Upon completing 30 credit hours of GT coursework at GT-Shenzhen, but before the student has been granted the GT MS degree, a GT-Shenzhen student can come to GT-Atlanta as an J-1 intern for 2-12 months. The registration fee for the internship is $50 (one-time charge). The student needs to find a GT professor to host the visit and the professor can be from any academic department of Georgia Tech (ECE, CoC, ISYE, ME, etc). The internship is usually unpaid, and there is not a GT tuition or fee charge for the internship except for the $50 registration fee indicated above. Unless you have a valid health insurance plan that covers your stay in the USA and that meets the minimum standards set by the Department of State and the University System of Georgia, you may be required to purchase a GT Student Health insurance plan upon arrival at GT. Although the internship can be as short as 2 months, to be productive, most professors will prefer for the internship to last at least a semester. This is especially suitable for students wishing to pursue the PhD degree as the internship can be a good opportunity to prove yourself worthy of any Graduate Assistantship (GRA) considerations.
Student interns will have the opportunity to gain practical experience while conducting research in their academic field. Cultural activities will be arranged for the interns, such as sporting events, museum visits, Atlanta city tours, and more. Participants will attend a Student Intern Orientation upon arriving to GT. Orientation covers immigration regulations, the objective of the internship program, and ways to connect at Tech.
The start date of the internship is flexible and does not need to coincide with the start date of an academic semester; it must be after the end of the semester in which you have completed 30 credit hours of GT coursework at GT-Shenzhen.
Please discuss your interest with the Director of GT-Shenzhen approximately 5 months before the planned start date of the internship. The next steps are to find a host laboratory at GT-Atlanta, process DS-2019 paperwork, and apply for J-1 internship visa.
You will need to provide financial guarantee of at least $1,500 per month multiplied by the number of months of your internship, before your DS-2019 can be issued. This is not an actual charge by Georgia Tech; the purpose of the financial guarantee is to ensure that you have sufficient resources to live in Atlanta. You will be given a non-tuition bearing marker course to register for the internship so you will maintain full-time student status at Georgia Tech.