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The internship program with the Department of Political Science at the University of North Texas allows you several different ways to gain political or legal experience by working in one of the following offices.

  1. Public non-profit organizations engaged in legal & political representation, advocacy, and/or research
  2. Federal, state, and local political representatives and officials (on an as available basis)
  3. Private Attorneys' offices around the Metroplex (on an as available basis)

All of the opportunities provide students with the ability to gain practical work experience while earning upper division academic credit with the Department of Political Science and may satisfy the Department's Capstone requirement. Students may work between one to three hours per academic term, and students may not take more than a total of six (6) academic hours that may be used toward their degree requirements. Students may complete all six (6) academic hours within one institution. For example, you may work both the Fall and Spring semesters at the District Attorney's office for at least 300 hours to receive a maximum of 6 credit hours.

Students must work 10-15 hours per week during the Fall & Spring semesters or 30-35 hours per week during the Summer I & Summer II sessions. Credit is not available during the May Minimester. Students accepted for the intern program must arrange their schedule with the individual offices where they work. All of the internships require that the student be available during regular working hours, Monday-Friday (it is impossible to complete intern hours during the weekend).

Academic credit is received according to the following:
1 hour academic credit = 50 hours internship work
2 hours academic credit = 100 hours internship work
3 hours academic credit = 150 hours internship work

Qualifications for ALL internship programs:

  1. Junior/Senior status is required (you must have at least 60 credit hours completed). If you are a transfer student, you must have completed at least 12 hours at U.N.T. before you can be eligible).
  2. You must have completed 12 political science credit hours before being accepted (this includes your 6 hour introduction to political science classes that are required by the state of Texas).
  3. You do not need to be a Political Science or International Studies major to be eligible.
  4. The student should have an overall 3.0 G.P.A. (or better). If your G.P.A. is a 3.0 in your major, you can still be eligible for the program, so long as you have completed at least 15 hours in your major and your overall G.P.A. is at least a 2.8. Under no circumstances will anyone with an overall G.P.A. lower than 2.8 be accepted for the program.
  5. In order to be eligible for any internship offered through the Department of Political Science or the Office of Pre-Law Advising, you must have completed less than 6 hours in previous internship credit in any department. We will give a maximum of 6 total internship credit hours, including any earned in other departments.
  6. For internships that are especially competitive (such as the federal court or district attorney programs), students who have taken at least one law class here at U.N.T. (in any department) are given preference. This is not a requirement for the program. Students should indicate in their letter of application the experience that qualifies them for the internship.