How to find an internship in college: a step-by-step guide for summer 2027

Internships.com is a Chegg service. Where our own tools can help, this guide mentions them.

Key takeaways

• To find an internship in college, start where the openings are. As of October 27, 2026, Internships.com lists almost 40,000 open internships across 18 fields, and the largest fields are Engineering, Operations, and Marketing & Sales.
• Many summer 2027 internships post between summer 2026 and spring 2027. Yale puts software and CS internship applications in August and September 2026, and engineering's busiest hiring in September to November, then January to March.¹ Treat these as patterns, not deadlines.
• Many large employers review internship applications on a rolling basis, so applying soon after a role is posted can matter more than an extra week of polishing.¹
• Well-known employers are a small slice of the internship market. As of October 27, 2026, Internships.com showed more than 40 open roles at NVIDIA, 12 at SpaceX, 11 at Bank of America, two at Apple, and one at Jane Street, out of almost 40,000 in total.
• Bachelor's-level interns earned an average of $23.35 an hour in summer 2025, according to NACE's 2026 compensation guide.² About 40% of the open internships on Internships.com list their pay (as of October 27, 2026), so a paid role is a realistic goal.

How do you find an internship in college?

Pick a field and a location, check when that field hires, and work three or four search channels at once instead of one. In order:

1. Pick a field and two or three locations. "Any internship" is not a search. Try "data and analytics in Chicago or remote" instead.
2. Check your field's hiring window. Banks and large consulting firms recruit about a year or more ahead. Nonprofits often hire close to the start date. The summer 2027 internship timeline has the dates by industry.
3. Get one strong resume ready before you search. You'll apply faster, and speed counts with rolling review. How to apply for internships covers the resume, cover letter, and application itself.
4. Track every application in a spreadsheet or in our Tracker on Internships.com.
5. Follow up once. Our follow-up email templates give you wording that doesn't sound desperate.

Steps 1 and 4 are the easiest to skip, and they're what turn a vague search into a list you can work through.

Where are the internships right now?

The largest pools of open internships are in Engineering and Operations. As of October 27, 2026, Internships.com lists almost 40,000 open internships across 18 fields, with more than 13,000 in Engineering and almost 8,900 in Operations. Marketing & Sales follows with more than 5,100, then Healthcare with almost 5,000 and Finance with more than 4,400. About half of the healthcare roles are pharmacy internships, which usually require current enrollment in a pharmacy program. A role can be tagged to more than one field, so the field totals overlap.

Each field page has its own live count, which changes daily. The biggest pools, largest first:

• Engineering
• Operations
• Marketing & Sales
• Healthcare
• Finance
• Data & Analytics
• Research & Science

AI, Product & Design, and Consulting are small pools: about 3,000 openings between them as of October 27, 2026, under 8% of the total. If you want one of those roles, start early and apply widely. If you're flexible, an operations or sales internship at a company you like can be an easier way in, and the skills carry over.

Location matters too. As of October 27, 2026, New York (more than 1,600), Chicago (more than 850), and Atlanta (more than 700) have the most open internships on Internships.com. Even the 20 largest city pages add up to only about 10,100 roles, roughly a quarter of the total, so limiting yourself to one big city cuts out most of the market.

Browse by city:

• New York, NY
• Chicago, IL
• Atlanta, GA
• Houston, TX
• Washington, DC
• Austin, TX
• Boston, MA
• Dallas, TX
• Los Angeles, CA
• San Francisco, CA

Where should you look for internships?

Look in at least three places: your school's career center, one or two job boards, and people you can reach directly. Each channel finds a different kind of role, and none of them covers everything.

Career center and Handshake. Employers that post through your career center have chosen your school, an advantage you don't get on a public board. Go to at least one career fair this fall, even if you hate career fairs: a two-minute conversation gives a recruiter a name to look for in the pile.

Job boards. Job boards are where the volume is. You can browse Internships.com by field, city, or company without an account. Whichever board you use, build your list there, then check each company's own site for the deadline.

