The 25 best colleges for landing an internship

Location: Canton, New York

St. Lawrence's "Shadow a Saint" program matches students with an alum to shadow for up to a week, and through Laurentians in Residence, alumni and parent leaders are invited to campus for class presentations, panel discussions, networking, and mentoring.

Students who secure an unpaid summer internship can apply for the Internship Fellowship Award to offset the costs of living and transportation.

Location: Athens, Georgia

In addition to full-time and part-time job postings, UGA's DAWGLink also lists internship opportunities. The Intern For A Day program allows students to shadow a professional to explore career interests.

Forty-eight percent of UGA students obtain their internship through networking, and top employers include Target, AT&T, Aflac, and Cox.

Location: Peoria, Illinois

One of Bradley's greatest strengths is assisting students with the job and internship search, according to Princeton Review. "Professors have been excellent resources during [our] college career[s] and have helped land internships," said one student.

The school's dynamic co-op and internship program recognizes five students each year who've had outstanding experiences. Past winners interned at OSF Healthcare, American Red Cross, and SpaceX.

Location: Fairfax, Virginia

George Mason is close to the nation's capital, a perk students told Princeton Review “helps immensely with internships.”

HireMason, the university's extensive job and internship database where employers and alumni can recruit students, is a valuable resource. And each year, more than 450 employers take part in on-campus hiring events like the on-campus interviewing program and two-day multi-industry career fairs.

Location: Throggs Neck, New York

A highly-specific skill set enables Maritime students to gain experience in specialized fields that include engineering, marine environmental science, and marine transportation.

Summer Sea Term — the school's internship equivalent — ships students pursuing a US Coast Guard license out to sea for 60-day trips. On board, students take classes and perform general labor, earning six academic credits and hands-on experience.

Location: Ithaca, New York

Cornell students told Princeton Review that many are already looking for internship opportunities as early as freshman year, but the school is on hand to assist.

A slew of summer opportunities are available to students including a 10-week entrepreneurship internship program where students gain hands-on experience at small to mid-sized businesses, and Cornell in Hollywood, which takes advantage of the school's growing Los Angeles alumni network to set students up with film-related internships.

Location: Worcester, Massachusetts

WPI is all about "preparing students for successful careers in their respective fields upon graduation through practical applications of the knowledge and skills that are taught," one student told Princeton Review.

To help students land an internship, the school's career center offers counseling, résumé referrals, and on-campus interviews, among other services.

Location: Greencastle, Indiana

Students at DePauw are encouraged to complete at least two internships by graduation. Internships are available domestically and internationally and can be completed during a summer or during the semester.

The school's spring career and internship fair took place in February this year and hosted a range of employers including City Year, H&R Block, Mutual of Omaha, Peace Corps, Teach for America, and Welch Packaging Group.

Location: Stanford, California

Stanford undergrads have ample opportunity to make connections through the school's career center — which offers strategies and digital resources for landing a solid internship.

The school's Fall Career Fair is the largest, with representatives from about 300 employers. There's also smaller fairs for students interested in specific fields including the Social Impact fair and the Start-up fair. Forty-seven percent of the class of 2014 completed two or more internships by the time they graduated.

Location: Dayton, Ohio

UD has no shortage of job and internship seminars including career-fair prep, networking for introverts, and using LinkedIn.

Students have ultimate flexibility for internships: part-time or full-time, paid or unpaid, during the school year or the summer, and evaluated for academic credit by the school or as part of a student-developed learning plan.

Location: Claremont, California

Students at Harvey Mudd can sift through ClaremontConnect, the job and internship database shared by the five Claremont Colleges. There's also a career fair held twice a year where students can connect with employers in an informal setting.

The school's career counselors are helpful, too, according to one student who noted: An advisor "worked very hard to help me find a summer internship, calling many of his friends and passing around my résumé.”

Location: Pasadena, California

Caltech's career counselors are very involved in helping students secure summer internships. Individual workshopping of résumés and cover letters as well as info sessions covering interview skills and follow-ups are all available to Caltech students.

The career center lists internships for dozens of top companies in business, computer science, engineering, national laboratories, and think tanks.

Location: Villanova, Pennsylvania

Villanova alumni can sign up to take part in the school's Career Connections Advisor Program to offer guidance, ideas, and contacts to current students and recent alumni seeking internships and jobs.

Each of the six colleges at Villanova facilitate their own internship opportunities. An internship and co-op educational series in the Villanova School of Business offers hands-on action plan and preparation workshops, as well as individual meetings with advisors.

