Internship Program FAQs

We accept interns on a rolling basis. Candidates who submit their application early have a higher likelihood of receiving an internship placement.

While the exact start date differs by term, in general, summer internships run from May through August, fall internships run from August through December, and spring internships run from January through May.

While AEI internships are unpaid; however, AEI offers interns other benefits, including educational assistance during their internship term.

The minimum GPA to intern at AEI is 3.0. However, most successful candidates have a 3.5 GPA or higher. We typically look for undergraduate juniors and seniors, recent graduates, and graduate students who have done coursework related to their area of interest at AEI. Strong candidates have a demonstrated interest in public policy or prior research experience.

The AEI internship program combines professional, educational, and social programming. AEI’s internship program offers students the opportunity to learn directly from AEI scholars, receive mentoring from AEI junior staff, and connect with other interns at AEI and from other organizations around the city.

AEI internships are, first and foremost, an educational opportunity. As an intern on the research side of AEI, your primary responsibility is research-based support for their RA and scholar’s projects. Typical scholar projects include academic journal articles, books, op-eds, testimonies, blog posts, and conferences and events. Intern duties for such scholar projects include literature reviews, quantitative research, daily research tasks, and more.

Interns on the business side of the organization will gain hands-on experience and knowledge about how nonprofits and think tanks are structured and managed. Day-to-day tasks for business interns vary by department and may include research and outreach, assisting with AEI conferences and events, editing, writing, and web content management.

Yes! You are more than welcome to apply to multiple internships; however, the most successful candidates will submit a separate cover letter for each internship they apply to.

Your writing sample should be an original piece of writing that highlights your writing abilities and research skills. We ask that you keep the sample to approximately 500 words. The most successful interns will submit a writing sample related to the internship they have applied to.