Undergraduate Internships

Experiences such as internships are powerful opportunities for students. They allow students to gain experience and perspective on how the real world works. This insight makes our students more competitive during job interviews after graduation.

Paid internships

Most internships are paid positions that last the summer. A range of engineering companies in all the disciplines participate in internship recruiting at Duke, and we are working to expand that number. Foreign national students should note that student visa restrictions prevent them from taking part in paid internships unless they have applied for an optional practical training (OPT) permit. If the research is a part of course requirements, foreign students may quality for a curricular practical training (CPT) permit. Contact the International Student Services organization for advising. Foreign students are eligible for unpaid internship opportunities.

Unpaid internships

Small companies and non-profit organizations, such as clinics and hospitals, can provide tremendous experience opportunities, in part because tight resources heighten their need for engineering expertise.

Guided mentorships

Freshman students who have not yet had the chance to take a broad range of engineering courses or who may not yet have the skills to take a paid internship can take part in a guided mentorship. We pair the student with a professional engineer for several days in a work context. Such short-term mentorships help students recognize possibilities for their own engineering careers, builds confidence and provides a valuable networking opportunity.

Federal job application assistance

Students interested in working for federal organizations such as national laboratories, the Navy Technical Research Center, or various agencies in Washington, DC should start the process of obtaining a clearance in the early fall. Contact Russell Holloway for more information.

Procedure for Requesting an Independent Study Based on an Internship

In Trinity College and Pratt School of Engineering, course credit can be earned for internships only when they include as a component an academic course of instruction. Students who are planning non-academic internships and are interested in the possibility of receiving credit may wish to seek permission to enroll in an independent study involving a program of study related to the internship experience and resulting in a substantive research paper(s). If they are interested in doing so, they should begin the process by identifying a faculty sponsor and constructing a proposal for the independent study well before the internship begins. (For a summer internship, this should be done prior to the end of classes in the preceding spring term; some departments may have early deadlines for independent study proposals.) The most likely sponsor would be a faculty member with whom they have already taken a course. The Director of Undergraduate Studies of a department relevant to the internship field may be able to suggest other potential faculty independent study sponsors. Some departments have specific internship numbers assigned to such independent study courses, while others use their regular independent study numbers. Students should consult the department’s web site for information on its procedures for independent study; if the information is not available there, they should consult the office of its Director of Undergraduate Studies.

The Policy on Internships for Duke Undergraduates

A Statement from the Deans of Trinity College and Pratt School of Engineering

Internships for undergraduates at Duke University are work experiences that allow them to sample professional environments in which they might seek careers or which might give them experience that will help prepare them for careers. Internships may be paid or unpaid, academic or non-academic, university-sponsored or independent. Since internships may take place outside the university environment, Duke has no blanket policy on them. It does, however, take a variety of positions on different kinds of internships, depending on their purpose and sponsorship.

Duke encourages and supports internships that are required or recommended components of disciplinary curricula. Departments and programs establish their own criteria for such internships and the academic credit that may be earned for participation. Recognizing the value of this kind of experience, the university attempts to facilitate student participation in these internships.

Duke also encourages and supports internships that may result in academic credit, even though the internship is not required or even formally sanctioned by a department or program. Most often these internships entail independent or directed study in which the student collaborates with a faculty member to distill from an internship a certifiable academic experience that qualifies for course credit within the faculty member’s department or program. The faculty member is the sole judge of the work necessary to meet these course requirements. Students will normally find appropriate faculty members for such collaboration within their major department, most often with a faculty member with whom they have already done coursework or a faculty member who has an interest in the topic to be considered. But it is also possible to identify and solicit faculty members in non-major fields. The sole criterion is that the faculty member finds the independent or directed study to be sound academically and that the faculty member is willing to work with the student to achieve the goals of the course they design.

Duke University, primarily through the Career Center, also provides support to students who desire internships in order to build experience and skills while exploring career options. Such internships will not receive credit unless a Duke faculty member has agreed to award independent study credit for academic work arising out of the internship, using the model noted in the previous paragraph. Career advisors assist students in identifying and preparing for internships. Databases of existing internships, some of which are targeted specifically towards Duke students, are available. Students who have particular learning goals for internships can receive help from Career Center advisors in developing their own internships with organizations nationwide. Except for internship programs sponsored by the Career Center, Duke does not sponsor or endorse non-academic internships. It does, however, acknowledge the strong value of experiential education through internships and will attempt to help students find and participate in them.