, have begun to require that students receive credit for their internships. AU's per-credit tuition cost at the undergraduate level is $1,093, according to the university's Web site. Therefore, a student would need to pay approximately $3,300 in tuition for the three credits the university offers for a standard internship if the student takes on the position in addition to a full 17-credit course load.
Spaulding said students have to pay tuition for the credits they earn while doing an internship because the internships involve a time commitment from professors and an academic plan.
Students should not use money concerns as an excuse to not do an internship, according to Jill Olmsted, an associate journalism division director in the School of Communication who works with students who have for-credit internships.
"If you let that stand in the way, you are not going to make it into the profession," she said. "If there is a will there is a way. You have got to find a way to make it work."
Olmsted said her role is to get students to intern so they have "a fuller experience and a grade."
She said students should have at least one internship before they graduate, especially if they are interested in pursuing a profession in communication.
"Journalism and other professions require that students know not just book knowledge, but that you have a feel for the environment," she said. "It's competitive, it's intense, there are a lot of egos involved, and it's fast-paced, and it's necessary for a student to see that."
The U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act requires that employees be financially compensated for their work. For an organization to hire an unpaid trainee, the position must meet a series of qualifications, which according to the California Department of Education Web site, demonstrate the trainee is not fulfilling the function of a paid employee and is benefiting from his or her experience. For instance, the regulations state the training must be "similar to that which would be given in a vocational school," and the employer "derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the trainees."
University of Delaware professor Ben Yagoda said in a March 21 Chronicle of Higher Education commentary that some companies see academic credit as a form of compensation and thus, use it as a safeguard against potential lawsuits. The Fair Labor Act does not specifically say academic credit is an acceptable form of compensation.
"Internships are almost never 'similar' to what students would learn in school - nor should they be - but lawyers figured out that tying them to an actual college course would help make that argument if the feds ever complained," Yagoda said in The Chronicle.
Spaulding said some larger organizations are constrained by the demands of their unions, which require students earning credit for their internships.
"Most of the major affiliates that students want to work with are unionized and the unions require that students who are doing a job equivalent to someone else who is working full time and who is paid for their work to do [the internship] for academic credit, which means the student won't be paid," she said.
Brighton, who also acknowledged the importance of internships, said it just isn't possible for some students to acquire unpaid internships because of academic commitments and financial obligations.
"I think it's almost impossible to get a job afterward if you haven't had some connections already," Brighton said. "It can be difficult to balance these things," she said.