Internships Guidelines

First and foremost, all the new kids(ppl use this word a lot here when referring to college students) coming in should learn to be self dependent. Meaning that dont expect seniors or others to spoonfeed and keep u informed. Every1 has their own issues to deal with at PSU, so find out the info and ask if u have doubts instead of askin blunt questions that u can easily find out.

Internships for grad students is a little tricky. Its a catch 22 situation.
Funded students (non-PhD):
If u have funding, then u may disappoint ur prof if u do internship and not ur research during summer. btw grad students comin in fall 2009 can only do internship in summer 2010 or later. So u need to judge if ur prof will encourage u for internship or not. U want to play the cards right here, the progf gave u funding and if u decide to not do his work in summer, it may look bad. Howevr there r some profs that encourage internships fpr their funded students. So it depends on ur prof.
TA funded studnets usually have more freedom deciding whether to do an internship or not.

Non-funded students:
If u r coming into PSU unfunded, u wanna make a 1st good impression on ur prof. See my post on FUNDING TIPS in this forum. So some profs dont have money for u in 1st year, but they r willing to let u work in summer after u talk to them early. So if u look for internships in summer, then u r kinda losing ur chances for funding.

So u have a choice, earn some money in summer for internship or hopefully get funding for the next entire year. i.e $24000 tuition waiver plus $1000 a month full time RA!....funding seems better than internship, nah?
So wats good bout internship and why do u ppl talk bout it?

Typically internship is an undergrad thing. First and foremost, internship here is NOT like india. The procedure for internship is same as applyin and gettin ready for as a part time job. So u gotta take it seriously.
Advantages of grad students gettin internships
1. Get a feel for the job.
2. Make good contacts
3. Hopefuflly internship lands u full-time eventually wit the company

If companies have internships they will hire grad students, but they prefer undergrads. Also if in summer 2010, they see u graduating in Spring 2011, they might tell u to apply full time directly.
Thing is, even for internship they have to get u security clearance since u r not US citizen, so some companies dont wanna do that since internship is just temporary for a few months. They dont wanna invest in a foreign student coz theres no gaurantee he'll come back to work for them. But for full-time, they r more interested !

For those who have no job experience, u can CONSIDER internships. Talk to Kim Fox in 208 Hammond bldg. Take an appointment with her and ask ALL ur questions. She is a very helpful lady and she really did a lot to get my resume in the right format.

For those with job experience, u wont benefit that much frm internship coz u will still have job experience on ur resume.

My own experience is that I never got an internship however hard i tried, but I still got a full-time job in my 3rd sem of grad school. That is rare, but not impossible. U need to make contacts, go to networking events, career fairs etc etc..
DONT WAIT FOR UR FRIENDS TO TELL U BOUT CAREER FAIRS AND DONT WAIT FOR THEM, U SHUD APPLY ON UR OWN AND PLZZZZZZZ DONT EXPECT SPOONFEEDING! .

Some good (I mean real good) univs in big cities have tie-ups with companies who tend to select local talent. I know Wichita State has CISCo which usually gives internships to WSU students.

GOLDEN RULE: If a company likes ur profile, they will spare no expense to get you there. They will pay for relocation and everything!

So bottom line dont go for a 3rd class univ just coz its in a big city. All the best univs in the US arent in big cities, but companies pay for u to come visit them.

My example: I was called fr an interview wirth Cessna. One day I just got a call frm them saying that they wud like to interview me in Kansas. So they paid for my full flight, hotel, car etc JUST for the interview. And Kansas was 5 hrs flight from Penn State. They paid amst $800 to get me there.