Frequently Asked Questions

If you enrolled in USA as a business major or transferred to this school/major after August 2016, then you must enroll in the Professional Experience courses: BUS101 during freshman year, BUS201 during sophomore year, and BUS301 during junior year. However, if you enroll in MCOB and your are at least a junior, you may take only the BUS302 course for 3 credit hours. The internship component is required for all who enter after August 2016.

The simple answer: a job, in a real workplace. An internship is an opportunity for students to get hands-on work experience in a workplace. It is the chance to apply what you have learned and discussed in your courses in a “real” place of business. It is a workplace where professionals perform their duties while exposing student workers, known as interns, to work alongside them, closely supervised. An internship is also considered “experiential learning” which just means that it is an experience outside of the classroom. Ideally, any internship should complement the student’s current major/minor or be of high interest to the student. As a student, it is a serious commitment. In the MCOB, all students must register for and pass at least one internship for academic credit to meet the requirements for graduation. The hours a student must work at the workplace may vary in special circumstances, but the general rule is that MCOB students are required to work a minimum of 10 hours per week during the 15 week academic semester.

That depends. If you are currently working in a position that is within your major and of significant work experience, then you may not have to take an internship. However, you must still be advised by your department's chair to create a portfolio of work experience that will substitute for the internship. 

In most cases you cannot do your internship at the same location where you work. That is called "double dipping." In some cases this is acceptable under certain exceptions: You are given other responsibilities that fit within your major; or you are able to be trained in another department, therefore developing new skills; and/or you are able to work additional hours on duties that are preapproved by your chair and that meet the goals of your internship program.

That depends. Most business internships for practical and legal reasons are paid. Some non-profit agencies may have limited budgets; and, therefore, cannot offer an hourly wage, but some will offer a stipend or you may find it is considered a resume building internship, meaning you will receive credit from MCOB/USA only.  If you need a paid internship, the most effective way to ensure this happens is to identify your own location. Remember, your site must be approved by your department chair before you can work for credit - paid or unpaid.

If you enrolled in MCOB as a business major after August 2016, you must register and successfully complete an internship or other approved portfolio of work experience. The students who enrolled before this date have the option of taking an internship, but are not required to do so.. As a business school, we encourage all of our students to consider an internship for "real-world" hands-on work experience. 

The benefits of taking an internship are many. An internship is your opportunity to work in a real work environment to apply what you have been learning in your courses. In addition, it is your opportunity to explore a career by immersing yourself in the day-to-day activities of the job. Furthermore, you are able to network with others in the same field or company that you would like to work in one day. Many employers see the internship as a semester long interview of you, and you can do the same. If taken seriously, you can develop your skills and learn some new ones. Not to mention, this is real work experience on your resume. 

The internship site will determine the type of work and the level of responsibility the intern will be assigned according to factors, the same as other jobs. The organization must go through an application process to become a partner in the MCOB internship program. This process includes submitting a job description of what the intern might do on their site. It is all relative to the organization. For instance, a marketing firm might assign an intern with a junior standing at the University with writing correspondence, greeting clients, entry-level duties. Whereas a senior student might be assigned a higher level of responsibility. In addition, if the intern possesses a certain skill that is needed at the job site, for instance social media, the intern might be asked to actively participate in a branding campaign. MCOB does not dictate to the company what tasks a student must do, but the company must adhere to guidelines set by the College. Because the internship is a vital part of a student’s professional development, it is also important that the experiences on the internship be significant and provides exposure to projects that will help the student to develop needed skills to garner a more competitive edge when he or she enters the job market. Interns are not janitors or coffee runners. You should expect to participate in professional activities with your colleagues on the site.

Ideally, you would have been thinking about the kind of work you would like to do when you have completed your undergraduate studies. You can research various companies that you are interested in one day working for, and give them a call. You can work with a career services representative and they can help you to identify and contact a representative with the company that you would like to work for. You can use the members of your faculty and staff to provide you with leads or contacts that they may know or that you might not have considered. Look on the career page of the company you are interested in working for and check if they currently have an internship program. If they do not, do not be disheartened. Bring this to the attention of the staff in the Professional Readiness Engagement Program and let them see if they can encourage the company to start a program with MCOB. Remember, just because it isn't advertised, does not mean that they do not accept interns. A phone call is often better than an e-mail. Or, a well-placed contact could get you into doors that appear to be closed. Sometimes we just have to knock.