Do internships exist for people with Bachelor's degrees?

[Summetros]

I'm trying to improve my standing for grad school. I graduated with a terrible gpa (2.6) and I'm hoping that maybe work experience combined with good GRE scores and letters of recommendation could make up for it. And if that doesn't work at least I'd have something to put on my resume.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Unpaid internships that are not affiliated with a school can very easily fall afoul of minimum wage and other labor laws. That's why post-BS ones are as scarce as hen's teeth.

 

[Summetros]

To clarify, they don't have to be physics based. Are there internships in other fields that take more than undergrads?

 

[symbolipoint]

Unpaid internships that are not affiliated with a school can very easily fall afoul of minimum wage and other labor laws. That's why post-BS ones are as scarce as hen's teeth.

Would Summetros be able to return to school at a community college under a different major field objective and be able to find an internship through his community college?

 

[Vanadium 50]

I don't know the details of community college internships, but I don't think one in HVAC or auto mechanics will be terribly helpful for getting into graduate school.

I also don't think an internship will be helpful. A 2.6 is very low. It sends the message that you couldn't keep up with undergraduate work. Graduate work is harder, and departments don't want to admit someone who they think will not complete the program: either by having a GPA that was too low or by failing the qualifying exam. An internship will not address this.

 

[Summetros]

My aim (and it's a long shot) is to try and convince schools by showing that my gpa is acceptable when looking at major related classes only. My gpa is low because I did terribly in required humanities and social sciences electives. Are there maybe IT related internships for community colleges?

 

[symbolipoint]

My aim (and it's a long shot) is to try and convince schools by showing that my gpa is acceptable when looking at major related classes only. My gpa is low because I did terribly in required humanities and social sciences electives. Are there maybe IT related internships for community colleges?

I do not know. You will have to check with them (the community colleges). Maybe you might make a choice midway between what I and Vanadium50 said. Look into something for practical skill, as Vanadium suggests that graduate school is not a likely idea.

 

[symbolipoint]

I don't know the details of community college internships, but I don't think one in HVAC or auto mechanics will be terribly helpful for getting into graduate school.

I also don't think an internship will be helpful. A 2.6 is very low. It sends the message that you couldn't keep up with undergraduate work. Graduate work is harder, and departments don't want to admit someone who they think will not complete the program: either by having a GPA that was too low or by failing the qualifying exam. An internship will not address this.

Vanadium 50,

What are the best things that Summetros could do?

 

[StatGuy2000]

Vanadium 50,

What are the best things that Summetros could do?

I'm obviously not Vanadium 50, nor am I a physics faculty member, but from my understanding, I think given the situation involved with his/her GPA, the OP should give up any thought of pursuing a graduate program in physics. The best option for him/her would be to pursue further study in a different field (with the possibility of graduate studies in that area, if he/she has any interest). One possibility would be to pursue a second bachelor's in, say, engineering or computer science, keeping in mind the reason why he/she had done so poorly in his/her GPA earlier, and taking extra care not to fall into the same mistakes again

Another possibility would be to pursue some professional certificate program that could lead to employment somewhere down the road (as Choppy had suggested in a separate thread that the OP had started in the Career Guidance section).

Vanadium 50, would you like to add anything further to what I suggested?

 

[Vanadium 50]

I don't have any specific advice. If you're in the bottom of the 9th, with two outs, nobody on, and 17 runs behind, I don't know what advice to give on how to win the ball game. But I do know that changing the organist is not it.