Some students are required to perform internship, practicum or field work as part of their academic program. All other students may be eligible to earn optional academic credit for internships and volunteer experiences. Students who seek optional academic credit are required use the Credit by Arrangement process, in which they identify a faculty or academic sponsor who is willing to oversee their internship/volunteer experience and can verify that the position description is worthy of earned academic credit.
An important note to employers is that students must pay for the number of credits they earn, just as they would for a course. Internships are generally limited to a maximum of 12 credits (with exceptions), although it's more typical for students to register for 2-4 credit hours. The number of credit hours earned and the resulting cost to the student is relative to the number of hours spent working in an internship. For example, a total of 30-40 hours of internship work is required to earn one academic credit (e.g. 4 hours per week over 10 weeks). Students opting to earn between two and four credits may expect to work approximately 60-160 internship hours over one or two terms.
PSU Students interested in learning about how to earn academic credit for internships, should review PSU Students: Earning Credit for Internships