How to get an internship as a freshman or sophomore (summer 2027)

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

Key takeaways

• Freshmen and sophomores can get summer 2027 internships, but many of the openings are in a different pool from the one juniors apply to: programs built for early-year students, faculty research, and smaller employers that hire in spring.
• Sources disagree on when finance early-insight programs open. Yale says the summer before sophomore year, running into the fall.¹ Citi opens its first-year program in late March or early April and its sophomore program in February and November.² Check from summer through spring, and go by each firm's own page.
• Most NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) sites run in summer, pay a stipend, and have deadlines between January and March.³
• Smaller nonprofits, startups, and smaller firms often hire later, in spring 2027, so a freshman with nothing lined up by spring break still has options.¹
• As of October 27, 2026, Internships.com listed almost 40,000 open internships across 18 fields. Many postings don't name a class year, so read the qualifications, not just the title.

Can freshmen and sophomores actually get internships?

Yes, though often not through the programs juniors apply to. In your first two years, the better bets are programs large employers build for underclassmen, research in a campus lab, and smaller companies and nonprofits that hire in spring. Keep applying to standard internships too, wherever you meet the stated requirements.

Which internship programs are built for first-years and sophomores?

The clearest openings are early-insight and early-career programs that large employers run for students in their first two years. They're often shorter or more structured than a standard internship. Some feed into the employer's junior-year internship class; others introduce you to the firm so you're better placed to apply later. The program page usually says which.

In finance, the sources disagree on timing. Yale's Office of Career Strategy says early-insight applications open the summer before sophomore year and continue into the fall semester.¹ Citi, which publishes a recurring schedule on its own site, runs on a different calendar: its three-day Freshman Discovery program opens in late March or early April, and sophomore Early Identification opens in February (for a March start) and November (for a December start).² Both can be right, because each firm sets its own dates. Start looking the summer before sophomore year, keep checking through spring, and treat each firm's own page as the final word.

On job boards, add "sophomore," "first-year," "second year," or "early insight" to your search for the field you want. Postings often use those words in their eligibility lines.

Some named programs, from each employer's own page as of October 13, 2026:

• Goldman Sachs runs the Possibilities Series for first-years and the Emerging Leaders Series for second-years. Both are training and networking programs, and the Emerging Leaders page says it prepares students "for future internship opportunities at Goldman Sachs." Both pages showed applications closed (Possibilities listed spring 2026 dates, and Emerging Leaders runs fall 2026 to spring 2027), so watch them for the next cycle.
• Citi runs Freshman Discovery (three days, any first-year) and Early Identification (three weeks, US sophomores), both listed on Citi's site under "Pre-Internships."²
• Jane Street runs FTTP and FOCUS, both multi-day programs for first-year undergraduates.
• JPMorganChase runs Career.edYOU Academy, a semester-long virtual program for US sophomores (its page showed 2025 registration as closed), and the JPMorganChase Fellowship Program, which its page describes as a "five-week paid, full-time summer fellowship" for sophomores.

You won't find these programs in the open listings on Internships.com. As of October 27, 2026, our Citi and JPMorganChase company pages listed about 25 and 3 open internships, none of them these early-year programs. Apply on each firm's own site.

Most of these are educational or insight programs rather than internships: a few days of workshops, a virtual course, a networking event. They're worth applying to, because they can lead toward these firms' junior-year internship classes. But they aren't summer jobs, and most don't say they pay. Only the JPMorganChase Fellowship is described as paid on its own page.

In tech, Explore Microsoft is a 12-week U.S. summer internship "designed for first- and/or second-year college students," with a separate application for each year, per Microsoft's program page. You don't need a declared computer science major, but you do need an intro CS course and one semester of calculus. Yale says Explore Microsoft opens in September of the year before the internship,¹ but as of October 13, 2026, Microsoft's page had no 2027 deadline posted, and none of the 12 Microsoft internships on Internships.com on October 27 was an Explore role. Check Microsoft's page every few weeks this fall, and apply as soon as the 2027 posting appears.

Other large employers run similar programs under different names, and programs get renamed or dropped. Google's STEP program is an example. Yale lists it as opening in September of the year before the internship,¹ but as of October 13, 2026, Google Careers had no live STEP posting, and Internships.com listed no open Google internships on October 27. The program may have paused, moved, or not opened yet. Go by each company's own careers page, not a third-party list, including this one. Our summer 2027 internship timeline covers when each industry tends to open.

How do research positions and REUs work for underclassmen?

Research is easy for first- and second-years to overlook, and for STEM students it can be one of the best options. There are two routes.

Research on your own campus. Professors hire undergraduates as research assistants, sometimes for an hourly wage and sometimes for course credit. Campus research roles often aren't posted. You get one by reading a faculty member's recent work, emailing a short note about why that work interests you, and asking whether their lab takes undergraduates. Expect to send several emails before anyone says yes.

