Getting school credit for an internship...

[Qwerty2013]

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So far, for internships, I've never taken the opportunity to use them for school credit (mostly so I can keep my extracurriculars separate from my schoolwork, but I for this particular public health internship (with an outside organization) I am considering using it for my major (which will allow me to take one less class).
If I DO take the internship (as school credit), will that make it seem any less than it is worth? (Because I do not want med schools to see that I am doing the internship for the school credits-which I am not). Does any of these even matter?

Thanks!

 

[baxt1412]

Unless you are short on credits to begin with or do these all the time I doubt it will look any different than taking Intro to Geology, etc.


If you can get a small GPA boost while doing something you are already going to be doing, why not?

 

[Catalystik]

So far, for internships, I've never taken the opportunity to use them for school credit (mostly so I can keep my extracurriculars separate from my schoolwork, but I for this particular public health internship I am considering using it for my major (which will allow me to take one less class).
If I DO take the internship (as school credit), will that make it seem any less than it is worth? (Because I do not want med schools to see that I am doing the internship for the school credits-which I am not). Does any of these even matter?

Thanks!

How will it appear on your transcript when you submit one? I'm not clear on why it matters if the course credit is apparent. If it is an impactful activity, you can enter it on your application regardless, with a suitable description (usually the "Other" designation is used, since Internships tend to include several diverse elements). To illustrate: Research is no less valued whether taken for course credit, paid, or volunteer.

 

[moop]

There's a more important issue. You're getting screwed by the university if the internship isn't paid. If the internship is unpaid AND you claim a course credit for it, you are allowing your college to get away with charging you for a course credit and not giving anything in return, while you have to fish out money for an unpaid position. All this is done to make the student think "Wow nice! One less class to take." Classic trick.

Think about it. Even if you're on financial aid or scholarship, do you want your school to get away with a ridiculous ploy like that? Make them give you what you paid for (higher learning).

 

[Qwerty2013]

@moop, the internship is outside of my university (with a public health organization) and I was contemplating whether I could try asking my advisor if I could count it as a class for my public health major. But I think ill just try to keep them separate anyway....

 

[moop]

@moop, the internship is outside of my university (with a public health organization) and I was contemplating whether I could try asking my advisor if I could count it as a class for my public health major. But I think ill just try to keep them separate anyway....

Doesn't matter. Is it paid? If not, getting credit means getting screwed.

 

[cactus8910]

Doesn't matter. Is it paid? If not, getting credit means getting screwed.

I don't know about OP, but at my undergrad you don't pay per credit, so getting an internship to count for credit doesn't cost any more than not doing it.

 

[moop]

I don't know about OP, but at my undergrad you don't pay per credit, so getting an internship to count for credit doesn't cost any more than not doing it.

Dude no. It costs more because most undergrads don't charge per credit. That's exactly why you'd get screwed. If you paid per credit, you wouldn't be screwed. Substituting out 3 credits for an internship would just decrease your bill by 3x, if x were the cost of a credit. You would pay A-3x instead of A for that semester. That's fine; you pay for what you get.

If you pay a flat rate tuition though, say C, and would have taken 15 credits that semester, then the unit cost of a credit = C/15x. By substituting out 3 credits for the internship and not taking an additional class, you are now paying a unit cost of C/12x for a credit, which is more expensive. If the internship is unpaid, you don't get any money back, and the university laughs as you think you saved money. You have to be paid for the internship to try to recoup the more expensive college credit you're now paying for.

The obvious way to avoid this is to NOT decrease the amount of classes you're taking even after doing the internship for credit. Take an unpaid internship for credit and keep the number of classes you would've taken anyway, and you don't get screwed.

Of course, this same logic extends to taking more credits to get the best bang for your tuition in college at any time. Someone taking 135 credits over 120 credits on a flat rate tuition got a better deal (from a courses standpoint, not social or anything else). I'm just saying that when the university encourages people to take internships for credit to substitute for classes, they're purposely trying to skimp out on having these students actually take the classes they paid for.

 

[cactus8910]

Of course, the obvious way to avoid this is to NOT decrease the amount of classes you're taking even after doing the internship for credit. Take an unpaid internship for credit and keep the number of classes you would've taken anyway, and you don't get screwed.

That's what I assumed the situation was. I see what you mean with taking fewer actual classes resulting in getting less for your money, but since they'd get credit towards their major, whether that matters really depends on the goal. Is the goal to complete the major, or take as many classes as possible to get the best deal?

 

[moop]

That's what I assumed the situation was. I see what you mean with taking fewer actual classes resulting in getting less for your money, but since they'd get credit towards their major, whether that matters really depends on the goal. Is the goal to complete the major, or take as many classes as possible to get the best deal?

The goal is to complete the major as it was originally designed by the school and have the internship come across as positively as it can for apps. Including an internship as a part of class could decrease the value of its "extracurricular" aspect, since it'd appear on the transcript. I'd take the extra initiative and do the internship as extra over everything else.

Not getting screwed is the extra bonus.