Graduate Student Internships

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The School of Media Studies recognizes the crucial role of internships in a student's professional development. The value of internships is to gain relevant experience and a realistic perspective on the industry and job market. An internship can also supplement academic learning in certain subjects. Finally, internships build networks and contacts for career development.



Internships are available at a many media companies and independent and educational media services in New York City and around the world. Recently, our graduate students have interned at: NBC, CBS, ABC, VH-1, MTV, GLAAD, Telemundo, Miramax, Universal, and Bertelsmann.



A graduate student's internship experience ought to be of a higher quality than the typical undergraduate experience. We expect graduate interns to be directly involved with the business or production work of an organization. Their regular tasks ought to utilize their broad skill-set and talents to the direct benefit of the organization and the development of the intern.



The department posts vetted internship opportunities in a weekly blog, which is password protected for graduate Media Studies and Media Management students. Students receive digested updates and password reminders weekly via New School email. Students can also pursue their own opportunities. Many companies advertise internships on their websites, and many other external websites and job aggregators are devoted to assisting students searching for internships.



Students in the MA or MS program can take a total of 6 credits of internship, specifically 3 research-based credits and 3 production-based credits.



Academic Requirements



The department is sensitive to the varying time and financial commitments of our students, and we have made concessions to open the internship experience to a wider field. All for-credit internship proposals must be submitted to the director for student affairs before the start of the term of employment. In most cases this will require 2-3 business days to turn around.



Since an internship is set up for variable credit, the student must work out in advance with the director of student affairs the number of credits for which he or she will register (default is 1 credit) and whether the internship is research- or production-based. This information must be included in the Internship Contract made between the employer and The New School. Terms of employment must specify duties and hours and usually must conform to the start and end dates of the academic term. Once the terms of employment are approved, the student will receive a course registration number with which to register. A student can then register online through my.newschool.edu or in person at the registration office with an advisor-signed add/drop form.



Upon completion of the agreed term of employment, the student writes a short paper summarizing the experience (guidelines below) to submit to the director of student affairs. The student's on-site supervisor must submit an Internship Evaluation. Both documents are due 10 days after the internship end date (or 5 business days after the end of the academic term, whichever comes first). Both student summary and supervisor evaluation must be received in order for a student to receive a grade and course credit for the experience. Internships are graded pass/fail.



Guidelines for the Summary Paper

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Type 8-10 pages, double spaced; describe the mission of the organization and characterize the company's role in the industry; describe the administrative/operational structure of the organization; identify the department in which you interned and describe its purpose and the rationale for its location within the organization's structure; recount the purpose, focus, and content of the project(s) you worked on; summarize your day-to-day duties; describe how the internship has informed your education (and vice versa; speculate on the future of the firm or the industry; restate your learning objectives and discuss to what extent you achieved them (skills learned, knowledge base extended; career ideas developed); discuss the contacts you made and whether you expect to leverage this experience for your professional development.



Additional Note
 

Paying for credits to take on a work experience that is often unpaid can be a hardship for a student. The School of Media Studies works with students to lessen the burden. In particular, we will work with students who wish to have an internship on their transcript but not to pay credit tuition. If you are in the latter situation, please speak to the director of graduate studies. We do our best to work with any given situation, and our first concern is always the student's education.



Graduate Independent Study

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Graduate students who have completed 18 credits—including appropriate production courses, in the case of Independent Production—can apply to undertake independent study for credit. The student must define a specific subject or problem to investigate and find an interested faculty member who will serve as an adviser and help them develop a proposal.



The Independent Study/Production Proposal must be submitted to the director of graduate studies for approval with enough time for full evaluation prior to registration (at least two weeks). Upon approval of the proposal an Independent Study Contract must be submitted.

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Normally, independent study is pursued with a member of the principal faculty during a fall or spring semester. Please consult in advance with Director of Graduate Program or with an adjunct faculty adviser before developing a proposal for a summer independent project.



Graduate Collaboration Project: Beyond The Page



Beyond The Page was designed to meet the needs of students who wish to pursue advanced work in a particular medium within a highly collaborative environment. The students design a project based on a pre-existing research paper with the approval from a panel of interested faculty members who serve as advisers.

 

Requirements:

Graduate students who have completed 18 credits—including appropriate production courses, in the case of Independent Production—can apply to undertake Beyond The Page for credit. The students must select a research paper to produce in a new medium and find interested faculty members who will serve as advisers and help them develop a proposal.​
 

A Beyond The Page Proposal must be submitted to the director of graduate studies for approval with enough time for full evaluation prior to registration (at least two weeks). Upon approval of the proposal a Collaborative Project Contract must be submitted.

 

Normally, The Beyond The Page project is pursued with members of the principal faculty during a fall or spring semester. Please consult in advance with Director of Graduate Program or with an adjunct faculty adviser before developing a proposal for a summer Collaborative project.



To learn more about the Graduate Collaboration Project visit Beyond The Page official website.