Co-Op & Internship Program

Depending on who you talk to, these terms can be somewhat interchangeable, so don’t worry if you talk to an employer and they use different terminology!

At Illinois Tech, though, this is how we define these two experiences:

Internship: Typically a one semester or one summer experience; paid or not paid, with varying degrees of responsibilities; For most programs, the experience is not tied to other requirements within their academic experience (not the case with programs in the Department of Psychology, where internships are a part of the degree program).

Co-op (or Cooperative Education): Typically a multi-semester work experience with increasing levels of responsibility as the experience progresses; usually paid; usually, but not exclusively, built around a formalized partnership between the university and an employer partner; tied to prerequisite activities and/or requirements within the student’s academic experience.

Both of these experiences are eligible for administrative credits and, when a student goes through our experiential learning application procedure, the experience will show up on the student’s official transcript.

Co-ops and Internships can be found in most places that full-time jobs can be found. However, we have two locations internally that we encourage you to check:

Handshake: Our primary open access job posting site has hundreds of internships and co-op opportunities listed at any time

IL Tech Career Network: Starting in Fall 2024, this portal will be the primary location for company partners to post internships and co-ops. For students to access these experiences, they will be required to complete a series of professional development tasks and activities. These companies are the most likely to hire Illinois Tech students, so it is very much worth the effort to access these opportunities!

Students must enroll in academic courses each semester in the fall and spring to maintain full-time status and make progress toward their degrees, even if they are doing full-time experiences.

See the chart below that describes the differences between part-time and full-time experiences.

Administrative credits allow students to maintain their full-time student status at the university but do not give academic credits toward a student’s degree program.

Students completing a co-op or internship in the final semester are not allowed to exclusively sign up for online coursework. They must have an on-campus presence to be eligible to do the co-op or internship experience.

Students who choose to do co-ops or internships with administrative credits must start their co-op or internship by the first working day after the drop/add date and cannot end any earlier than the last day of courses. Co-ops or Internships where administrative credits are not given offer more flexibility in terms of start and end dates.

During the summer term, students are not required to take academic courses.

• Graduate students cannot take summer courses concurrently with full-time co-ops or internships based on policies made by Graduate Academic Affairs. Students who have additional questions about this policy should contact Graduate Academic Affairs.
• Undergraduate students who are participating in a co-op or internship experience are allowed to take summer courses along with their full-time co-op or internship.