Undergraduate Resources: Internships

Common Myths About Internships
  • Internship credit will fulfill my major requirements
    This is not always the case. Most internships are for 3-9 credits, yet at most 3 credits will count towards the GVPT major requirements. The remaining credits count towards electives that you need to reach the 120 credits required for graduation. It's best to save some elective credit for internships.

  • I have an internship which means I can receive credit
    Not true! Not all internships are acceptable for credit. All avenues for receiving credit require permission and often have deadlines the semester prior to the start of your internship.

  • I have a job that takes a lot of time; I can receive credit for it
    We understand that many students have significant financial obligations for their education, however, unless your current job is related to political science and includes substantive work in the area you may not use this for internship credit through GVPT.

  • I didn't receive credit while interning but I can earn the credit now
    Sorry, once you have completed your internship experience you will no longer be able to earn credit.

  • I can receive unlimited credit for internships
    The university does not allow more than 12 credits of internship (in any department) to count towards the 120 needed for graduation. The GVPT department limits internship credit counting towards our requirements to 6 credits (remember only graded credit applies to our requirements).
Earning Credit for Internships Through GVPT

There are three ways students may obtain GVPT credits for an internship experience:

  1. The Capitol Hill Internship Program (Spring)
  2. The Public Policy Internship Program (Spring)
  3. The Maryland Internship Project
The Capitol Hill Program involves working approximately 20 hours weekly in a Congressional office and paricipating in weekly seminars on campus.

Internship Admission is extremeley competitive and requires strict standards of a 3.0 overall GPA, 56 credits earned, and GVPT major. Please note, deadlines for GVPT internship programs are the semester prior to the internship. In addition there is pre-requisite course work that must be completed in order to be accepted into the internship programs, so students should plan ahead. Students interested in specific details should pick up the internship information sheets available outside of the advising office.

Where do I begin to look?

The Career Center - (3121) Hornbake Library) (301) 314-72225 : The Career Center has a number of services including:

  • Terp On-Line: a database of organizations with part-time, full-time and intern positions.
     
  • Career Center Resource Room: The resource room has more general information on various career fields. This type of information is great to narrow down the various options for types of internships you might want to look for. Don't be afraid to contact an organization that interests you and ask them if they offer internships or if they might consider the possibility. Just because an organization hasn't sent a listing to the university doesn't mean a bright student couldn't work for them.

GVPT E-Mail List: We announce a few truly great internship opportunities via our GVPT newsletter. If you don't have an account or don't check your e-mail - START, you won't believe the opportunities you're not hearing about! To get onto the list send an e-mail to GVPT Advising at advising@gvpt.umd.edu.

GVPT Advising Office : (3104 Tydings Hall) We keep info on some internships via the bulletin board and file cabinet outside the GVPT Advising Office, however we try and send everything that comes to our office to the Career Center - so make sure to visit them for complete listings.

Internship Opportunities: We receive information about internships continuously and will post links to them here regularly.