Application Procedure

Special Announcement

Chicago-Kent College of Law, Institute of Design, Stuart School of Business, and Department of Psychology students have a different internship application process than students on Mies Campus. Please click on the links below to learn about the internship application processes for these schools.

Process

The process listed below is intended for students interested in completing an internship or co-op from the following colleges: Armour College of Engineering, College of Architecture, College of Computing, and Lewis College of Science & Letters.

This process is required for international students from these colleges seeking authorization for Curricular Practical Training (CPT).

For experiences continuing from one academic term to another, please review this document for that process.

Please note! The process can take several weeks depending on revisions to your application that might be needed. Be sure to submit your application at least 3 weeks in advance of your start date.

1. Read Eligibility Rules and Requirements
2. Complete the Experiential Learning Tutorials on Blackboard
3. Look for Employment Opportunities and Secure an Offer
4. Complete the Experiential Learning Application on Handshake
5. International Students Only: Complete and Have Curricular Practical Training (CPT) Form Approved By the Experiential Learning Office
6. International Students Only: Pick Up I-20 From the Office of Global Services
7. Begin Working
8. Applying for Another Term

1. Read Eligibility Rules and Requirements

Do not continue until you are familiar with the policies on the Eligibility Rules and Requirements page.

2. Complete the Experiential Learning Tutorials (International Students Only)

You must complete the Experiential Learning Tutorials through Blackboard in order to start the Experiential Learning (EL) application process.

Please download and review the document below.

At the end of EL Video Tutorial Part 3, there will be a short quiz.

You will need to download your EL Tutorial Certificate to attach to your Handshake Experience later on.

3. Look for Employment Opportunities and Secure an Offer

You may begin the EL application process after an employer decides to extend you a job offer.

They will need to give you an official offer letter with the following requirements:

• Is on official company letterhead and is signed by an appropriate company representative
• Includes the student’s name
• Includes the worksite supervisor’s name and contact information
• Includes the exact worksite street address
• Includes the salary/pay
• Includes the start date (required) and end date (strongly recommended); these dates must coincide with Illinois Tech’s university academic term dates—for example, the start date on the offer letter for fall 2021 should be August 23, 2021
• Includes the number of hours worked per week
• Includes the job title
• Includes or has attached a job description (this can be an email)

It is your responsibility to ensure there is ample processing and registration time before your start date. In addition, when you accept an offer from an employer, you must cease looking for other opportunities and remove yourself from all other potential opportunities for the semester.

Note: The Office of Global Services takes seven business days after you submit your CPT form and offer letter with a job description to process your new I-20.

4. Create an Experiential Learning Record on Handshake

To begin the process of approval for your experiential learning opportunity, you need to create an “Experience” record in Handshake.

I. Sign in to your Handshake account. If you are having any trouble accessing Handshake, please contact our front desk at careerservices@iit.edu or 312.567.6800

II. Click on “Career Center” at the top of the screen and select “Experiences" as shown below:

III. On the “Experiences” page, click “Request an Experience” listed on the blue ribbon in the upper right-hand corner

IV. Once on the form, in “Experience Type,” please select one of two options depending on your work authorization:

• EL—International Student
• EL—Domestic Student

V. Fill out the form completely, including salary (we will not approve the experience without an amount in the salary field). For salary, please put an hourly salary if possible, even if you are being paid an annual rate or via stipend

VI. Once you have completed the form, push the “Request Experience” green button at the bottom of the page

VII. Once submitted, you will see a summary page of the experience. However, you are not done yet with your submission! To receive approval from the Experiential Learning Office to start the approval process, you must attach three documents:

• A PDF of your Offer Letter from the company
• Complete a Plan of Study, below, showing a semester-by-semester outline of how you plan to complete your degree program with your experience (International Students Only)

• Your Certificate of Completion of the Experiential Learning Tutorials (International Students Only)
• Unpaid Internships - If you are not being paid for your internship experience, we do require that your employer complete an Educational Training plan, laying out how your experience will primarily be for educational purposes. The template below can be used for that purpose. Only international students are required to attach this in the event they are doing an unpaid internship.  This training plan must be signed by a company representative to be considered valid.

To attach these documents, please select the blue “New Attachment” button listed on the left-hand side of the “Overview” page as shown below:

VIII. The Experiential Learning team will review your submission and let you know if anything needs to be corrected or added within 3-5 business days**. If everything is good to go, the Experiential Learning team will begin the approval process. You will see that your status has been changed to “Being Approved” when this happens. Once you see this status has changed to “Being Approved,” you can be assured that an automatic email has been sent to your assigned academic adviser. Once the academic adviser has approved the experience, an automated email is sent to your assigned workplace supervisor* with the approval instructions. On the “Overview” page, you will be able to track the approval process of all your approvers.

*Many corporate email accounts have strong firewalls in place, so we understand that in some cases the automated email may not get to the supervisor. If that happens, please email explearning@iit.edu and we can personally send the supervisor the approval link.

**Please avoid emailing the CPT Coordinator for updates within the same thread, as it moves your email to the back of the line! If you need to share information or are requesting a status update, please do it in a separate thread.

IX. You will receive an email from the Experiential Learning Office (explearning@iit.edu) once your experience has gone through the full approval process and your application is “Approved.” This email will include details on signing up for an internship course in your Illinois Tech Portal, and, if you are an international student, details on completing the Curricular Practical Training (CPT) form, found below, for the Office of Global Services.

5. International Students Only: Submit Documents to the Office of Global Services

Once you have completed the Curricular Practical Training (CPT) Form and have registered for the appropriate course, you will need to submit a "Curricular Practical Training (CPT)" request through the ISSS Portal which will require you to upload the CPT Form and your Offer Letter with a job description for the Office of Global Services to review.

6. International Students Only: Pick Up I-20 From Office of Global Services

Once you have submitted the request in the ISSS Portal, the Office of Global Services will begin processing your I-20. Processing time for the CPT I-20 is seven business days (Monday to Friday). You will receive an email from the Office of Global Services when the new I-20 is ready to download.

Please note that international students must have their I-20 and Social Security Number (SSN) application receipt in their possession before they begin working. All students must have approved forms and be registered for the appropriate internship course to begin working.

7. Begin Working

You may begin working after the agreed upon start date.

Your employer has the right to terminate your employment if you are not meeting work expectations or due to unforeseen business circumstances. If you are terminated, you will need to inform the Experiential Learning Office and the Office of Global Services immediately and submit your official termination letter from your employer.

Moreover, the Experiential Learning Office has the right to end your employment if you are not meeting the qualifications for internships.

8. Applying for Another Term

The process outlined in the seven steps should be followed each term you would like to participate in EL.

If your employer would like to continue hosting you for the internship for the next semester, you will need a new offer letter with the new end date. If your original offer letter has an end date for the following term, you may use the original offer letter to apply again.

Deadlines

For important dates and deadlines regarding Experiential Learning, please go to the Key Deadlines page.