If you’re researching when to start internships in college, you might be completely overwhelmed with what to do and where to start. An internship can be a make-or-break opportunity that shapes your career. But before you’re fatigued by the details, first and foremost, the two important things to have prepared are your CV and cover letter to make your application stand out.
If you already know how to write a great CV, the cover letter commonly determines whether your CV gets a second look by the hiring committee; it’s your chance to make sure the employer knows exactly who you are and what you can contribute. Therefore, making sure that it tells the right story about your potential, motivation, and fitness for the position is extremely important. Your cover letter is a space to show your personality, communicate your desire to succeed, and demonstrate why you deserve the internship opportunity. This guide will walk you through writing a cover letter that stands out, where you’ll learn formatting, strategies, common mistakes to avoid, and an example you can use to model your own cover letter.
What is a Cover Letter for an Internship?
An internship cover letter is a one-page document that you will submit alongside your CV or resume to give the recruiter a better view of who you are as a professional and contributor to a team. Since most students applying for internships don’t have extensive professional experience, your cover letter becomes important to show why you’re interested in the position, how your background relates, and what strengths you can bring.
You don’t have to be a stellar essay writer to crush it on a cover letter if you know what to do. A cover letter for a job usually highlights work experience and professional achievement, but a cover letter for an internship will typically address:
- Your academic coursework that applies to the position
- Your relevant volunteer or leadership experiences
- Universal skills that you’ve acquired, such as communication and teamwork
- Your career goals and how the internship will advance them
- Your motivation and curiosity towards the internship opportunity
So, in short, your letter will demonstrate your maturity, initiative, and professionalism, which equip you to excel in your internship opportunity. Employers will want to know whether you can learn quickly, contribute meaningfully, and are committed to the field. Your cover letter should answer those questions. The most important thing is that your cover letter explains what your CV cannot. It frames the skills on your CV into the specific internship context.
Internship Cover Letter Format
The structure of your cover letter is extremely important. It’s the first thing that tells an employer that you know how to communicate clearly and professionally. Therefore, the cover letter structure should feature some key traits.
Standard Cover Letter Structure
- Header
- Your name
- Contact information
- Date
- Employer’s name, title, company, and address
- Greeting
- Dear (Hiring Manager’s Name),
- Avoid generic greetings, making your cover letter personal to the position you’re applying for.
- Opening Paragraph
- Introduce yourself
- State the specific internship position you’re applying for
- Describe how you became acquainted with the position
- Convey your enthusiasm to participate in the position
- Showcase Paragraph(s)
- Describe coursework and projects that are relevant to the position, and briefly explain how they apply
- Discuss the universal skills that you would utilize within the position
- Connect your relevant experiences to what the company and employer are looking for
- Use 1 or 2 paragraphs, focusing on remaining clear and concise.
- Closing Paragraph
- Reinforce your enthusiasm and desire to participate in the position
- Thank the employer for taking the time to review your letter
- Include some kind of call to action
- Farewell
- Add a closing phrase
- “Sincerely,” or “Best regards,”
- Your name
General Formatting
- Keep your cover letter to one page, about 250 to 400 words
- Use a professional font like Times New Roman or Arial, and a standard size (11 or 12 points). Ensure that you use the same font for both your CV and cover letter.
- Leave 1-inch margins and align your text to the left, like you would a standard college essay
- Provide your letter as a PDF document, unless otherwise specified by the internship’s hiring committee.
Keep in mind that employers for internships likely review a high volume of applications. The most important thing is to make sure your letter looks clean, polished, easy to read, and consistent.
The Opening Paragraph: How to Start a Cover Letter for an Internship
Your opening paragraph sets the tone for your entire letter. Usually, an employer will decide to read your cover letter after approving the qualifications on your CV. Therefore, your opening paragraph should ensure that you establish a personal connection with the internship, rather than merely outlining your qualifications. You can do this by:
- Being explicit about the specific internship, since many employers may offer multiple internships.
- Explaining how you found the opportunity to give the employer a personal connection to you.
- Mentioning your major, year in school, and area of focus to introduce who you are more personally.
- Conveying your authentic excitement about the opportunity by mentioning something specific about the company or industry.
Here’s an example of what an opening paragraph could look like:
“I am a junior majoring in Psychology at Carlow University, and I am extremely excited to apply my multimodal treatment skills to the Adolescent Behavioral Intervention Assistant position at Western Psychiatric Hospital. Through learning about this position on LinkedIn, I was immediately intrigued by your team’s commitment to fostering a differentiated approach to treatment, which aligns with my own academic experiences and skills.”
This establishes who you are as a student, what aspects of the opportunity you’re drawn towards, and lets the employer know that you’re specifically aware of the company’s values. This also demonstrates your tone; professional warmth is an ideal way of communication that shows your ability to be professional while maintaining a personal touch.
The Showcase Paragraphs: Writing the Body of an Internship Cover Letter
Your showcase section demonstrates to the employer that you’re a strong candidate for the opportunity through specific, quantifiable examples. So, there are a few main things your showcase section should accomplish.
Highlight Relevant Academic Experience
Find classes, or better, specific academic projects that relate directly to the position, to begin your showcase section. For a psychology internship, describe a research project or practicum experience. Employers will want to hear how your academic experiences will translate to the skills you bring to the real world and the internship opportunity.
Showcase Your Skills
To continue, think about the skills you’ve learned that are universal across your college experience, and apply them to the specific context of the internship setting. For example:
- Writing and communication
- Research and data analysis
- Teamwork and leadership
- Problem-solving
- Time management
You could even highlight unrelated jobs that have taught you skills that you would still use universally. For example, you might have learned organizational skills as a front desk worker. Even though the job doesn’t directly apply to the internship opportunity, you likely still acquired universal skills that will equip you to succeed in the internship position. The most important thing is to demonstrate examples of your skills and how they will apply to the current position.
