Medill sends the editors handbooks outlining their responsibilities and the importance of quality feedback to students. Also included are guidelines for student evaluations and the job skills students must be exposed to. Medill occasionally drops media outlets from the program for not giving students the required types of exposure. Students go through a matching process, in which they rank the media outlets available in order of preference. Professors then interview the students and talk to other professors who have had them in class.
Professors make the final decision, but it is with the students' input.
Also taken into account is previous internship experience. A newspaper student who has done an internship may go to one of the fast- paced metropolitan outlets such as the Miami Herald. Sometimes students are anxious about that it's the first time they have really had nobody holding their hand, and they're going to a city they may not be familiar with. Medill also keeps records of where other students have stayed and the costs, so students can talk to the student who was most recently at that media outlet. But it's a good thing to find out you can do what you're training to do, that there are jobs corresponding to what you're studying and that you can live on your own and be okay.