GT Internship Resources and Process

A great resource for information related to an internship is found on the Career Center's homepage. International students, please also review the 'Grad International Students' tab as well.

Q: How does a student take an internship while being a GRA?

A: This must first be confirmed by the advisor and approved by Career Center. See link above for details.

Q: Does your current funding allow you to earn extra funding?

A: Check with your faculty advisor as NSF funding has some limitations.

Q: If you are an international student, have you cleared this with OIE?

A: According to the guidance from OIE, the Career Center first receives the Graduate Internship Program Application form and the offer letter and then sends a request to the OIE, which then they review and approve. Therefore, the approval from the OIE will come at the last stage, after all the approvals through the Career Center.

Q: Should a student take a summer internship?

A: This is best answered by a conversation between the student and their advisor.

Easy answer: the advisor has no funding and the student must find summer funds.
More complex: the advisor has funding.
The main considerations are the interplay between the student's research goals and pragmatic issues about networking, funding, etc.

Q: Should a student take a multi-semester internship?

A: This is best answered by a conversation between the student and their advisor; with an understanding that the main consideration is whether a student's advisor agrees that it is a good idea. Does it move the student's research forward in a substantive way and not distract the student from their research.

A related consideration is whether the student will be able to "hit the ground running" toward their proposal when they return from their internship — back to the issue of whether the internship will be constructive versus distracting.

Another consideration relates to the student's standing in the PhD program — if a student has been in "concern status, or lower" the issue of how this internship will help their doctoral research is really important... unless, of course, the student is thinking that this internship might be a way to consider their options outside of a PhD.

Q: Can a student intern 3 consecutive semesters?

A: Yes, but you need departmental approval. The request for a third consecutive full-time graduate internship approval must:

Demonstrate a strong academic justification,
Confirm the student is making satisfactory academic progress while enrolled in graduate internship, and
State the student will register for the 12 audit hour grad internship course and at least three tuition-based credit hours during the third work term. (Note: the student is responsible for the tuition and fees associated with the tuition-based credit hours.)

Having an Internship at Your Own Startup

The requirements for an internship at your own startup are that your supervisor is not at your peer level and they are not you. There are two areas on campus that provide mentors to startups who can act as supervisors:

Create-X: This is an accelerator that requires an application, and students may participate in it one year. During this program, startups are assigned a "mentor" who can act as a "supervisor" for a startup.
Quadrant-I: You need to apply and be assigned a mentor. This mentor can act as your supervisor. Email the director from the people page and ask to get a mentor.
You will meet with your mentor/supervisor throughout the summer to check-in on goals. At the end of the internship (normally the summer), your supervisor will complete a performance review.

Table of Content