Internships
Important
Students can participate in the Professional Internship Program during ANY semester they are pursuing a full-time internship. Students should sign up for the Professional Internship Program as soon as they start looking for internships or as soon as an offer for a full-time internship is secured (as long as the internship is secured before the end of drop/add).
For more information contact:
Mary Fisher
Coordinator, Undergraduate Professional Internship Program
Savant Building, Room 103
Phone: 404.894.3320.
Professional Internship Program
Georgia Tech's Division of Professional Practice launched a program called the Professional Internship Program that specifically targets students like INTAs who usually do not co-op but participate in numerous internships.
What is it?
The Professional Internship Program offers internship credit to any student participating in a full-time internship during any semester—that's most INTAs!
How does it work?
If you secure a full-time internship, you can get "professional internship" credit posted to your transcript for the semester in which you participate in the internship. This will be 12 hours of audit credit (audit credit does not count towards the degree). To participate you must have a 2.0 GPA and completed 30 credits by the end of the semester prior to your intern semester. The internship should be equivalent to 16 weeks.
Why should you care?
By having this official designation on your transcript, employers and graduate schools can see that you didn't just take a semester off but that you were on a Tech-sanctioned internship program gaining incredible experience.
Even though you are not attending classes, being enrolled in the Professional Internship Program allows you to maintain full-time student status at Tech, allowing you to keep your on-campus housing, keep full-time student status for medical and car insurance, and maintain full access to campus e-mail and resources.
Your professional internship semester will not count as a "semester off" for readmission policies. Currently, students taking two consecutive semesters off from Tech need to reapply, regardless of the good standing they were in before they left. For instance, before the Professional Internship Program existed, a student performing a summer internship and then studying abroad in fall on a non-GT program would be considered absent from GT for two semesters and would need to reapply to Tech. Now, if a student receives professional internship credit for summer, she is considered a full-time student at Tech for that summer. Then, that student will only need to be absent from Tech for one semester to participate in a non-GT abroad program. NO NEED TO REAPPLY TO TECH.
The Division of Professional Practice will call your internship program to confirm your full-time status and detail GT expectations for the organization, including the need for the internship to provide you with meaningful work and projects, not just clerical responsibilities.
As a student receiving professional internship credit, you will also have access to counselors from the Division of Professional Practice. You can consult with counselors if you are having problems with your employer during your internship.
This is a way to secure internships with organizations that mandate that you receive academic credit to intern with them.
If the organization decides to keep you as an intern for additional semesters, you can count this professional internship towards co-op requirements. Check with the Office of Professional Practice about this at 404.894.3320.
