»Internships at Chapman University

Interterm 2025

Tuesday, January 14, 2025 at 5:00 p.m.

Spring 2025

Friday, March 7, 2025 at 5:00 p.m.
Petition deadline is Friday, April 25 at 5:00 p.m.

Summer 2025

Monday, June 27, 2025 at 5:00 p.m.
Petition deadline is Tuesday, July 25 at 5:00 p.m.

• Identify, apply for and secure an internship at a local organization by the fifth week of the semester. 
• Obtain a Faculty Internship Advisor within the appropriate internship course department. The Faculty Internship Advisor will assign an academic component to the credit-bearing internship. It is the student’s responsibility to find a full-time faculty advisor in the subject they are registering and ask them to be their advisor. To view all eligible advisors, please go to Step 2 of the application in the Portal and select the desired subject, which will populate a list of faculty advisors. If you do not know any faculty members on the list, you can contact the department head for assistance.
• Submit the following application materials to the online Internship Portal for Faculty Internship Advisor and Career and Professional Development review and approval:
  • Intern Responsibilities Agreement (review your responsibilities before choosing to register)
  • Internship Registration Information
  • Internship Learning Objectives
  • Internship Site Approval Form *requires Site Supervisor signature
• The approval and registration process can take up to 10 business days. Students that need immediate credit on their records for financial aid purposes or for full-time student status can enroll in an Internship Placeholder Course until official course registration is processed by contacting Career and Professional Development. Students must complete the Internship Placeholder Form when enrolling for an Internship Placeholder Course.
• Complete and track all internship hours on the Internship Timesheet, obtain Site Supervisor approval at the end of the academic term and upload the Internship Timesheet to the Internship Portal.
• Ensure Site Supervisor completes the Student Internship Performance Evaluation.
• Maintain regular contact with Faculty Internship Advisor and complete any assignment(s) by the determined due dates. Communicate with Career and Professional Development regarding any registration changes or internship site concerns.

While internships do not have to be done for credit, a student may wish to register for academic credit if:

• An internship is required as part of a degree program,
• The student wishes to have the internship recorded on the transcript, or
• The student wishes to earn academic credit towards degree completion.

If participating in an internship for academic credit, please be aware of the following:

• Credit per internship ranges by department from 0.5 to 6 credits. Students must complete 20 hours for each 0.5 credit registered.
• A maximum of 12 credits of internship courses may count toward the baccalaureate degree. See undergraduate degree requirements Limitation of Credit.
• You may only complete 6 credits of internship credit with the same site, and from semester to semester your responsibilities must significantly differ.
• No internship nor practicum credit is accepted in transfer. See General Transfer Credit Policy.
• An internship requires an academic advisor, who must be a full-time faculty member.
• No retroactive internship credit may be awarded for hours worked without timely registration in an internship course. This is because academic credit is only awarded for work done under the supervision of a faculty member, who awards the grade in the semester or term that the work is completed.
• Internship hours may only count towards credit during the academic term in which a student is registered.

If you anticipate any delays with the submission of this application, it is your responsibility to ensure you are enrolled full time for financial aid purposes. You have the option to enroll in the temporary temporary independent internship course placeholder.

Course subjects vary from program to program, but follow the following code structure:

• 290 lower-division course
• 490 upper-division course
• 492 seminar course
• 690 graduate-level course

Always utilize the most recent official academic catalog for the most accurate information on internship courses and codes.

Independent internships: graded by the student’s Faculty Internship Advisor on a Pass/No Pass basis. This is based upon completion of projects assigned by the advisor, submission of timesheet by the student, and frequent communication between the student and advisor.

Seminar internships: may be subject to a letter grade. If an internship for a seminar course is not secured by the fifth week of the term per the academic calendar, the student is expected to withdraw.

If you are seeking to receive academic credit for an internship for the current semester and have missed the deadline, you will need to go through the Petition Process. The following are the necessary steps:

1. Complete the Petition Packet.  A completed Petition Packet includes the following:

• Completed Undergraduate Petition Form or Graduate Petition Form. You only need to obtain a signature approval from your Faculty Internship Advisor and Career and Professional Development’s Internship Coordinator.
• Personal statement of reason for petition (1-page maximum).
• Any other information supporting the reason the Standards Committee should approve your petition.
• A submitted online internship application. If you have already completed this, please go on to step 3.

• Log into the Internship Portal.  There, you can complete the online Internship Application. You will need to work with your site supervisor to complete the Internships Site Approval Form.
• In the fourth step of the online process, you will upload a PDF or JPG of your signed Internship Site Approval Form.   
• For further guidance, please review the step-by-step process outlined on our website.

• Our staff will sign the “Internship Coordinator” section of your petition.
• Our office will submit your completed packet to the Registrar.
• The Registrar will submit your petition to the Standards Committee for their consideration. 

1. Once your petition is received, it will take 7 – 10 business days to receive a response.
2. Enrollment depends upon Standards Committee approval. 

Please first submit your application on the online Internship Portal, then gather all necessary documents and proof of payment for the Petition Packet and submit this to our office at your earliest convenience.

Please note: If you are petitioning to add a retroactive internship (meaning an internship that was completed during a prior semester), please be aware that it is the policy of Chapman University to not approve retroactive credit. You must present a compelling, extenuating circumstance, such as, was misadvised by your academic or program advisor for the Standards Committee to be convinced an exception should be made. Also, if this retroactive credit would have resulted in a credit overload for the term in which it was completed, you will be assessed tuition at the overload rate. If overload tuition is acceptable to you, please indicate this in your personal statement.