Eligibility
A minimum GPA of 2.5 is required for internship registration. First-semester Freshmen and transfers do not yet have grade point averages and are therefore ineligible to register for an internship.
Site sponsors expect student interns to have a firm grasp of the concepts and tools particular to their field of study. In most cases, students would need to complete at least 60 credits before they can meet those expectations and receive, in turn, the full benefits of the internship experience.
Credit
To receive academic credit for an Art Internship, students should clear the internship with their advisor in order to gain credit for the course ART494 prior to the start of the internship. You must be enrolled in ART 494 while you are completing your internship, you can not complete an internship over the summer and enroll in ART 494 the following fall/spring.
Up to six credits may be awarded per internship (3 credits can count towards the animation elective requirement), at the rate of 1 credit per 40 contact hours. Accordingly, the minimum 3-credit internship requires 120 contact hours, while a six-credit internship requires 240 contact hours. The maximum number of credits awarded per semester is six. There is no University limit on the number of internship credits students may earn during their undergraduate careers.
Internship credit may be applied toward general electives, related courses, or art electives, as determined by a student’s academic advisor.
Obtaining an internship
Students may identify and register for internships on their own. However, registration through the Career Center is highly recommended and in most cases required by the supervising visual arts faculty.
ART 494 Arts Internship Registration
- Visit the Career Center and Identify an internship site. The Career Center will assist with contacts needed to develop internship opportunities for students.
- Register your internship. Once you confirm your internship site, contact the career center to obtain registration paperwork and information about the internship practicum. Email internships@umbc.edu to ask for paperwork.
- Identify a full-time faculty member in visual arts to supervise the internship and sign the paperwork. The role of the faculty advisor is to evaluate the educational merit of the internship experience and award academic credit. For that reason, it is important that the faculty advisor teach the discipline covered by the internship. It is also recommended that the faculty advisor be someone with whom the student has an established working relationship, either through classroom experience or academic advising. Keep in mind, that faculty are not required to supervise internships, but choose to do so on a voluntary basis as their schedules permit.
- Register for the internship. Each Visual Arts faculty member has an individual section number for the course ART494. When a faculty member agrees to supervise a student, he or she must clear the student to register for credit under that specific section number. Once this registration clearance is granted, students may register and the internship will appear on their schedule. At the end of the semester, the faculty advisor will receive the official grade sheet and will submit the final grade (P/F) to the Registrar’s Office.