Dear Ed,
At my college, we cannot receive credit for internships, and this has frustrated many students here who feel limited when applying for unpaid intern positions. If a posting says that interns must receive college credit, and you know that isn't a possibility, is it worth applying anyway or explaining the situation in your cover letter? Also, why do certain publications require interns to receive credit?
Thank you,
JL
Hi JL,
You should still apply for credit-only internships and explain the situation in your cover letter. But before you do that, talk to your journalism department about what alternatives there are to credit. Can you receive a transcript notation? Even just some sort of formal support from your school for taking an unpaid internship can convince an editor to bring you in for an interview. You can also try to arrange to receive credit for your internship from another institution, though you may need to take a leave of absence from your current college, or wait until you graduate and get post-grad credit.
Lots of continuing education schools and some smaller colleges will sell internship credits. Yeah, we know it sucks to pay to take an internship, but think of it as the best tuition you’ve ever spent because you can’t get a job without an internship.
The reason many publishing companies require that interns receive credit because interns are a legal liability. If they're not paying you, and you're not getting credit from them, if something happens that you're able to sue them over, they're liable. If you are getting compensated in some way, it's much harder to sue. It's HR who is more concerned about interns receiving credit than the editors. But, for editors, hiring interns who receive credit ensures that the student won't leave the internship before it's over and will work hard through the end. It also may be an ethical thing for them—since they can't pay you, they want to at least be able to offer you something! But in almost all cases, it's a company-wide policy, as opposed to a magazine-specific rule.
And most magazines that can pay you for your work don't require credit, so look into paid internships, too.
Love, Ed