Internships for Credit
Weinberg College awards credit only for internships with a substantive academic component. Both full-time and part-time options are available. You can count at most 6 units of internship credit, whether earned through Weinberg College courses or in other ways, towards the 45 units of credit for a Weinberg College degree.
Weinberg College Options
Chicago Field Studies
Chicago Field Studies (CFS) is the largest academic internship program on campus. It offers programs every quarter on a variety of subjects. Options include:
- Analysis of Field Experience
- Business Field Studies
- Field Studies in Business Culture
- Field Studies in Civic Engagement
- Field Studies in Environment, Science, and Sustainability
- Field Studies in Humanities
- Field Studies in the Modern Workplace
- Field Studies in Public Health
- Field Studies in Social Justice
- Legal Field Studies
Depending on the program, students intern from 10 to 36 hours per week and earn 1 to 4 units of credit. Internship organizations are treated as sites for research and reflection; experiences there also inform seminar discussions and assignments. CFS programs are open to students in any school and major. Admission is by application only, and students must attend an information session before applying. For more information, contact the Chicago Field Studies program.
Other For-Credit Internships in Weinberg College
- AF AM ST 396-0 - Internship in Black Studies
- ART HIST 396-0 - Internship in the Arts
- GNDR ST 375-0 - Internship in Gender and Sexuality Studies
- INTL ST 393-SA - Development in the Global Context: Participation, Power, and Social Change - Offered through Northwestern's Global Engagement Studies Institute (GESI).
Options in Other Northwestern Schools
Other undergraduate schools at Northwestern also offer for-credit internships, and credit earned through these courses also counts toward your 6-unit internship limit. (Some options are only open to students in these other schools—and thus only relevant here for students who start in another school and then transfer to Weinberg.)
Consult these programs directly for more information.A credit-bearing internship is an academic program in which a student
- spends time working in a civic or professional setting outside the University and
- engages in associated academic work under the supervision of a member of the University faculty and earns credit for that work.
Guidelines
- No more than a total of six (6) units of internship credit, whether earned through Weinberg College courses or in other ways, may be counted towards a Weinberg College degree.
- Each department and program in Weinberg College regularly offering a credit-bearing course associated with internships should establish a dedicated course number and title for this course. They should complete and submit to the Curricular Review Committee for review the standard New Course Proposal used for other Weinberg College courses. Independent Study (399) should not be used to give credit for internships.
- Each internship program should have a selection process to insure that students are sufficiently prepared for both academic and field assignments.
- Internship opportunities are most appropriate for students who have been at least moderately successful in other coursework. It is reasonable to expect an overall GPA of at least 3.0.
- Students do not normally receive pay for work done on an internship. Their primary responsibility is to their academic supervisor rather than to the host organization.
Approved by the Weinberg Faculty on November 20, 2013