Internships

Professional Internships for BCH Students

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Summary

Students in a Bachelor of Computing (Honours) plan (code BCH) can register to do a Professional Internship version of their plan. An internship placement is an integral part of a Professional Internship plan. The COMP courses 390/6.0, 391/3.0, 392/3.0, and 393/3.0 allow students to continue to be registered during the terms of their internship placement. Satisfactory completion of a written internship report following completion of the work period enables the internship student to receive credit for the courses plus transcript and diploma annotations indicating a degree plan that includes a Professional Internship. These replace the relevant undergraduate project course requirements (CISC-498/6.0 or CISC-499/3.0 or COGS-499/3.0).

Role of Career Services

The preparation for participating in an internship placement is organized and coordinated by Career Services. School of Computing students who are considering the possibility of a Professional Internship should monitor Career Services announcements about the Queen's Undergraduate Internship Program.

Role of the School of Computing's Academic Internship Administrator

The School of Computing's Academic Internship Administrator is responsible for monitoring the internships and grading the internship reports.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here's a list of responses to common questions posed by prospective and current BCH Professional Internship students.

Why should I consider the Professional Internship Program?
- Potential employers value the real-world experience that it provides.
- Transcripts and diplomas of students who complete the program include the additional information that the degree was completed with Professional Internship. For example, the degree category might read:
  Bachelor of Computing (Honours, Biomedical Computing with Professional Internship).
- The completed Professional Internship fulfills a key degree requirement. Students who don't participate are required to complete an undergraduate project course.
- Students enrolled in the internship courses continue to be registered at Queen's.
- Fees paid for the internship courses are eligible for the tuition fee tax deduction.
How do I enter the Professional Internship Program?
The initial steps are registering for the QUIP program with Career Services and obtaining approval of the Chair of Undergraduate Studies in the School of Computing. These preparatory activities begin during the Fall term. Career Services workshops will occur in September/October. To be eligible for the first round of job offerings, register at Career Services by the beginning of November.
Why are my courses and fees different from other Arts & Science students doing QUIP?
Computing students doing the Professional Internship are fulfilling a degree requirement and therefore register in the Professional Internship courses while completing their work placements.
What courses do I register for and when?
The course structure covers either a 12 or 16-month period. The following are the most common course registration patterns.
- 12-month internship:
  - May start: COMP-391/3.0 Spring-Summer plus COMP-390/6.0 Fall-Winter
  - September start: COMP-390/6.0 Fall-Winter plus COMP-392/3.0 Spring-Summer
  - January start: COMP-393/3.0 Winter plus COMP-391/3.0 Spring-Summer plus COMP-392/3.0 Fall
- 16-month internship:
  - May start: COMP-391/3.0 Spring-Summer plus COMP-390/6.0 Fall-Winter plus COMP-392/3.0 Spring-Summer
How do I register for the internship courses?
COMP-391/3.0 (Spring-Summer) requires a Registration Form signed by the Chair of Undergraduate Studies in the School of Computing. COMP-390/6.0 (Fall-Winter) can be added on SOLUS during course pre-registration in the summer. COMP-392/3.0 (Spring-Summer) can be added on SOLUS during the Spring-Summer registration period.
What is the deadline for registering for the Spring-Summer courses COMP-391/3.0 and COMP-392/3.0?
The deadline for registering in the Spring-Summer courses is May 1. A late fee applies to registrations after the first day of Spring Term (normally the first Monday in May). Students who are very late may have to appeal to the Associate Dean of Studies in order to add the course, and pay an additional fee.
How much do the internship courses cost? How do I pay? When are fees due?
Fees for COMP-391/3.0, COMP-392/3.0, and COMP-393/3.0 are the same as for regular Queen's half-courses. Fees for COMP-390/6.0 are the same as for a Queen's full course. The preferred method of payment for all courses is by internet or telephone banking. Fees may be paid by cheque at any branch of the Bank of Montreal. Payment for the Spring-Summer courses (COMP-391/3.0 & COMP-392/3.0) is due prior to registration. A minimum payment for the Fall-Winter course (COMP-390/6.0) is due by 15 August. The balance of fees owing is payable in full by 30 September.
Why do I have to pay fees for courses that don't count toward my degree?
In part, the fees support Career Services, who find placement possibilities, teach you how to prepare your resumé and how to interview, and set up interviews. The administrative fee for a conventional Queen's Undergraduate Internship is $800. The remaining amounts are considered by the Faculty of Arts and Science to be compensation for not getting tuition fees for the CISC-499 or CISC-498 project courses. Note that the internship course fees are eligible for a tuition tax deduction and will reduce the tax liability on your income.
What happens if I am "late" in getting an internship placement?
Students sometimes secure internship placements after the normal starting date. July starts can be accommodated by treating COMP-391/3.0 as a Summer course, with a July 1 registration deadline.
How do the internship courses count towards my degree requirements?
