Thank you for your interest in and support for the Computer Science internship program at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ). Please let us first briefly explain our program.
Internship description: Internships are one of the two types of the capstone experiences (along with mentored research) in the Computer Science program at The College of New Jersey. As such, students apply their classroom experience to a variety of real-world environments including finance, healthcare, science, engineering, and education. Students are required to work at least 200 hours for a single course unit. While initiative and project management are among the learning goals, for a successful transition from undergraduate education to the real world, students are expected to work closely under the supervision of the on-site professional. Other important aspects of our internship include frequent faculty supervision on the student’s on-site experience, research-style paper, oral presentation, and multiple reflective evaluations. Students constantly receive very positive reviews from their employers, and in many cases, they are offered a full-time position during their internships.
Profile of a typical internship student: Through their undergraduate education, computer science majors at The College of New Jersey develop strong problem-solving skills through application of computer related principles and technologies. Many of our majors experience their capstone internship during the summer before their senior year. By this time, students have a solid background in object-oriented programming in Java and C++ through our core programming courses also integrating team projects and software engineering concepts. All majors also build their background in discrete structures, computer architecture, and operating systems, as well as calculus, statistics, and sciences. In addition, many students take option courses such as databases, networks, and artificial intelligence. Students undertake many projects on diverse platforms such as Unix/Linux, Windows, and Mac, often also demonstrating their initiative to learn additional skills involving Perl, HTML, XML, CSS, PHP, ActionScript, MySQL, C#, .NET, etc. Recognizing the importance of crossing the traditional academic disciplines, an increasing number of students either double major or minor in areas such as mathematics, psychology, business, and interactive multimedia.
Following the internship policy of The College and in cooperation with Career Services, we strive to provide a high quality experience for both our students and the employers. Naturally, this cannot be accomplished without all of the involved parties cooperating effectively. Our standard procedure includes several check points where the on-site professional person is requested to take an active role, e.g., as an evaluator. The main events are listed below. Our interns are required to inform the following procedure to the on-site professional.
- Before the student starts her/his on-site experience, s/he will explain the TCNJ CS standard internship procedure. The entire process is guided by the evaluation form, which is explicitly used at the midpoint and the final point by all the involved parties. S/he will also provide the information about how to contact the faculty internship supervisor if the on-site professional person has a question or concern.
- As part of the internship requirements, the student will write a research-style paper and give an oral presentation (poster or platform). Both of these activities are public in that they will be posted on our web site and the presentation will be given to a general audience. The on-site professional person is requested to check these materials with respect to the confidentiality and accuracy prior to student’s submission of any draft to the faculty supervisor. In a special circumstance, the professional (employer) may request an alternative form of paper/presentation, which must be arranged well in advance and accepted by the faculty supervisor and the TCNJ Computer Science department chair.
- By the midpoint of the student’s on-site experience, the student will arrange a site visit by the faculty internship supervisor so that the faculty supervisor has an opportunity to observe the student’s experience on-site and discuss the internship with the on-site professional person. Prior to the site visit, the student will self-evaluate her/his performance using the evaluation form. S/he will place check marks for the goals/criteria which have been achieved thus far. S/he will also write a reflective essay, explaining how s/he achieved goals/criteria.
- At the end of the on-site experience, the student will self-evaluate her/his performance, in a way analogous to the midpoint evaluation.
- At the end of the semester in which the student is registered for internship, the student will present the internship experience and write a paper, both comparable to our mentored research experience. If an internship occurs during the summer, the student may be required to complete the presentation and paper during the following fall semester. Regardless of the timing, the on-site professional person is requested to check the confidentiality and validity of these materials.
If you have any questions, please contact the faculty internship supervisor, currently Dr. Peter DePasquale.
For additional information about the department:
The College of New Jersey
Department of Computer Science
609-771-2268