Carnegie Mellon University
Student Affairs  ›  Career & Professional Development Center  ›  Outcomes  ›  Data Definitions for Career Outcomes

About the Undergraduate Internship & Research Outcomes

The Undergraduate Internship and Research Experiences dashboard currently includes survey data from the Summer years of 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. The data reflects undergraduates experiences during the summer, including internships and research experiences.

To protect respondent confidentiality, the CPDC does not share raw survey data. For questions about the dashboard or survey, contact the CPDC at: career@andrew.cmu.edu

Data Sources: CPDC Summer Experience Survey (administered through Qualtrics)

Developers:
Douglas Stouch, Associate Director for Early Engagement & Assessment, CPDC
Lisa Dickter, Director for Undergraduate Career Consultants, CPDC

Data Steward: Joanna Dickert, Associate Dean of Educational Experience Assessment, Student Affairs

Refresh Rate: Annually (November)

  • Survey data is collected between April and September.
  • Summer Year represents the summer following the students' class year (e.g., summer following freshman year, summer following sophomore year, summer following junior year).
  • Senior students pursuing a 5th year or in a 5-year program are combined with the "Junior" class year. Experiences of seniors who are graduating are included in the First Destination Outcomes.
  • The survey prompts students to define their experience as one of the following categories: internship, research (on or off campus), entrepreneurial venture, summer job, freelance/project, drama/music festival, taking classes, or volunteer service.
  • Internship Experience: For the purposes of reporting, the internship category is defined as an experience that is relevant to the student's academic degree. This includes paid or unpaid employment in a relevant role, entrepreneurial ventures, freelance work or projects, music/drama festivals or workshops, and research and development (R&D) roles at a company.
    • Entrepreneurial venture: starting or running a business relevant to the student's degree.
    • Freelance: Contracted work relevant to the student's degree (i.e., freelance graphic designer).
    • Music/Drama festival or workshop: 
    • Research & Development: Research outside of an academic, medical, or national/international research institution, typically at a company (i.e., Research Intern at Thermo Fisher Scientific).
  • Research Experience: The research category is defined as a research experience within a department or lab at an academic institution, medical organization, or national/international government research organizations (i.e., National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, UPMC, Boston Children's Hospital).
  • Summer Job (not included): A part-time job that is not relevant to a students academic degree (i.e., service industry, life guard, summer camp). Summer job experience information is not included on the dashboard.
  • Taking Classes (not included): Enrollment in summer-term courses at CMU or any other academic institution. Summer class information is not included on the dashboard.
  • Internship Pay: The survey prompts students indicating an internship experience to calculate and report their hourly pay. Only median hourly pay is displayed on the dashboard. Students are provided the following models to calculate their hourly pay.
    • Stipend: total pay / # of weeks / # hours per week = hourly pay
    • Monthly: monthly pay / 4.5 / # hours per week = hourly pay
    • Weekly: weekly pay / # hours per week = hourly pay
  • Research Pay: The survey prompts students indicating a research experience to report their hourly pay OR a stipend amount. Medians for both are included on the dashboard.
  • Paid?: They survey prompts students to indicate whether their experience is paid or unpaid. The percent of students paid is displayed on the dashboard. Students that did not respond to this survey item are NOT included in the percentage.
  • The survey prompts students to indicate the city, state, and country where their employer or institution is located, or where they are working from if they indicated freelance, entrepreneurial venture, or drama/music festival/workshop.
  • Only U.S. states are displayed on the dashboard. The darker the color of the state, the higher the count of students working there.
  • Hovering over colored states reveals the count of students and the employers or institutions located in that state.
  • The survey prompts students to report the month that they received their internship or research offer. Counts for each month are displayed on the dashboard.
  • Note that a small number of internships are offered and accepted in April and May, over a full-year before the internship begins. For example, a Tepper student may accept an offer in May of 2022 for an internship starting in May of 2023.
  • Identifying information was removed from the dataset, i.e., student name, email, card ID.
  • Students with dual degrees or double majors are only counted in their home college/department.
  • There are some inconsistencies over the years with College and Department designations for specific majors. For example, Economics was a major within Dietrich College in 2020 and 2021; however, it was adopted by the Tepper School of Business in 2022.
  • BXA is an intercollege degree program (department) that combines interdisciplinary academics + Arts. To filter for this program, select BXA in the department field.