Internships offer supervised off-campus training and work experience in various career fields. In the past, Communication majors have worked in such diverse fields as media programming, public interest research, TV news, advertising, public relations, corporate management, sales, government, newspapers, magazines, and film production. Scholarships for internships may be available from the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Dean's Office (Draper Hall 231).
It is possible to do an internship (UMass 298Y: Practicum) during the Fall, Spring, Winter (January), or Summer sessions. The credits you can earn range from as few as 1 to as many as 18, depending on the number of hours per week you put into the internship. (One credit for every 40 hours of work is typical.) These credits are graded as Pass/Fail only and do not fulfill any departmental requirements. They are treated as elective credits only. Only 18 credits of practica (courses ending in -98) can be applied toward graduation. To be eligible for an internship, you must have completed at least 45 credits and hold a minimum GPA of 2.0.
Application Procedure
Attend one of the "Welcome to Field Experience" meetings. You can find out the days, times, and locations of these meetings by calling the Field Experience office at 545-6265 or 545-6267, or by going to the Career Services webage and clicking on "Field Experience: Co-ops & Internships". If you have already set up an internship, you do not necessarily need to attend this meeting. You should pick up an “Application for Field Experience” form and an “Academic Contract” form from the Field Experience Office (Goodell 511).
Your next step is to find a professor willing to sponsor you for the internship. (This is the responsibility of the student, not the department.) You and your sponsoring professor will decide on the nature of the project that you will eventually submit. The project usually takes the form of reports that describe and evaluate the internship experiences and relate them to academic work at UMass and future academic and career plans. Have the form signed by your sponsor and return it to the Field Experience Office in Career Services for their office to complete the registration process. During Summer or Winter (January) Sessions, you pay for the credits through Continuing Education.
You can download the pdf of version of the Internship Program Description.