Demonstrate Your Knowledge of the Company
You should be acquainted with details about the organization you are applying for before writing your cover letter. That way, you can mention the organization's mission, values, and initiatives. This will demonstrate that you have a genuine interest and investment in the company's identity and values, rather than a generic letter that can be sent to any organization.
Connect the Opportunity with Your Goals
Employers value ambitious and driven applicants. If you reference a planned career path or direction that the internship will assist you in achieving, it demonstrates that you plan to contribute to the overall field that the internship opportunity is part of.
A Showcase Section Example
“My Capstone project, where I researched building resilience in adolescents, prepares me to work well with your population of adolescent patients who experience economic adversity. Through my research, I became closely acquainted with the techniques required to address adversities of various spheres, which directly addresses a major portion of the clientele that seeks aid from your organization. Moreover, my skills in research and data analysis, developed through completing my survey distribution and statistical processing as part of my Capstone, equip me to both assess and evaluate the complex symptoms that your patients may exhibit. I believe that these skills align closely with Western Psychiatric Hospital’s mission to utilize evidence-based practices to deliver treatment to the patient population, and will aid me in my future goal of becoming a therapist at a crisis center for adolescents.”
Your showcase section can be 1-2 paragraphs and should communicate your ability to succeed in the tasks required to excel in the opportunity, as well as your motivation to perform well as a means of achieving your long-term goals.
Closing Paragraph: How to End an Internship Cover Letter
The closing paragraph of your internship cover letter accomplishes three main goals:
- It reaffirms your interest in the opportunity
- It thanks the employer for taking the time to learn who you are
- It invites the employer to interact with you further, if desired
In short, the closing paragraph should make your genuine interest in the internship clear, show your professionalism, and demonstrate your desire to discuss the opportunity further.
Example of a Cover Letter for an Internship
Your Name
Your Address
City, State, ZIP
Your Email | Your Phone Number
Date
Employer’s Name
Title
Company Name
Company Address
City, State, ZIP
Dear [Employer’s Name],
I am a junior majoring in Psychology at Carlow University, and I am extremely excited to apply my multimodal treatment skills to the Adolescent Behavioral Intervention Assistant position at Western Psychiatric Hospital. Through learning about this position on LinkedIn, I was immediately intrigued by your team’s commitment to fostering a differentiated approach to treatment, which aligns with my own academic experiences and skills.
My Capstone project, where I researched building resilience in adolescents, prepares me to work well with your population of adolescent patients who experience economic adversity. Through my research, I became closely acquainted with the techniques required to address adversities of various spheres, which directly addresses a major portion of the clientele that seeks aid from your organization. Moreover, my skills in research and data analysis, developed through completing my own research and statistical evaluation as part of my Capstone, equip me to both assess and evaluate the complex symptoms that patients may exhibit. I believe that these skills align closely with Western Psychiatric Hospital’s mission to utilize evidence-based practices to deliver psychometric-informed treatment to the patient population, and will aid me in my future goal of becoming a therapist at a crisis center for adolescents.
Thank you for considering my application. I welcome any opportunity to discuss how my skills in research and analysis, academic background, and passion for the psychology field can support your team during the spring semester. I look forward to the possibility of contributing meaningfully to Western Psychiatric Hospital.
Sincerely,
Your Name
Tips for Writing a Successful Internship Cover Letter
Utilize these tips along with the previous explanations to deliver a stellar cover letter to your internship opportunities:
- Make it personalized: Make sure you mention at least one specific detail of the company or organization you are applying to. Employers will be able to tell whether you’ve used the same cover letter for multiple applications.
- Use quantifiable evidence: Quantify your achievements wherever possible. This makes your skills and experiences more credible and measurable to the one reviewing your application.
- Demonstrate examples: Always give examples to support your claims, especially when explaining your skills. Instead of saying “I have strong research skills,” describe a project that demonstrates that skill.
- Keep a professional and actionable tone: The most important thing is to remain clear, concise, and personable, using active verbs to support your statements.
- Proofread carefully: Read through your cover letter critically for typos or misalignments with your CV.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Rewriting your CV: The employer will most likely read your cover letter after your CV. It should provide context and an inside look into who you are, not repeat what’s on your CV.
- Being too vague: You should always include examples to support your claims. Statements like “I have strong organizational skills” should have a specific example that can demonstrate those skills in a real-world context.
- Sounding too casual: Avoid slang, colloquialisms, or wordiness that don’t contribute to the meaning or impact of your letter. Employers appreciate professional, concise communication that is measurable and actionable.
- Using cliches: Employers are used to candidates saying that they are the ideal candidate for the position, so these claims can feel insincere. Stick to realistic, professional language.
- Creating a general cover letter: Not researching the company puts you in a position where it demonstrates a lack of effort, and employers will often disregard these types of letters quickly.
- Forgetting a call to action: Ending without inviting a conversation is a missed opportunity to advance in the hiring process.
Conclusion
An internship cover letter can feel intimidating if you’ve never written one before. But with the right structure, content, and tone, you can construct a compelling letter that helps you stand out in a competitive pool of applicants. Employers aren’t expecting decades of experience, but rather the curiosity, drive, and practical skills that will help you succeed in a professional setting.
With a well-written CV and a full understanding of how to write a strong cover letter, you will be equipped to showcase yourself clearly and professionally to potential employers. Take your time, focus on authenticity, and dedicate yourself to demonstrating who you will be and what you will accomplish in a professional setting.