Company career pages. For your short list of top employers, go straight to the source. Career pages like Amazon Careers, Google Careers, and PwC Careers show what's open now. During each employer's hiring window, check its site weekly.

Alumni and LinkedIn. A short message to someone two or three years ahead of you at a target company is one of the most useful things you can do in finance, consulting, and tech. Ask about their team, not for a job. When a conversation goes well, how to get a referral for an internship covers when and how to ask.

Professors. Research internships and summer lab positions often go to students who asked. Go to office hours, mention the work you liked in class, and ask whether the lab takes undergraduates.

Local employers. Hospitals, city government, regional banks, and small businesses often hire interns without national recruiting cycles. If you're a first- or second-year student, see our guide to internships for freshmen and sophomores.

What's the best website to apply for internships?

No single site has every internship. Start with one broad board, and apply on the employer's own system when the posting sends you there. Internships.com had almost 40,000 open roles across 18 fields as of October 27, 2026, and you can filter them by field, city, and company.

Filling in application forms is where most of the time goes. Our Chrome extension fills them in on Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, and Workday, and on other sites once you give it access; you still review and submit. With Career membership, on many sites you can use Apply for me instead: you answer a few questions, and we submit the application for you. It isn't available on Workday or LinkedIn.

Where a board lets you sort by date, sort by newest, and save every role in a tracker with its deadline. Check a few times a week rather than once a month, since rolling review rewards applying soon after a role posts.

Is it too late to apply for summer 2027 internships?

No, for most fields, but start now. Several big hiring windows for summer 2027 are already open, and some have closed. The windows below come from Yale's Office of Career Strategy and are typical patterns, not deadlines:¹

• Investment banking runs furthest ahead: bulge-bracket banks open as early as January, and some boutiques the previous September or October, so the summer 2027 cycle has largely closed.
• MBB and other large consulting firms open applications anywhere from early spring to August, with many deadlines around late March, so their summer 2027 window has largely passed. Boutique consulting opens September to December 2026.
• Software and CS internships recruit August to September 2026, and many flagship programs fill early.
• Biotech and pharma: large programs open August to October 2026, with deadlines into January; smaller firms post January to April 2027.
• Startups and smaller firms often post February to April 2027.
• Smaller nonprofits may hire close to the start date.

Missed the banking window? If you're a first-year or sophomore, finance early-insight programs are built for you, and their timing differs by firm; our guide for freshmen and sophomores has the dates. The full summer 2027 timeline has the rest.

How do you find paid internships?

Look for the hourly rate or stipend in the posting, and favor for-profit employers, which generally have to pay their interns. As of October 27, 2026, more than 16,300 open internships on Internships.com list pay, out of almost 40,000, and you can browse paid internships on their own.

Under the U.S. Department of Labor's Fact Sheet #71, an unpaid internship at a for-profit employer is only allowed when the intern, not the company, is the "primary beneficiary," judged on seven factors such as ties to academic credit and whether the intern displaces paid staff. Nonprofit status alone doesn't make an unpaid internship lawful, though the Department of Labor allows certain volunteer arrangements at nonprofit charitable organizations and public agencies. This is general information, not legal advice, and state laws can differ.

For a pay benchmark, NACE reports an average of $23.35 an hour for bachelor's-level interns in summer 2025, with co-ops at $24.46.² If a posting doesn't list pay, it's fine to ask once you're in the interview process.

How do you find remote internships?

Search "remote" plus your field, then confirm in the posting that the role is fully remote, not hybrid in a specific city. Remote roles are a small slice: about 1,700 remote internships on Internships.com as of October 27, 2026, roughly 4% of the total. They can also draw applicants from anywhere, so treat remote listings as part of your list, not the whole list. Be wary of any "remote internship" that asks you to pay a fee, buy equipment up front, or share banking details before a formal offer.

Footnotes

1. Yale Office of Career Strategy, Industry hiring timelines, as of October 20, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. NACE, Hourly wage for interns climbs but is down over last 10 years in real terms, from the 2026 Guide to Compensation, as of October 27, 2026. ↩ ↩²