NSF REUs. The National Science Foundation funds summer research programs at host institutions, typically for groups of about 10 students. According to NSF, participants get competitive stipends and, in many cases, help with housing, meals, and travel.³ Most REU sites set deadlines between January and March and ask for a resume, a statement of interest, a transcript, and reference letters. You can search sites in NSF's Directory of REU Sites.

Freshmen can apply: NSF sets no minimum class year for undergraduates.³ Each site adds its own criteria, so read that site's eligibility section before you apply.

REUs do have a citizenship requirement. NSF limits them to U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, and permanent residents, and individual sites can add their own restrictions.³ International students should look at campus research roles instead and check work eligibility with their school's international student office.

Our view: in your freshman summer, a paid research role is often a better use of time than a vague, unpaid "internship" with undefined tasks. You come away with a faculty reference, a specific project to talk about, and a resume line that recruiters for junior-year programs recognize. If you're weighing an unpaid offer, check it against the Department of Labor's test for when for-profit companies must pay interns.⁴

Where else should freshmen and sophomores look?

Smaller employers are worth a look, especially if you're still searching in spring. Yale notes that smaller nonprofits may hire closer to the start date, and that some nonprofit internship applications open in late fall or early spring.¹ That's a broad pattern, not a deadline. Some employers recruit earlier, and some want more coursework than a first-year has.

Places to look:

• Local businesses, accounting firms, clinics, and city or county offices near home, which often hire for the summer in spring
• Nonprofits, including museums, advocacy groups, and community organizations
• Your campus: research offices, IT help desks, admissions, and the career center itself
• Internships.com listings by field. As of October 27, 2026, we had more than 13,000 open roles in Engineering, almost 8,900 in Operations, more than 5,100 in Marketing & Sales, more than 4,400 in Finance, and more than 2,700 in Research & Science.

For a step-by-step search process, see How to find an internship.

What are my options by year and when do they open?

Deadlines for underclassmen are spread across the year rather than bunched into one cycle. Start in the fall with early-insight and big tech programs, apply to REUs between January and March, and keep applying through May for nonprofit and local roles.

The table pulls together the summer 2027 windows from Yale's hiring timelines,¹ NSF,³ and Citi.² These are approximate recruiting patterns, not deadlines. Programs change their timing and eligibility from year to year, so confirm every date on the employer's own careers page.

How do I build a resume with no experience?

Employers hiring freshmen and sophomores usually don't expect a prior internship. They look for evidence that you learn quickly, show up, and finish things, and class projects and part-time jobs can show that.

Keep the resume to one page, put education first, and list relevant coursework if it matches the role. With little work history, each line has to be specific about what you did. Our Resume Builder flags bullets that list duties instead of results, so you can fix vague lines before an employer reads them.

How do I use networking as a freshman or sophomore?

Networking can matter even more for underclassmen, because many research and small-company roles are never posted widely. Start with alumni from your school who work in a field you're curious about, and ask for 15 minutes to hear how they got started, not for a job.

Keep the message short and specific. Our networking message templates include versions for alumni, professors, and recruiters that you can adapt.

Frequently asked questions

Are there accounting internships for freshmen?

Some firms run programs for first- and second-year accounting students, but there are fewer of them than junior-year roles. Accounting firms set their own recruiting calendars, so check each firm's careers page now and ask your campus accounting club which firms recruit underclassmen.

Should I do an unpaid internship as a freshman?

Only if the learning is structured and the arrangement is lawful. At a for-profit company, an unpaid internship is assessed under the Department of Labor's primary beneficiary test. Nonprofit status does not by itself make an unpaid role lawful: the DOL recognizes certain volunteer arrangements at nonprofit charitable organizations and public agencies, which is narrower than treating every unpaid nonprofit internship as permitted.⁴ This is general information, not legal advice, and state laws can differ. A paid campus research job is often the stronger choice.

Is it worth doing an internship freshman year?

It can be, but a freshman summer spent on research, a paid campus job, or a structured first-year program can be just as valuable on a resume as a role called "internship," depending on the work and what you want next. What matters is having specific work to describe in a sophomore or junior-year interview.

Are there paid internships for high school students?

A few exist, usually through local employers, hospitals, city youth employment programs, or university summer programs for high schoolers. Ask your school counselor about vetted local options, and expect most Internships.com listings to be aimed at college students.

Footnotes

1. Yale Office of Career Strategy, Industry hiring timelines, as of October 20, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

2. Citi, Pre-internships, as of October 27, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

3. U.S. National Science Foundation, REU: information for students, as of October 27, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

4. U.S. Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #71: Internship Programs Under the Fair Labor Standards Act. ↩ ↩²