An internship is a career-related learning experience that provides an excellent opportunity for students to gain “real world” experience and to explore a variety of career fields. The academic internship program at Purchase College is designed to give students practical experience in their area of academic study or in other fields of interest.
Time commitments for on-site experience typically range between 3 and 10 hours per week during the course of the semester. Credit-bearing internships are supervised both within the work setting and by a Purchase College faculty member.
Academic internships may be paid or unpaid in accordance with the US Department of Labor. An internship can be both paid and for academic credit. The Career Development Center strongly encourages for-profit internship sites to offer students compensation of at least minimum wage. Non-profit organizations are also encouraged to compensate interns and if unable to offer a stipend, travel reimbursement, or housing expenses for a summer program. Please refer to the NACE Position Statement on the need for all internships to be paid and NACE’s Guide to Internships.
Internship Registration
The Summer 2025 registration deadline will be July 7th and the extended Fall 2025 deadline is Friday, September 5th. Please note that there will be a late registration appeal period from 9/6 to 9/29 for 3 and 4 credit internships.
Short Course
Students can register for an Academic Internship in the fall and the spring semesters as a “Short Course.” These are 1 or 2 credit internships (38 - 75 hrs. total) that open for registration in October for the fall semester and March for the spring semester.
Student Guidelines
View resources and guidelines for completing an internship for academic credit. To learn how to complete your Learning Contract via Purchase JobScore to register your internship for credit, please view our video guide.
A great way to begin your internship search is to meet with a Career Counselor to discuss the type of experience you are seeking and to help you prepare to apply. Start your search with some of these helpful internship resources:
Purchase JobScore - Purchase College’s online job and internship search system CareerShift - Our new job & internship search resource for students and alumni that is accessible via Purchase JobScore. WayUp - A free platform for early-career professionals to explore job and internship opportunities Handshake - Job and internship opportunities for college students. Open to students from all colleges. Idealist - Internships and jobs with not-for-profit organizations in a variety of job functions and issue areas. Resources by Major/Industry - Browse our major’s pages to find industry specific job and internist search resources.
Travel Grant
Are you paying money to get to your registered unpaid internship? If so, we may have just the thing for you. The Internship Travel Reimbursement Grant. Use this link to apply for summer 2025. Use this link to apply for fall 2025.
Purchase Academic Internship Stipend (PAIS)
The Career Development Center is excited to announce this grant-funded stipend for those students already registered for unpaid, credit-bearing internships. Learn more about the eligibility requirements . Use this link to apply for summer 2025. Use this link to apply for fall 2025.
