Advice to students when looking for the internship of their choice:

Think about what you want

• Do you want to work on antitrust or antiviral agents?
• Do you want to work for a governmental, for-profit, or non-profit entity?
• Do you want to work for a small or large, formal or informal office?
• Do you want to work in a field you are considering as a career?
• Think about any other questions which would help you clarify the kind of office and/or organization which would help you achieve your goals for your time in Washington.

Beware the "marquee"

• Working at the White House can look great on your resume. Chances are, at a well-known place like that, the work will be relatively more clerical than at other places. The White House does not lack for people willing to give advice on policy; where they experience a shortage is in people to respond to the mail which arrives daily for the President, Vice-President, First Lady, and First Animals. This does not mean that there are not substantive opportunities at "marquee" places. It does mean that you should both think about and inquire about the needs of any office––do they need help with the substantive work of the office, or do they need help with the clerical byproducts of that work. All interns will spend some time on clerical and administrative duties. However, if you choose well, it should be possible to find positions in which 50% or more of your time is spent on substantive tasks.

Identify and gather information about 10 or so places which might meet your wants

• Once you have completed the program application, you can access the Cornell in Washington online directory to internships, listing about 1,000 places where prior CIW students have worked or which have requested CIW student interns.
• Check out the websites of places which might interest you. The CIW online directory of internships has direct links to many organizations’ websites.
• For many of the listings, we have evaluations of the internship written by prior CIW students. These are available to you in the CIW office, M101 McGraw Hall.
• Find the name of the person to whom an inquiry should be sent, and the preferred method of communication, whether it is a snail mail address, email address or fax number.
• Most organizations provide a contact for potential interns on their web sites. If one in which you are interested does not provide a contact, find the phone number for a specific office in which you might be interested, call, and ask to whom you should direct an inquiry.

Prepare a cover letter and resume, and send them along to at least 5 places