Location: Waltham, Massachusetts

Students at Bentley tout the school's career services department for assisting with job and internship placement. Bentley reports that 24% of students participated in an internship that resulted in a full-time offer.

"I owe [the center] a lot of credit for helping me find a very attractive internship my sophomore year with a large CPA firm,” said one student. Another commented that the school offers "many internships to get a foot in the door with top corporations."

Location: Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

GettysburgWorks is the school's database of jobs and internships posted by alumni, friends, and parents of Gettysburg. The school offers up to $2,000 stipends for students participating in unpaid summer internships.

Gettysburg also has externship opportunities available, which are hands-on shadowing experiences that typically last just one week and are hosted by alumni or parents of current students.

Location: Amherst, Massachusetts

Amherst students have access to the Amherst Select Internship Program, a curated collection of more than 150 summer internship opportunities hosted by alumni, friends, and parents of Amherst.

For any unpaid nonprofit, public service, government, education, arts, and communications internships, students can apply to receive stipends of up to $4,000 from the school.

Location: Memphis, Tennessee

Students told the Princeton Review& that they were drawn to Rhodes, in part, for its incomparable internship opportunities. “I get to do cutting edge biomedical cancer research at St. Jude Children’s Research hospital. This is an invaluable internship I got through Rhodes," commented one biochemistry major.

Each year, 75% of students complete internships throughout Memphis in business, finance, healthcare, and nonprofits. There's also an active alumni community that offers mentors and sponsors for students seeking internships in the US and abroad.

Location: Hanover, New Hampshire

Dartmouth students can make use of the school's flexible academic calendar to participate in internships year round and even abroad. Not only does Dartmouth's career services department help students land jobs and internships, alumni do as well.

“Alumni are ... a HUGE resource; they love to stay involved with the college and are often willing to talk to current students about careers (and many have been known to give internships and jobs to Dartmouth students)," said a Dartmouth psychology major.

Location: Needham, Massachusetts

Olin's project-based learning model is great preparation for students looking to gain job and internship experience. “I got a paid internship after my first year here. How many undergraduates can say they made $20/hr right after freshman year?” commented one student.

The top companies where Olin students interned from 2002 to 2015 include Apple, Blue Origin, Boeing, Microsoft, IBM, Google, and GE.

Location: Dallas, Texas

SMU hosts an impressive career fair twice a year for students of all majors to meet potential employers. Participating organizations this spring include Oracle, Teach for America, Peace Corps, AT&T, and Intel.

And the school's 119,000 alumni — 71,000 in Texas — can offer up great connections for students and employers, too.

Location: Crawfordsville, Indiana

Wabash alumni are a great networking resource, according to one student: Many alumni "have high ranking and prestigious positions and love reaching out to the students offering different internship and job opportunities.”

The school's career center offers dozens of Wabash-funded internship programs that offset the costs of housing and travel.

Location: Boston, Massachusetts

Northeastern's career office consistently hosts job and internship prep events, but the school's hallmark is placing students in its "world-class co-op program," according to the Princeton Review.

During a co-op program — which students can prepare for with an internship — students alternate classroom studies with full-time work for six months. Ninety-two percent of students participate in at least one co-op program at Northeastern and 50% receive a job offer from a previous co-op employer.

Location: Terre Haute, Indiana

Rose-Hulman is a top-ranked engineering college that helps students land summer internships by hosting three career fairs throughout each academic year.

Two special internship programs — entrepreneurial and biomedical engineering — funded by a nonprofit called Lilly Endowment place students at Indiana-based companies. "The opportunities for gaining experience in your field of study are endless,” said one student.

Location: Claremont, California

Claremont McKenna connects students with alumni through multiple avenues, including a unique program called Mentor Connect, which allows students to enlist alumni and parents as mentors for a 10-week period.

The school's Information Technology Advisory Board facilitates the Silicon Valley Networking Trip during winter break every year. During the trip students attend presentations and panels, take tours, and get private meetings with executives at tech companies. Past attendees have secured internships with companies like Google, Apple, and Microsoft.

Location: Washington, DC

For the second year in a row, GW is the top school for landing an internship. Students have thousands of options for DC-area internships in health, tech, nonprofits, the arts, and, of course, politics.

The school offers up to $3,000 to offset an unpaid internship through the Knowledge in Action Career Internship Fund. Past students have interned at the Department of Homeland Security, Discovery Communications, the National Institutes of Health, NASA, Google, and the New Yorker.