While we do not give course credit for internships, we officially recognize their importance via the optional Professional Tracks. The requirements for the professional tracks include all those of the standard tracks, as well as the following: Students must complete two full-time professional experiences, lasting two to four months each (or two part-time experiences of equivalent total effort), doing work that is related to their concentration program. Such work is normally done within an industrial organization, but may also be done at a university under the supervision of a faculty member. For the work to be considered related to a concentration program, the job responsibilities must make use of the material from one or more courses of the concentration (regardless of whether the student has taken those courses or not at the time of the internship). On completion of each professional experience, the student must write and upload to ASK a reflective essay about the experience addressing the following prompts:

• Describe the organization you worked in and the nature of your responsibilities.
• Which courses were put to use in your work? Which topics, in particular, were important?
• In retrospect, which courses should you have taken before embarking on your work experience?
• What are the topics from these courses that would have helped you if you had been more familiar with them?
• What topics would have been helpful in preparation for this work experience that you did not learn at Brown?
• What did you learn from the experience that probably could not have been picked up from course work?
• Is the sort of work you did something you would like to continue doing once you graduate? Explain.
• Would you recommend your work experience to other Brown students? Explain.

The reflective essays are subject to the approval of the student's concentration adviser.

Entry into the Professional Track requires approval by your Concentration Advisor, at the time of the concentration declaration. Before your Professional Track declaration can be approved, you must discuss with your Advisor your plans to execute the required internships.  The Concentration Advisor will certify that all Professional Track students have completed the necessary internships and will grant approval for the associated reflective essays. All other requirements remain identical to those in the standard tracks in the concentrations.

If you are an international student with an F-1 visa, you will need to apply for a CPT so that you may do a paid internship with a company in the US.

Apply for a CPT by following the instructions for professional-track students.