Allison Parker gathering real-world experiences and exploring careers at the famed National Aquarium.

Internships

When you take on an internship, you apply your classroom learning to the working world. Internships provide a valuable opportunity to develop your career skills while you're still a student. That's why the CEO is here to help you identify the types of internships that support your goals, search for opportunities, practice interviewing and ace your applications, and get the most out of your internship experiences.

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Reality-Test Your Career Choices

What is an internship? An internship is an on-site work experience that can be paid or unpaid, held during the summer or throughout the academic year, and is often a student’s first experience in a professional setting.

Internships allow you to experience new work environments, meet and work with professionals, develop and refine your skills, and gain valuable work experience before you even graduate from college, which many employers look for when hiring for full-time roles. You can also earn academic credit for your internship if you plan ahead and follow the required process at McDaniel before the start of your internship.

The CEO connects students with professional opportunities that they are passionate about! Handshake, our online experiential learning database, contains thousands of internship opportunities.

Explore Internships on Handshake

Get Your Resume & Cover Letter Reviewed

CEO staff members are here to help! Set up a 30-minute appointment through Handshake to have our professional staff review your application materials before you begin applying for positions, so you can make sure you're maximizing your resume and cover letter.

Make an appointment with the CEO on Handshake. Check out our guide to resumes, cover letters, and references.

Fund Your Internship

The CEO sponsors a limited number of need-based experiential grants and awards.

Designed to help defray the cost of experiences like internships, McDaniel's support has enabled students to complete internships at places such as the National Security Agency, JP Morgan Chase & Co., and The Legal Aid Society in New York.

Funds have also allowed students to complete research opportunities at the Institute for Cell Engineering with Johns Hopkins University and the Ohio State University Department of Molecular Genetics, among others.

Learn More About Experiential Grants & Awards

Earn Academic Credit

If you're interested in receiving academic credit for an internship, it is up to you to lead the process of applying for and earning it. Academic departments recognize that learning happens during internships, so they may award credit for an internship that is closely related to your career goals.

The credit is offered on a pass/fail basis. You can earn academic credit for paid and unpaid internships.

Here’s how it works:

The student identifies, applies for, and secures an internship that aligns with their academic program.
The student requests a faculty member to sponsor them from the department most closely aligned with the experience. In the rare instance that no faculty can sponsor, the executive director of the Center for Experience and Opportunity may be substituted.
Faculty will often meet with the student on campus and assign additional assignments as a condition to receive the credit.
The student fills out a form they find on the McDaniel College online portal. The faculty sponsor and internship site supervisor sign the form. The student submits the form to the Registrar’s Office.
With very rare exceptions, most for-credit internships are approved.

What's the difference between an internship and a job?

Internships are defined by enhanced focus on learning, with educational components and chances to learn about a role, workplace, and industry. Every internship is different, but internships are usually more flexible than a typical job. You may be able to discuss your personal goals with your internship supervisor and try things that are new or interesting to you.

Since they are short term, internships let you try out different types of work. You get access to workplaces that require employees to have bachelor's or master's degrees before you've earned yours, so you can get a sense of what an entry-level role may look like. For employers, an internship on your resume signals you have experience in a certain work setting and have developed career competencies.

Have more questions? The CEO provides workshops, open houses, and one-on-one appointments every semester to help students leverage their work experience and identify new opportunities.

A half-green and half-black graphic that compares internships and jobs.

Meeting Career Readiness

The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) defines eight career readiness competencies, each of which can be demonstrated in a variety of ways. Internships are just one way that students can develop and practice their career competency. NACE defines career readiness as a foundation from which to demonstrate requisite core competencies that broadly prepare the college educated for success in the workplace and lifelong career management.

Career & Self-Development

Leadership

Communication

Professionalism

Critical Thinking

Teamwork

Equity and Inclusion

Technology

Internship FAQs

Internships are available year-round: spring, summer, winter, and fall. Summer internships are most common, since most students are not enrolled in classes and have more time for an internship. Which season you choose to seek internships for will depend on your schedule and what opportunities are offered.

Students can intern during any year of their undergraduate and graduate careers, including after graduation. When you choose to seek an internship depends on the individual and their circumstances. Some students begin interning in their first year of college and may complete two to three internships before graduation. Other students may wait to intern closer to their junior and senior year.

Most internships have a formal application process. You should approach it with the professionalism required of any hiring process. Using online platforms like Handshake, you can seek out available opportunities that fit your goals, see what they request from applicants, and submit your application materials. You can also contact some employers directly to inquire about internship opportunities, or contact people in your network (like on LinkedIn) who may know of opportunities.

Many internships will have an interview process (by phone, video call, and/or in person), and some employers may require skills testing before you are offered the role.

McDaniel's CEO can help students identify opportunities, review your cover letter and resume, and offer guidance during your internship search. The on-campus career closet can also help you dress to impress for an interview.

Being offered a full-time position after completing an internship is a possibility, but not a guarantee. For most students, an internship is a brief, enriching experience that will naturally help them stand out in future applications for jobs and identify individuals who can serve as references. It may also benefit you to have previously interned with a specific workplace if you apply there later on for full-time roles.

No, internships are typically not graded experiences, since the focus is on learning about a role at a workplace. At McDaniel, academic credit for an internship is pass/fail.

Internship lengths vary and depend on the projects, campaigns, and/or learning goals. They can be as little as a few hours a week or as much as 10+ hours per week for a semester.

Yes, it's still valuable to complete internships without academic credit, and it is very common not to seek academic credit. The students who don't opt to earn credit usually expect to have enough credits from their classes to graduate.

Where Have McDaniel Students Interned?

McDaniel students of all majors have interned in a variety of fields. Recent organizations where students have interned include:

Defense Information Systems Agency
Filmsters
Department of Juvenile Services of Frederick County
CBRE Global Commerce Real Estate
The Fund for American Studies
Atlas Performing Arts Center
Child Guidance Resource Centers
Civic Works
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Carroll County Circuit Court Clerk's Office
Casa Chirilagua
BAE Systems
National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations
Rubino & Company
Clearview Group

Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University
Soccer Shots
University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center
Skyrme Creative
CliftonLarsonAllen LLP
Maryland Access to Justice Commission
Baltimore City Recreation and Parks
Point Guard College
MedStar Health Physical Therapy
Pathways Behavioral Health
Source One Business Services
Blue Water Baltimore
Xometry
Peraton Inc.
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

Recent News for Internships

Students gain real-world experience with summer 2024 internships

Numerous McDaniel College undergraduate students participated in summer internships. Read more about their experiences.
Sophomore matches with McDaniel for state’s first-in-the-nation public service program

McDaniel College is among the host sites selected for Maryland’s Service Year Option and Maryland Corps, the nation’s first public service year program for high school graduates. Ameerah Johnson, a sophomore Criminal Justice and Sociology major, is fulfilling her commitment as an inaugural fellow of the program by assisting with student outreach at McDaniel, focused on promoting the eight dimensions of wellness.
Embassy visits and ambassador meetings enhance National Security Fellow’s summer internship

Tatiana Hamilton, Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies major and Political Science major, found her ideal internship with the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations in Washington, D.C.

Connect With Us

The Center for Experience and Opportunity ceo@mcdaniel.edu

Phone: (410) 871-3305