Graduate Internship FAQs

The Graduate Internship Program at Georgia Tech is an innovative approach to experiential learning.  The program was established in 1983 and is currently the largest graduate internship program in the United States in which students of all majors are eligible to participate.  The program provides all graduate students the opportunity to work with industry and governmental leaders in their respective areas of study.  Students receive approval from their major school to work full or part-time assignments during any semester. Graduate students may not work more than two consecutive full-time semesters before returning to school for classes, without approval from the Office of the Vice Provost of Graduate Education.

There are no fees associated with the Graduate Internship Program. Students are enrolled through their registration in an audited hour graduate internship course, based on the number of hours that they are working weekly. A full-time internship (32 – 40 hours/week) permits students to retain all privileges of full-time enrolled students while on work assignments.  The Graduate Internship Program is available to masters and doctoral level students.

Students are eligible to participate in the Graduate Internship Program after completion of at least one academic semester of graduate study at Georgia Tech. Students receiving undergraduate degrees from Georgia Tech who have been admitted to a Georgia Tech graduate program may seek academic departmental approval to work during their first semester of graduate study. 

BS/MS degree students at Georgia Tech may seek academic departmental approval after completion of their first semester of graduate study.

Most students find jobs by networking through their major schools and professional associations or by conducting their own research on companies. All graduate students enrolled at Georgia Tech are eligible to participate in on-campus career fairs and apply for jobs posted in CareerBuzz, maintained by the Career Center.

Each semester many employer representatives come to campus to interview and hire graduate interns.  Employers arrange on campus interviews through the Career Center software, CareerBuzz. An advisor that is part of the graduate career development can provide assistance with a job search or applying for positions posted in CareerBuzz.

Most employers are interested in academic excellence, good oral and written communication skills, maturity, motivation, and flexibility.

No tuition or fees are paid to register a full-time work term; however, students may pay rent for campus housing or elect to pay optional fees for athletic events, health services, and campus recreation. 

Yes!  The Graduate Internship Program is a great tool for further development of your career skills through experiential education. Registration of your internship through the Graduate Internship Program qualifies your off-campus work assignment as a Curricular Practical Training (CPT) experience.  A graduate internship using CPT may be approved for any semester: fall, spring or summer. 

Yes, you can, but only if the internship is essential to your research.

Most graduate students network through their major department or professors to identify Graduate Internship opportunities closely related to their research interests.  All Georgia Tech graduate students are encouraged to sign up for CareerBuzz through the Career Center, take advantage of various career fairs organized throughout the year, and to apply for appropriate positions listed on CareerBuzz.

International students on F-1 visas must attend at least two academic semesters of classes at any college or university in the U.S. before becoming eligible to work off-campus in the U.S.

Work assignments in the international student’s home country or a third country may be approved after at least one semester of graduate enrollment at Georgia Tech.

For more questions about F-1 guidelines, please either consult with the Office of International Education (OIE), or see their website for F-1 regulations and policies.

Graduate interns must complete all curriculum requirements for their major.  During full-time work terms, students register for a twelve-hour audit intern class to maintain full-time status. The audited internship class does not count toward the academic credits required for a degree.  The same is true for the audit credit students take when they register for part-time internship classes. 

The “V” on transcripts for Graduate Interns work assignments is the standard satisfactory grade awarded for any non-fee based audit course at Georgia Tech. Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory and Pass/Fail grades are reserved for academic credit bearing classes that require tuition.

All Graduate internship work assignments must be related to your academic major.  Graduate Internships assignments must be paid, although compensation varies from one employer to another. Each Graduate Internship student is asked to provide updated contact information on their work supervisor; at the end of the work semester, the work supervisor will receive an e-mail request to complete an online performance evaluation of the Grad Internship student.  Finally, each student is asked to log into the Career Center’s web-based recruitment and management system, CareerBuzz, to complete a work report at the end of each Graduate Internship work assignment.