The answer is it varies - big corporation generally fortune 100 - Pfizer, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Goldman and other banks to name a few - pay their interns really well - with that stipend the intern should be easily able to pay for rent and have a good lifestyle for the 2 or 3 months in the city they are interning in. Many companies pay but that may not cover all the expenses, some especially in the marketing and public relations areas do not pay at all, so the intern picks up all costs.
But in general doing an intership in the field you are passionate about is worth it.
Engineering internships also seem to pay for housing. The tricky party will be the transportation to/from work. Sometimes they’ll put you up 30 minutes away from the site so you’ll have to be careful about being sure you have public transportation.
As posters have written above, summer internships are all over the map in terms of compensation, benefits and types of reimbursable expenses. It also goes without saying, the better the compensation package, the more competitive it is to obtain that position.
The first resource is your school’s career placement office for both general advice and to obtain a calendar/list of opportunities in your field. I suspect many companies come on campus to recruit at Notre Dame. The second resource are upperclassmen in your field who have gone through the process. Third, talk to professors that you are close to. For STEM majors, a good place to start is the school as @momofsenior1 suggests. It may not pay as well as some private sector jobs, but dealing with travel, transportation and housing will be much simpler, especially for a non US resident. There is also the benefit of getting close to professor(s) who will be key in writing recommendations, either for jobs or graduate programs. This was pretty key for D who worked all three summers for 2 profs at her school, who gave her tremendous rec’s and even reached out in their own professional networks to help D get a job in a competitive field.
You can figure out the transportation piece. It’s much easier than solving physics problems, and once you’ve cracked it in a particular location, you’re good to go with only minor variations. Our daughter is all over the country without a car - Uber, Lyft, plane, train, bus, carpool, etc. Try these options out now in familiar territory before you actually need them to boost your confidence. Trust me; you can do it.
As for documentation, you will need standard identification: birth certificate, social security card, state identification or driver’s license, and passport.
If you haven’t already, open a bank account and apply for a credit card. This is not intended to accumulate debt but to establish credit and open options. There may be times when you need to pay for internship expenses upfront before your employer reimburses you. Our daughter encountered this situation when she was sent to New York for a few days during an internship in another state. Having a Discover card simplified payment and record keeping.
Just a note about students obtaining their own credit card. It can be a catch 22 for students. D’s credit union would not give her a credit card until she was within 3 months of her start date of her co-op. She needed to bring a copy of the signed offer with her. We’ve found that it hasn’t been as easy as it used to be for students to get a credit card.
@agreatstory
The documentation part may be an issue, then. My only ID is my passport, and I know my SSN. Would these be enough?
Discover is still very student friendly. That’s why I mentioned it by name.
One more transportation tip. Cities and metro areas have websites that display public transportation options available, showing schedules, routes, days/times, and prices. Some offer student and frequent rider discount options.
Work on acquiring all of your standard identification materials. Ask your family members if the documents are tucked away somewhere.
@agreatstory
My original birth certificate I believe they have in their possession, along with the SSN card. A state ID isn’t possible because, to my understanding, you have to be a resident of a state. Driver’s license isn’t possible because I can’t drive and most likely won’t have the opportunity to learn until after graduation.
My daughter just rented a place, in Northern California, so it could vary wherever you go. They required:
DL/ SS cards
-A credit check
-A deposit
-A paper copy of her bank statement
-Copies of her last 3 paystubs and/or her federal loan letter.
-A renters insurance policy with the apartment owners listed as an “additional interest”
If the internship is being sponsored by a company, they may have some of this taken care of but, if you need to find your own housing, then you need to have those documents.
@“aunt bea”
So it wouldn’t be possible without a credit card and previous employment (as I haven’t taken out any loans)?
If you are talking temporary summer housing, you probably don’t need that much documentation for a private sublet. Prepaid rent (first month/last month or entire term) through cash or check plus a valid passport should be sufficient in most cases.
Were you living in a state before attending ND? Does your parent currently reside in a state - the place you intend to return home to this summer?
@QB18ND23, please reread:
It would be specific to the internship: what they cover, and what they don’t cover. You’re predicting a future internship that we have no idea of what/where that is.
I’m just telling you what my daughter needed to get an apartment in Northern California where the rents are skyhigh. If your internship doesn’t cover housing, then you may or may not need these documents; it depends on the apartment complex. The better the complex, the more competitive it is, with available units.
Again it’s really specific depending on the type of internship, and the housing in the area in which the internship is held.
I agree with @agreatstory that you really need to investigate the current area which you are in, to practice and ask questions about housing/transportation.
Some areas of the country have excellent public transportation and inexpensive rentals. With the exception of San Francisco, in most of the West Coast cities, we don’t have that.
Get a credit card on campus. Usually the Discover people are all over the campuses, giving out T-shirts, for an application. All three of my kids (at three very geographically different universities) got Discover cards, on their own, at their campuses with free frisbees, sunglasses and T-shirts as the draw. You can buy one small thing, (T-shirt) and pay it off in one payment, to have a credit history.
@agreatstory
No to both questions. This is the first time I’ve returned since my birth, and my parent is not American.
“The documentation part may be an issue, then. My only ID is my passport, and I know my SSN. Would these be enough?”
You will probably want to get a copy of your social security card. I am pretty sure that when my daughter wanted to open a bank account near her university we just walked into the bank with her passport and her social security card. She probably had a driver’s license with her but I do not think that they required it (at the time she was out of state).
Where we live people who do not drive can get a state identification card that is similar to the driver’s license for identification purposes, but does not include the right to drive. You should be able to check on-line to see what the requirements are to get one of these. I think that you need to be a resident of some state in the US to get one of these. You might need to get it after you have arrived on-campus and checked into your housing.
@QB18ND23 I don’t know whether or not Indiana’s Secretary of State Office would issue you a state identification card or not in that case. Ask. It’s a useful document to have.
D’s credit union asked for two forms of ID to open her bank account (and for the credit card) but one of them could be her student ID! I think you’ll just need your SS card.
@agreatstory
Based on what I’ve read, Indiana only issues state IDs to Indiana residents who don’t have a driver’s license. I don’t think they would issue me one because I am not a resident.