Computer Science

Internship Courses

West Chester University students may register for a Computer Science Internship and obtain college-level credits while working part time or full time in Summer or during regular semesters.  Computer Science undergraduate majors should use CSC 400 (6 credits); of the 6 credits, 3 credits can be used to satisfy the major requirements, and the other 3 credits satisfy general electives.  Computer Science graduate students should use the course number CSC 605 (3 credits).

General Information About Internships at wcu

Course Prerequisites

Undergraduate (CSC 400)

• Completion of CSC 141,142, 240, 241 and MAT 151, 161 (each with a C- or better)
• CSC GPA of 2.5 or better and MAT GPA of 2.0 or better

Graduate (CSC 605)

• Completion of CSC 520, 530, 540, 560 (each with a B or better)
• CSC GPA of 3.0 or better

 

Registration

To request permission to register for CSC400/605 in an upcoming academic session, cComplete this the below CSC Internship application.  Once approved, CSC will create a RamPortal enrollment permission for you to register for your internship course (CSC400/605) and pay for the credit hours.

Internship Application (CSC400/605)

Final Report Submission 

You need to submit the Final Report in order to receive a letter grade. Please be sure to submit it via the Dropbox of D2L for keeping a record of your submission; do not send your Final Report via email to the Internship Director.

Steps to Complete an Internship for Academic Credit

1. Find a suitable job or project which provides an opportunity to apply what you have learned in the Computer Science Department to problem-solving during the internship. Some jobs will not be approved for this purpose; for example, watching an alarm over night, answering phone calls, minor web site maintenance, delivering pizza, etc. Acceptable jobs or projects include, but are not limited to, the following:
   
   
   1. web site design, development, and deployment (publishing);
   2. computer operation help-desk personnel involving problem clearance;
   3. web team member;
   4. member in a start-up company overseeing some or all of the company operation.
      
      The acceptance criteria focus more on quality than quantity. For instance, working 100 hours per week as a data entry person is not as valuable as working 5 hours per week for 4 weeks designing a web site. Students can use the above jobs link as a starting point. The listings can be useful regardless of the posting date because employers may need to more hires.
      
      
2. Submit an application using the above link.

3. Begin working on the project or job.

4. Employee Comment Sheet. You will have access to a D2L course during the semester in which you have registered for the internship. An Employee Comment Sheet will be available on D2L.  You will ask your supervisor to complete this document and e-mail it to the Internship Director.

5. Submit a Final Report via an Assignments Folder on D2L. This should be done before the final week of the semester in which you have registered for the internship.  Without doing so, you will receive an NG grade, which automatically changes to an F after the 9th week of the following semester.  You need to document two aspects of the internship:
   

   1. What have you used during the internship?
   2. What have you learned during the period?
      

   The report does not have to be lengthy as long as you document the necessary information.  A cover sheet is also required and should include your name, student ID, the name of the project/job, time period, location, and supervisor information. The body of the report should cover the two aspects listed above. There is no page limit on the report.

6. You do not have to wait for completion of the internship to submit the final report. You can continue to work on the internship after submission. Doing so may be necessary if the working period is not consistent with the Summer II or regular semester period.

Lunch & Learn Series

The CSC Department and WCU Career Development Center are happy to host and facilitate small presentations and conversations between employers and our majors, at the department-level, in a smaller setting compared to our larger university career fairs. 

The presentations are typically given in a computer science classroom, in our computer science building, with a maximum capacity of 25 students. Employers are able to speak directly to our students about job/internship opportunities, company culture, career advice, general guidance, or even a CS technical presentation, etc. In our advertisements to students beforehand, we will provide an abstract to students about the upcoming talk and the recommended audience. We will provide light refreshments to all attendees.

Fall 2024 Schedule:
All talks will be held in UNA141 at 1p-2p, unless otherwise indicated. 

• Deloitte – Wed 9/18
• Blackrock – Mon 9/30
• Pariveda – Wed 10/30
• Universal Health Services – Wed 11/13

Spring 2025 Schedule:  TBA

We currently limit the series to around 4-5 employers per semester. If you are an employer interested in learning more and potentially speaking directly to our students, please email the Internship Director, Dr. Richard Burns, for more information.

Meet & Greet

Computer Science faculty Drs. Kim and Ngo have led our WCSMG (Meet & Greet) over the past several years, where senior students gave talks on their internship experience (at Deloitte, QSI, Vanguard, Lockheed Martin, CSL, …) including interview questions, resume skills, etc.  The target audience for this event is all CS students who will be interviewing for software engineering internships and/or full-time jobs in the near future.  

The Meet & Greet is typically held once per semester, timed to align with the typical internship and job search window.  Below is the link:

WCU cs Meet & greet

CSC Internship Listings & Job Postings

Current internships opportunities that the department receives are posted on the following platforms:

1. CSC Internal Postings List (password protected, please use your WCU credentials)
2. Computer Science Discord Server, #internships channel
3. Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/WCUCS
4. WCU Handshake, maintained by the WCU Career Development Center