During the CFS Quarter
A student enrolled in CFS must participate in both their internship and their CFS course in the same quarter.
The CFS Time Commitment:
CFS requires a considerable time commitment for astudent—whether interning full time or part time. CFS participation can involve commuting to and from work, managing professional communications, navigating internship expectations and workload, attending the course, keeping up with coursework, and more. It all takes time and energy, even for the most organized and accomplished of students.
We urge students to think about their other commitments for the quarter before the start of the course and internship.
We strongly discourage overloading during the CFS quarter. Taking more than 4 credits during the CFS quarter can make it hard to do the internship and one’s academic work well.
If a student plans to hold multiple time-consuming roles in student groups while interning and taking courses, it might help to step back from some student group commitments for the quarter.
If a student plans to do CFS while going through an intensive recruiting process (such as in finance), they will need to make hard choices between recruitment, internship, academics, and other commitments during the quarter. We strongly urge students to plan accordingly and to prioritize their courses and current internship throughout.
The CFS Course and Grade:
The CFS course is a weekly, 2-hour themed seminar that helps students combine theory and practice through discussion, reflection, course materials, assignments, and projects. All CFS courses help students reflect on their internship and learn about their peers’ experiences while practicing critical-thinking, analysis, communication, and research skills.
The CFS grade depends on coursework, not internship performance. However, since an internship is required for CFS enrollment, failing to complete the internship commitment or getting fired from an internship could jeopardize a student’s enrollment in CFS for the quarter or lower their final grade by a full letter grade or more. Instances like these happen rarely, but when they do they involve conversations between the student, instructor, CFS administration, and internship to assess the situation with care, consider a range of perspectives, and weigh appropriate options or consequences on a case-by-case basis.
In the rare case that CFS pulls a student from an internship because of a problem with the internship organization, CFS would work with the student to determine appropriate options for completion of the CFS quarter.
For more information about CFS courses, see Courses and Course List By Quarter.
Credits:
Most CFS courses can be taken for a range of credit levels (1-4 or 2-4). Credit levels in CFS correspond to weekly internship hours, but higher credit levels also entail more course work, typically in the form of additional projects. You will need to settle your credit levels by the end of Week 1.
For more information, see How CFS Credit Works.
internship Support:
During the quarter, CFS Advisors will reach out to students to check in about the internship. Additionally, students can also reach out to the CFS Advisor, Instructor, or Student Consultant to talk through internship goals or challenges at any time. In the rare case of an internship experience such as discrimination or harassment, the CFS team is prepared to support a student and connect them with university services.
Evaluation:
Toward the end of the quarter, CFS will send students a required program evaluation, which includes questions about all aspects of the CFS experience. Students will need to complete it by the stated deadline (typically the end of Reading Week).
Instructors will not see any information from the CFS Evaluation until after grades have been submitted and finalized by the Registrar. We also encourage students to submit CTEC’s about their course and instructor. CFS uses evaluation information about internships to help educate future CFS students.