[Kristina]

My advice is to look outside the box because there's so many opportunities, especially for engineering fields, in areas that you might not expect.

Right now I'm working on my dozen or so cover letters for political internships this summer in Washington DC. Let me tell you, from going through the internship database for DC, there are so many cool internships for every field. They need people in the math and sciences at the CIA, Department of Defense, National Science Foundation, Department of the Navy, etc. It's now filled but there was a internship specifically for computer science students that paid a $5000 stipend for 10 weeks over the summer. It *almost* makes me wish I was engineer.

Also, it's also seriously all about who you know (which I guess is why people are plugging themselves here). Some people think that having people pull strings or schmoozing with people underminds your merit but networking is a fine skill and there's nothing wrong with it. Just yesterday I was working at an alumni networking event because I'm a volunteer with them and I was randomly talking to someone in hospital recruiting. She randomly knew my mom and also randomly was a poli sci student who interned in DC. Lo and behold, I got my first internship offer for a Congressman. Moral of the story: Go out there and get connected.

Good luck with your internship hunting all!