Summer Internships: Getting in with the In Crowd

As thousands of college students finish their final exams, the summer stretches out before them with an array of possibilities. Some may be daydreaming of beaches, late nights, and even later mornings. But others, a growing majority, are anxiously (net)working to secure the ever valuable summer internship.

In todays competitive job market, more and more students feel the pressure to graduate from college not only with a diploma, but with real world experience under their belts. According to a 2006 Vault internship survey, only 1 percent of college students polled felt that internships are not important to future career success. Yet 16 percent of students predicted that they would not intern before graduation. Why are so many college students who recognize the value of internships not interning?

The fact is a large portion of internships are unpaid, closing the opportunity off for lower income students. While some wealthy students are paying companies to help them find internships, many more students are desperately trying to earn money to pay for the coming school years tuition and fees. They would love to intern, but they cant afford it financially.

The internship gap translates into a job opportunity gap. Ninety percent of students who intern report being offered paid positions at the company for which they intern. Hence, higher income students get farther ahead, while lower income students struggle after graduation to find jobs without the connections of an internship network. And with so many students vying for internships, companies have little reason to offer paid positions.

This is all common knowledge among students and frequently discussed, mostly in college newspapers. The inequity is clear, yet no statistical research seems to exist on the matter.

In an attempt to bring this problem to further light, Higher Ed Watch contacted a sampling of Members of the House of Representative for data on their interns. We contacted 34 Members of Congress representing two randomly selected states, Illinois and Michigan. The data, or lack thereof, was disappointing (and we had low expectations going in):

• 7 Member offices flat out refused to give any race, gender, or paid/unpaid information;
• 6 Member offices gave information on gender, but would not provide basic racial demographics; and
• 13 offices never responded to or continually sidestepped multiple phone calls and emails, even after it was made clear the data would not be used to single out any Representative

What are they afraid of? We suspect the offices of these Members of Congress are well aware that unpaid interns tend to be advantaged and white, and they fear being accused of lacking socioeconomic and racial diversity. But the offices of Members of Congress are not an anomoly in the intern game. The offices were contacted simply to prove a point — that summer internships tend to inhibit, rather than enhance, upward social mobility.

Some colleges have stepped up to fill the void where employers have fallen short. Many institutions have created internship programs that allow students to intern full-time during the academic year for college credit (while still receiving traditional financial aid). The University of Californias Washington Center program (UCDC) is a notable example, as is Boston University’s Washington Internship Program.

Yet students hoping to work at unpaid internships over the summer continue to get little financial assistance in general. Traditional financial aid does not cover this aspect of student learning. Higher Ed Watch thinks employers like Congress can do more to encourage socioeconomic diversity in internships. Stay tuned for specific suggestions.