Do younger college internship applicants have an advantage over older applicants?

annoyinggirl

Do younger college internship applicants have an advantage over older applicants?
My cousin told me that it is important to look for internships early (when you are a freshman or sophomore), because employers prefer interns to be younger. My cousin said that it is because they want to keep and teach you things for a long time. Is that true? Or does this apply to only some fields such as computer science,which is quite competitive and age-discriminative? I won't be able to apply for internships until my junior year or something because I have to attend a community college, which offers few to no internships. I'm considering a career in the field of Neuroscience. Do internships in that field of study tend to prefer younger internship applicants?

carlgrace

Your cousin is wrong. In all the organizations where I've worked by far the peak time to get an internship was between your junior and senior year. It's actually tough to get an internship after your sophomore year because you just haven't had enough classes.

Sjm757

I know that with the navy they won't accept nuclear engineers because they want to teach them their way, he might be thinking about that.

annoyinggirl

Thank you for telling me that. To clear all confusion, you meant "before" instead of "after", right? Thanks again.

annoyinggirl

Nope, she's not in the navy and is not familiar with it. My other cousin (they're sisters) told me that she lost her internship position because another applicant was younger than she was, and the younger applicant got it.

carlgrace

I actually meant it is harder to get an internship for the summer after your sophomore year than it is to get one for the summer after your junior year. That is why I am highly dubious that any companies prefer younger interns.

My guess is she lost the internship for another reason. I think it is incredibly unlikely the company would have told your cousin they didn't choose her because she was too old because that would open them up to legal action.