×

Common Searches

What majors does UMSL offer? Where can I sign in to Canvas? What courses are offered this semester? What are the upcoming events at UMSL? How can I get IT help? How do I request a transcript? How do I add or drop a class? Who is my advisor?
Admissions Pay Tuition Financial Aid Scholarships and Grants Alumni and Giving Athletics Visit UMSL Careers at UMSL

Internship Guidelines

An academic internship is a temporary work experience in the student's discipline that contains sufficient academic content and rigor to merit the granting of academic credit. It is supervised both by a sponsoring faculty member in the discipline, and by an onsite representative of the employing firm. The student must pay tuition and fees for the number of hours for which he/she expects to receive academic credit. The internship may or may not entail compensation for the student from the host organization. Such compensation may take several forms, including stipends or scholarships for tuition and fees. In order to successfully earn academic credit for the internship, the student must complete the following guidelines*:

  • An academic internship requires participation of a sponsoring CoBA faculty member who agrees to oversee the student's activities, maintain contact with the employer, and assign a final grade at the end of the semester in which the internship occurs. This grade may be based on a combination of factors, including, but not limited to, the student's performance as an intern, preparation of a paper detailing his/her experiences and linking them to coursework, and an evaluation of his/her experiences.

  • Sponsoring faculty members will generally be full-time faculty; exceptions require written permission of the Department Chair.

  • Prior to enrollment in the course, a course form provided by the area will be completed and signed by the student, sponsoring faculty member, department chair, internship coordinator and an academic advisor

  • The amount and timing of any compensation and the work schedules for the participating student should be specified prior to the commencement of the internship arrangement.

  • The number of credit hours granted for a given internship experience may range from 1 to 3 and is to be determined by the sponsoring faculty member. A minimum of 50 hours must be worked for each credit hour awarded-maximum of 3 credit hours.

  • Total domestic internship credit applied toward the minimum 120 credit hour graduation requirement is limited to 3 hours. (I.e., additional academic internship hours will increase the minimum graduation requirement.)

  • Each area shall determine whether academic internship credit hours may be counted toward completion of its emphasis area requirements.

  • At the end of the semester, the participating student will provide to the sponsoring faculty member an evaluation of the student's internship experience as well as complete an experience form that can be found below. The student's on-site supervisor will also provide an evaluation. The Internship Coordinator will provide the evaluations to the student and supervisor.

Undergraduate internships have minimum prerequisites of a campus GPA of 2.0, and CoBA GPA of 2.5. Student must also have completed or be currently enrolled in at least 6 hours of electives in emphasis area.

If you are a student that has completed an internship through the College of Business Administration Internship Program within the last semester, please complete this form.

* Each emphasis area may contain additional guidelines. For more information, please talk to your department chair. For Accounting, please talk to Jennifer Chen (wenhe@umsl.edu).