FAQ: PR Internships

CM 471 is open to Public Relations, Advertising, and Media Science majors and minors (note that CM 471 does not satisfy any graduation requirements for the minor) and any other interested students who meet these prerequisites. To enroll in a two- or four-unit internship through CM 471, undergraduate students must have successfully completed CM 331. In addition, Public Relations students need to have completed CM 215, Advertising students need to have completed CM 217, and Media Science need to have completed ONE of the following courses: CM 280, CM 434, CM 481, CM 535, and CM 539.

To enroll in a two- or four-unit internship through CM809, graduate students must have completed their first semester of graduate study. International graduate students generally need to complete two full-time semesters before interning off-campus. In addition, Public Relations graduate students need to have completed CM 701.

Regardless of the semester in which the internship takes place, students must demonstrate a schedule that will result in an accumulation of the minimum hours to receive credit (100 hours of total work time for 2 units, and 200 total work hours for 4 units).

Undergraduate students can satisfy the CO 575 professional experience requirement in a variety of different ways beyond CM471. Graduate students in the PR Master’s program are required to complete internships, (Advertising and Media Science graduate students can take CM 809 as an elective to count toward their graduation requirements). Either way, students who want to — or who must — earn CM471 or CM809 credits are responsible for securing their own internship opportunities. Career Services has published some of the most popular internship opportunities online. BU maintains a database of job and internship opportunities on Handshake: https://bu.joinhandshake.com. BU’s Center for Career Development has some additional helpful advice for finding the right internship. For more help, contact your academic advisor office (undergrads: comugrad@bu.edu, grads: comgrad@bu.edu)  

Both CM471 and CO 575 satisfy the professional experience requirements for undergraduates. CM471 is the formal for-credit internship program, and also automatically qualifies you for (and enrolls you in) the zero-credit CO 575 professional experience course. Enrollment in CO 575, which can be taken by both undergraduates and graduates, can also be done in conjunction with CM 585 (Ad Lab); CM 586 (AdLab E-Board); CM 580 (PRLab); CM 581 (PRLab E-Board) CM 520 (The COMmunicator); FT 505 (Real World Productions); FT 573 (BUTV); JO 404 (WTBU Practicum); JO 546 (The Statehouse Program); CO 520 (Boston Globe Co-Op); other not-for-credit internships; as well as work for the Boston News Service, the Daily Free Press, the Patriot League Network Broadcast, and other professional activities as approved by your Faculty Mentor. The department may approve CO 575 credit for other activities — please contact your Faculty Mentor, Academic Advisor or Department Administrator for an up-to-date list.

Either an internship experience (CM 809) or PRLab (CM 580), however, is required of all public relations graduate students.

No. Students may choose to intern at advertising, public relations and integrated marketing communication agencies; communication or public affairs departments of companies, nonprofit organizations, and government entities; corporate sales or nonprofit fundraising departments; and communication-related functions at media companies. International internships are permitted, including opportunities for international graduate students in their home countries during summer term. Undergraduate students can also satisfy their professional experience graduation requirement in other ways through enrollment in CO 575 (refer to the CO 575 form online for more information). 

Students are expected to secure their own internships, with support from Career Services. Once you’ve secured the internship, you will sign an internship contract (available online). Registering for two units of CM 471 or CM 809 requires at least 100 total hours of professional experience; registering for four units of CM 471 or CM 809 requires at least 200 total hours. The internship course can be added to your schedule at any time before the last day to drop standard courses (with a “W” grade). After that, some exceptions can be made. However, all internship hours must be satisfied by the last day of classes. Once registered, international students will also have to complete a Curricular Practical Training Form and Acknowledgement (CPT F-1) from BU ISSO before they can be authorized for work (available online). Toward the end of your experience, you will be asked to produce and submit a professional internship report detailing and summarizing your experience. Your supervisor will also be asked to evaluate your contributions.

The final grade of Pass/Fail is based on your detailed end-of-semester internship report and a thorough evaluation from your internship supervisor. Your Faculty Internship Professor will send the evaluation form to your supervisor prior to the end of the semester. Upon completion of the course, students will receive a copy of their supervisor’s evaluation.

Yes. In fact, we encourage all host companies to pay their interns. 

No. You can ignore the class meeting times in WebReg. None of the professional experience classes meet in a classroom.

The only grade components for CM 471 and CM 809 are your final internship report and your supervisor’s evaluation — both classes are graded on a Pass/Fail basis. CO 575 is an ungraded, zero-credit class and does not have any grade components. 

