These guidelines are to serve as a general rule of thumb and do not encompass all Walsh University internship programs. Each internship for credit is approved by students’ faculty advisors. Walsh abides by NACE’s official Position Statement for U.S. Internships. For questions, contact Walsh’s Career Readiness and Development Center at careercenter@walsh.edu.

Q: Which students are looking for internships?
A: Walsh University requires all undergraduate students to complete an internship in order to graduate. The Career Readiness and Development Center encourages students to participate in multiple work-related experiences including practicums, internships for credit and internships not for credit.

Q: What do I need to do to ensure students get credit for their internship?
A: Students are expected to communicate requirements to their supervisors. Employers are not expected to track hours for student interns. The Career Readiness and Development Center encourages employers to complete a performance evaluation at least once during the semester. In some cases, students are required to solicit evaluations to receive credit. Additionally, in some cases, faculty advisors will request a meeting to discuss student performance. Click here for a sample internship performance evaluation.

Q: How many hours do students need to work to qualify for credit?
A: Typically, students are required to take 3 credit hours for credit but can range from 1 to 15. The hours are counted as follows:

  • 1 credit hour = 45 hours (3 hours per week)
  • 3 credit hours = 135 hours (10 hours per week)
  • 15 credit hours = 40 hours per week

Q: What disqualifies an internship program from college credit?
A: Walsh requires all internships to provide meaningful, career-related work and that there is a direct supervisor overseeing the student. Disqualifications would include an internship which primarily requires making copies, getting coffee, and shredding. Walsh also does not tend to approve high pressure sales positions where the student is required to reach into their own network to make sales. For more information, please reference NACE’s official Position Statement for U.S. Internships.

Q: What does Walsh want out of our company when providing an internship?
A: Walsh wants students to do meaningful, career-related work where they can utilize their academic experience, develop their technical and soft skills, work on projects or programs that will help them advance when they start applying for jobs, develop mentors and references, and generally build their professional network.

Q: Should the internship be paid or unpaid?
A: The Career Readiness and Development Center highly recommends paying interns. This will also allow employers to fill positions more easily and receive more applicants. There are a couple of majors, however, that prevent students from being paid for their internships, but those students will let you know.

Q: How much should I pay an intern?
A: Generally, $10-$15/hour is recommended for undergraduate non-technical fields, but Walsh understands that not all employers can provide this rate. To examine average rates by state, visit https://www.indeed.com/salaries/student-intern-Salaries,-Ohio.

Q: What do I need to recruit an intern?
A: If you have not yet developed a position description, you can access our sample description here. For guidance on language, we encourage you to search for internship positions descriptions that already exist at other companies. For example, “Event planning internship position description.” The Career Center can help finalize the language.

Second, you should post on Handshake, our career platform which helps connect students to employers and open positions. You can create your profile and start posting by clicking here.

Finally, send your positions to careercenter@walsh.edu. We can post them on our internal board and send them to faculty to share with students.