Summer internships for high school students are among the best ways to spice up a college application. I did extensive research and completed my summer internship. Let me share what I learned and how you can do it better.
In my junior year of high school, I wanted to apply for as many internships as I could. My reason for this sudden interest in applying for internship opportunities was because college application season was rolling round the corner. I wanted to apply to top schools like Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, UChicago and more, so I needed to spice up my application with actual experience in the field I wanted to go into. But also, I wanted to learn what it was like to actually work in that field. What was the work environment like? What kind of work would we do? You don’t really get many answers unless you get your hands dirty.
And there really isn’t a better way to do that than internships.
After applying for 15-20 internships, and getting accepted into only 3, I learned a few things about high school internships. I spent countless hours writing supplementals, bothering teachers for letters of rec, and anxiously waiting results. I spent months on the process, so along the way, I learned a few things that I did not know my first time around.
And I wish to share them with you, so you do not have to struggle like how I did those first few months.
Are Paid Internships Worth It?
UChicago, Northwestern, Harvard, Stanford, and so many other top schools offer summer programs of their own. The problem with these programs is that they are a “pay-to-win” system. You have to pay the schools, often, thousands of dollars to take these courses. These are NOT an internship. And these programs will have minimal effect on your application. Colleges want to see internships where you worked to get. You are better off with an unpaid internship than one of these programs, despite them being highly competitive.
These programs are just a cheap way for colleges to make extra money during summer break when most students are out. Now, I’m not saying don’t apply for these programs, just that they are not as prestigious as you may think. If they match your interests, then by all means apply for it. What doesn’t work for me, may work for you and vice versa.
These programs completely miss the point of an internship, what an internship is completely about.
The purpose of an internship is to give students hands-on experience in actual work experience. You learn from doing actual work (or close to it anyways) instead of learning from textbooks. Something those programs don’t often give you.
How to Pick a Good Internship
A good internship can differ from person to person. However, these are the main ideas one should know when picking and applying for an internship.
The bigger the name, the better it will look on a resume. A big internship like one at Microsoft, Apple, etc., will definitely turn an admissions officer’s eyes, as (obviously) it is very hard to be accepted as an intern, especially as a high schooler.
There is one downside to this however. Oftentimes, not always (maybe a 50% chance), all you will be is a glorified coffee maker. Sometimes these big corporations, museums, non-profits will just have you do menial tasks like that for the entire duration of your internship. These internships will do little to improve your resume unless you are some amazing wordsmith and can spin it into a good learning experience. Nor will you actually be learning about the work people do at said job.
Sometimes, working at a smaller business may be the route for you. While I didn’t do it, I know many people cold-emailed small businesses/firms for an internship prospect at their firm, attaching their resume at the end. It worked for some of my friends, perhaps it can work for you.
For a small business, your effect on the company should be impressive, because this isn’t some well-known company you need to counteract that. Maybe you worked on data, published stuff, increased revenue with your ideas. Small businesses aren’t bad, just harder to make stand out than a big well known company.
Now moving on from applying to an internship, to picking one once you’ve got offers. Look at your application, what exactly are you majoring in? What are your future goals? But especially look into what you are majoring in. From the numerous pieces of advice I got from webinars and others, they say your application should be centered around the major you want to do, with a few activities showing your other interests. Will this internship help show me a student capable of studying {insert major}?
Let’s take me for example. I want to go into computer science with a focus on finance/stock market. I had three internships to choose from: A camp counselor opportunity, An app development opportunity, and then a financial opportunity at FitchRatings.
The camp counselor opportunity was immediately thrown out the window. My other two options were infinitely better as there is an actual relation to my major/career goals. I wanted to do finance and computer science, and one was computer related while the other was finance related.
In the end I chose to go for the FitchRatings internship. FitchRatings was a credit ratings company in relation to the stock market. Basically what they do is see how likely a company is to pay back your money, are they are likely to do so in a quickly manner (you make your money back with minimal interest), will they return your money late (you make your money back with lots of interest), or are they likely to never pay you back (you never see your money again)?
While it was finance related, the big reason I picked this internship over my other options was because FitchRatings is one of the three big credit ratings firms in the world, so I will get the name recognition points from the admissions officer. I also got this internship from a reliable mediator, which guaranteed I would not be a random coffee getter, but I would actually be doing work.
So over the 2024 summer, I interned at FitchRatings for 6 weeks.
My Summer Internship at Fitch Ratings
This was my first actual internship; the internship I had over my 2023 summer was a simple movie-making internship that did more to help me enjoy my summer than learn skills I’ll use later in life (I loved it though).
While I know this will not be the experience of many of you, I still wanted to share the basics of what I experienced at my internship.
A good internship, especially since we are high school students, know you are only that. A HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT. If they accepted you thinking you were some Albert Einstein, then they need to recheck their mental fortitude. A good internship will work with you, at your level.
I was not thrown into the thick of it immediately, the first two weeks of my internship was spent getting used to the place. The first week was really lax, I just watched a bunch of videos in relation to the company, and what they do. The second week I began to interview people there to see their personal experience working for the company.
At the beginning of the third week, I began my first project. I did some data collection and research starting at week three, to the end of week 5. I looked through government reports, and made a spreadsheet with a fellow intern who worked in a different city (we talked through zoom).
Two high schoolers having fun while getting work done. It wasn’t too terrible, except it was rather tedious doing the same thing for 5 hours in a row.
I’m just telling my experience to show you that an internship is not a completely scary experience. If the people around you care to make your experience good, you’ll be fine and you’ll learn a good amount. Do not fret, do not get nervous. It’s your first internship (presumably)! Make it an experience worth looking back on in the future.
Final Words
Look, I’ve been where you are right now. I’m doing alright now, so will you. Done right, an internship will be a valuable experience to learn from and to put on a college application. An internship’s main purpose is gaining real life job experience, but also for bettering your resume.
Learning new things is what will propel us all forward in life. Learning is the key to my future, and it is the key to yours too. I’m a high schooler, just like you. We are at the beginning of our life’s journey and still learning.
I hope this article gave a little bit of insight into what the experience is like. I wish you luck on your internship endeavors.
