Why do some internships require college credit?

Do you think internships should be based on college credit?

• Answer:

  No. There are WAY too many college students who get college credits by rote learning and doing one thing over and over again. There are many students who aren't truly interested in Computer Science but do extremely well in the field because they are committed to their studies. I'm not saying all these students are not capable, or even deserve a good internship. I'm just saying College Credits are not a very efficient way of judging candidates for an intern position. Let's say for example there are two students, A and B. A is extremely committed to getting good grades and spends hours memorizing his course material. Whatever free time he gets, he spends in the lab completing his assignment, or working on other subjects. Since he is spending most of his time working on course material, he gets a 4.0. Now let's see how B works. B is extremely passionate about Computer Science and wants to explore the field for his own interests. Not only does he learn everything that's given in the course materials, he also goes out of his way to give way to his interests. He joins programming clubs, goes for various Hackathons, works on side projects etc. Since he is spending so much time on work that is NOT required for college credit, he doesn't, or rather can't spend as much time as A to work on his academics and memorize everything. As you would have noticed, even though A would probably have a higher GPA than B, it doesn't necessarily mean that he is more capable or passionate about working in the field; and in the long run, that's what matters. Internships should be given out on talent and passion, which B surely possesses. In fact that is one of the main reasons why tech giants like Google and Facebook don't even require an extremely high academic record. Just my 2 cents. PS: I took CS internships as an example because I'm a CS student myself. I'm sure the same principles could be applied to other fields.