Summer internship
Also called MBA internship · summer associate · intern
Edition VII's required tables cover the graduating class, not the rising second-year class. Table 3.A asks, for each full-time acceptance, whether an internship conversion was the primary source and whether that intern seat was school-obtained or graduate-obtained. That is the Standards' entire internship demand.
Summer internship is the in-program work block most two-year full-time MBA students take between year one and year two. CSEA does not require an internship employment table. Schools that publish one usually mimic the full-time layout. Only internships that convert to a full-time offer accepted by three months after graduation enter the Standards job-source table.
What is required, and what is custom?
Edition VII’s required tables cover the graduating class, not the rising second-year class. Table 3.A asks, for each full-time acceptance, whether an internship conversion was the primary source and whether that intern seat was school-obtained or graduate-obtained. That is the Standards’ entire internship demand.
Haas’s 2024 PDF says the quiet part: “Collection of internship data is not governed by MBA CSEA Standards. We have opted to share this data in a format that closely mirrors the Standards.” Tepper publishes intern “seeking” rows, offer timing, function, and monthly pay, then footnotes I/D with the same three-or-1% rule applied to intern seekers.
Monthly intern pay is not an annual base. A $14,582 median summer month is not $175k. Annualizing by 12 without saying so is the usual comparison cheat.
One-year MBAs often have no free summer. Their full-time Table 3.A conversion row will be small. That is a calendar, not a recruiting failure.
How to read an internship PDF next to the graduating-class report
| Document | Population | Clock | CSEA-required? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Internship report (custom) | Rising 2Ys / intern seekers | School-chosen | No |
| Full-time Table 3.A conversion | Graduating acceptors | 3 months post-grad | Yes |
| Full-time Table 2.B | Graduating seekers | 3 months post-grad | Yes |
Example: Class of 2026 intern report shows 98% of intern seekers accepted a summer role, 71% school-facilitated. Class of 2025 full-time report, a year later, shows 41% of full-time acceptances converted that intern class. The 98% is a summer placement among intern seekers. The 41% is a source mix among graduating acceptors. Different years, different denominators.
Common errors
Treating an internship PDF as CSEA-compliant. Annualizing monthly intern pay. Comparing intern function mix to full-time industry mix as if they were the same class year. Counting every intern as a future conversion. Judging a one-year MBA by the absence of a summer table.
FAQ
Does a summer intern count as “placed”?
For the internship PDF, if the school built a seeking denominator, yes — as a summer placement, not a full-time MBA placement. For the graduating-class Standards report, no, not until a full-time offer is accepted by three months.
Why do intern salaries look so high when annualized?
Consulting and banking pay intern months at a run-rate near full-time base. Twelve times a $14k month is $168k. Real internships last eight to ten weeks. Use the monthly figure the school printed, or weeks × weekly rate, not a fake year.
Are internships “MBA-level” under the 30-hour rule?
The 30-hour full-time definition applies to graduating-class job acceptances. Internships are short-term by design. Do not force an intern into Table 2.B because they worked 40-hour weeks in July.
Should I prefer a school with 99% intern placement?
Only after you see the intern seeking definition (does it exclude founders and sponsors the same way?) and the next year’s conversion row. A 99% summer with a 15% conversion rate is a different machine from a 90% summer with a 45% conversion rate.
Related terms
Sources
- CSEA Standards for Reporting Full-time MBA Employment Statistics, Edition VII Internships are coded on Table 3.A only when they convert; internship tables themselves are not required
- Berkeley Haas Full-time MBA Employment Report 2024 Explicit footnote: collection of internship data is not governed by MBA CSEA Standards
