Internships The MA in Geography at UNC Charlotte emphasizes the application of skills, methods and theory to problem solving. Given this focus, the Internship often is a critical, capstone element of many student's programs. The Internship normally replaces the traditional thesis as the capstone project of a graduate program. As such, the nature of internship tasks normally involve the students in a higher level of independent, problem solving than the normal assistantship might. Assistantships are more like part-time jobs.
Internships are somewhat like consulting contracts for students in their final semester.
An internship project normally involves a student in the execution of a substantive research task for a private or public sector client. Internships may involve work executed within the client's work setting requiring the intern to report for work at pre-established schedule or they may be less structured and more task oriented. The type of work setting will depend entirely on the client preference and the nature of the internship problem or task. Internships normally last 3 to 5 months. In the Internship the student can work more than 20 hours per week.