Paying a semester’s worth of tuition for an unpaid internship over the summer is unfair and forces students to take on more stress than necessary. 

As of now, if a student wants an internship to count toward their degree, they would have to take it during a paid semester of college. To me, that is not fair. Especially if a student, like myself, has to take it during the summer then they still have to pay tuition for it to count towards their degree. Taking an internship during the summer is already sacrificing part of a student’s off time from school. Adding on a hefty price tag to that is making it even more difficult for some students who already rely on scholarships and part-time jobs to pay for college. In my opinion, students should not have to pay tuition for an unpaid internship if that is the only class they need for the summer. 

It would make more sense to if a student was having to pay tuition to take a few classes during the summer plus the internship class. However, for those students, like myself, who want to knock out just their mandatory internship credit during the summer, instead of overloading their plate during the fall or spring semester, it is unfair and expensive. Additionally, most internships are unpaid yet are extremely time-consuming and important for the career path of a student. This makes it difficult to juggle an internship and multiple high-level classes.

Senior Peri Carr gives her opinion on the topic. “I think it is quite unfair that students who want to take an internship over the summer have to pay a tuition’s worth of college just for that. I think it might discourage people from taking their internship. I know if it were me, I would not want to worry about a full tuition’s cost just for a summer internship.”

While I understand the logic behind making students pay tuition to take classes over the summer, I feel like the Spring Hill College administration should cut the students some slack for wanting to take on a summer internship and allow them some leeway by letting summer internships count towards their degree without having to pay a semester’s worth of tuition.