The project course normally required in the B.Cmp.(Hons.) program (i.e., CISC 498/6.0 or CISC 499/3.0, or COGS 499/3.0) is replaced by courses COMP 390/6.0 and COMP 391/3.0, or COMP 390/6.0 and COMP 392/3.0, or COMP 393/3.0, COMP 391/3.0 and COMP 392/3.0 (or, for a 16-month internship, COMP 390/6.0, COMP 391/3.0 and COMP 392/3.0), provided that the internship report documents how the internship work has satisfied the requirements for a conventional CISC-498/6.0 or CISC-499/3.0 or COGS-499/3.0 project. The degree requirements therefore are in effect reduced to 114.0 units (SODE-P students) or 117.0 units (COMP-M, BMCO-P, CSCI-P, COGS-P students) plus the internship courses. You will still have to do the same number of electives; for example, if you do an internship in a SODE plan, you will need $120.0 - 108.0 = 12.0$ units of electives not including any units from COMP-39x courses. This is implemented in PeopleSoft by increasing the total-unit requirement for the degree so that only the 3.0 or 6.0 units for the replaced project course are actually counted toward satisfying the normal degree requirements.
Is it possible to do both a Professional Internship and an Undergraduate Project?
Most students do one or the other. Completing the Professional Internship satisfies the degree requirement. But, with permission of the project-course coordinator, a student can do an undergraduate project course after completing the Professional Internship. The project course would normally then count as an elective credit.
Is it possible to take other courses during my internship?
Yes, you may register for other courses in addition to the internship courses. However, you may find that being fully engaged in your internship placement leaves little time for extra course work.
What happens after I finish my internship placement?
You are required to submit a written report following completion of your placement, when you return as a full time student (typically in the Fall term). The report summarizes the work you did during your placement.
What goes into the report?
Since your report covers work over an extended period of time, effective report-writing strategies begin early in your internship placement. You should keep track of the content of the work you do throughout your internship placement. Retain records of such things as internal reports you prepare and submit during your placement, meetings you attend, committees you sit on, conferences you attend or present at, written and oral presentation you make, and so on. Be prepared to include descriptions of these in your report.
How does the work I do during my internship relate to my academic program?
In order to satisfy the degree program requirements, the internship work (or some part of it) should be comparable to the content of a project course. Here is the relevant description, adapted from the Arts and Science Calendar:
The project course normally required in the B.Cmp.(Hons.) program is replaced by the internship courses, provided that the internship report documents how the internship work has satisfied the requirements for a conventional CISC-498/499 or COGS-499 project.
When is the internship report due?
Students submit their reports to complete their degree requirements. According to the Arts and Science Calendar:
Successful completion ... requires submission of a satisfactory report on the experience within thirty days of completion of the work period.
Extensions may be granted only in the case of documented illness, family or personal crisis.
Who grades the reports, and how are they graded?
The Academic Internship Administrator, Jim Rodger, evaluates the reports. (In some cases, Non-Disclosure issues may mean that the placement supervisor participates in the evaluation.) Once the report is completed satisfactorily, a passing grade is recorded. There are no numeric marks for the internship courses.
What happens to the internship courses on my transcript?
COMP-390/6.0 plus either or both of COMP-391/3.0 and COMP-392/3.0 appear as IP (In Progress) on your transcript until the final report has been successfully completed. At that time a "change of grade" is submitted to the Faculty of Arts and Science, to revise the IP to PA (Pass).
Are there special rules for International Students?
Government regulations require that these students be registered in a Professional Internship program in order to be eligible for a work placement in Canada.
Can my internship experience count towards professional certification?
CIPS (the Canadian Information Processing Society) has very rigorous standards concerning the application of student work experience towards ISP (Information Systems Professional) certification. In general, they treat co-op work as educational content. However, the length of our internship placements affords our students an opportunity to acquire professional experience that may qualify, when considered on an individual basis.
I registered for an internship last year, but did not get one. Do I have to register again?
No, you only need to register once. Career Services retains your registration record.
How do I keep in touch while I'm away from Queen's?
Computing interns remain Queen's students during their placements, and should check Queen's email regularly for messages from the University and the School of Computing. A WebCT site associated with the internship courses provides discussion forums and information about the report.
Can I do an internship if I'm not a BCH student?
Arts and Science students registered in other Honours degree plans (such as COCA-P-BAH) may be eligible to do a conventional Queen's Undergraduate Internship.

Past Internship Placements:

EMC
IBM
Celestica
Research In Motion (BlackBerry)
Royal Military College
Leica Microsystems (Germany)
ATI Technologies (now AMD)
Voodoo Comouting
Nortel Networks
Niagara Region
Syncrude
E.A. Sports
Calgary Scientific
Austrian Research Centers
Center of Excellence in Medicine and IT (Austria)