Although CO 575 is a zero-credit course, it is a graduation requirement for all BU College of Communication undergraduate students. CO 575 was set up as a zero-credit course explicitly to avoid the ironic situation of students having to pay (the university) for professional experience delivered outside the classroom. The zero-credit status in no way reflects a lack of importance of this experience — indeed it reflects our college’s commitment to preparing all of our students for the rigors of professional work. Each CO 575 student is required to submit a thorough description of the work they are expected to undertake, and this is subject to review and approval by the student’s faculty mentor and the department.

To earn 2 units of either CM 471 or CM 809, a total of 100 work hours is required (over a 15-week semester, this works out to 7-10 hours per week minimum, or 10-12 hours per week over the 12-week summer term). To earn 4 units of either CM 471 or CM 809, a total of 200 work hours is required (this works out to 14-20 hours per week during the school year, or 20-24 hours per week in the summer). There are no minimum hours required for CO 575, but in order for you to be able to maximize your opportunity to use this internship experience on your resume, get some meaningful references, and build your network, we advise a range of 15 to 25 hours per week in order to satisfy the intent of the CO 575 experience. 

COM students in any degree program are permitted to participate in internship experiences without prior approval of the department and without earning CM 471, CO 575 or CM 809 credit. Please note that international students are typically restricted from participating in paid internships without prior work authorization, which may only be obtainable through registering for CM 471 or CM 809.

International students seeking paid internships are authorized to work on-campus if they hold a F-1 or J-1 immigration status (but you may still need to obtain ISSO work authorization and apply for a US social security number). International students with F-1 immigration status seeking off-campus paid internships need to complete two full-time semesters before interning off-campus and must complete the ISSO Curricular Practical Training (CPT) form in order to secure paid work. The CPT form must be submitted after the faculty internship coordinator has approved the internship and after the department has added CM 471, CO 575 or CM 809 to your schedule, but before you begin work. Undergraduate international students, please note that CO 575, which incurs no tuition fees, qualifies you for CPT-based work authorization.

COM students in any degree program are permitted to participate in internship experiences (paid or unpaid) without prior approval of the department and without earning CM 471, CO 575 or CM 809 credit. While registering for CO 575 does not incur tuition fees, it does require a registration fee ($60) be paid for the semester in which the professional experience occurs. Enrolling in CM 471 or CM 809 does incur the same costs as any other class at BU. Therefore, many undergraduate students choose to take CO 575 alone (for a $60 registration fee) in lieu of CM 471 (especially during the summer semester), since CM 471 would incur both registration and tuition fees (and is not required for the degree). Undergraduate international students with F-1 immigration status are not required to take CM 471 in order to get paid. CO 599S also typically qualifies as a work permit for off-campus work. On-campus employment may be possible for F-1 students without any academic credit. International students should contact the International Students and Scholars Office (ISSO) for more information.

Yes. When undergraduates register for CM 471 they are automatically added to CO 575 if they have not previously satisfied the CO 575 requirement.

Unfortunately the zero-credit CO 575 course option, which would qualify most international students for paid work, is not currently available to graduate students in the PR program. Your only option is to work with your supervisor and/or faculty internship coordinator to make up the deficit.

Yes, and your supervisor will have been made aware of this.

No. Your report will only be seen and edited by the Faculty Internship Professor for your section.

You can take up to 8 credits of CM 471 or CM 809, but you cannot apply more than 4 credits of either CM 471 (at the undergraduate level) or CM 809 (at the graduate level) to your departmental graduation requirements. Students taking a Study Abroad program that includes an internship may be able to apply up to 4 additional internship credits toward general elective credits if they have already completed their CM 471 departmental graduation requirements. The zero-credit CO 575 course is repeatable and may be taken in any semester in which you are enrolled and undertaking a professional experience.

No. You must submit a contract in advance, or at the very beginning, of your internship experience. We cannot retroactively apply your experience for CM 471 or CM 809 credit.

The required page count is a minimum of 10 pages for a 4-unit internship, and 5 pages for a 2-unit internship (NOT including the appendix). Your supervisor will not receive a copy of the report. Except in cases of academic misconduct investigations, the report will not be shared with anybody. All that said, confidential or proprietary information can be removed, blacked out or anonymized. Check your Blackboard course for more specific requirements on your report.

Please also complete this brief survey from COM Career Services.

Our students rely on two resources to find the best fitting internships, and we encourage you to leverage both: 

1. Boston University’s Career Services team runs our online job bulletin system, called Handshake. Handshake is a good place to list the jobs you want to bring to the attention of our PR and COM students.  
2. The College of Communication’s Career Services team publishes a twice-monthly COM career newsletter that reaches all of our undergrad and graduate students. Contact Career Services to be featured in the newsletter.

Internship supervisors at the intern’s employer must be able to confirm employment with the organization, clarify expectations of the intern (including a job description, work schedule and internship duration), be available for contact throughout the semester, and complete an intern evaluation at the end of the semester. 

Sponsors are strongly encouraged but not required to compensate interns for their services.