Can I accept one internship while waiting to hear from another?

Submitting applications to multiple companies for summer internships is to be expected, so it makes sense that you may find yourself in a situation where you have an internship offer, but haven’t yet heard from your first choice.

What to do? Students in this predicament often wonder whether it’s ok to accept the second choice internship until they hear from their first choice. While you may think this would give you greater peace of mind, you’re – unfortunately – wrong.

Accepting an offer from your second (or third, or fourth…) choice internship and then backing out is unprofessional and will result in you burning many bridges. Though wanting to make sure you have an internship lined up for the summer is a valid concern, you must consider the consequences of your actions.

Your reneging on the offer from your second choice would reflect poorly on you for failing to honor your commitment. Not only would you be burning a bridge to a potential future networking contact and/or employer, you would also be tarnishing the prospects of future Newhouse students who apply to intern at this company: who would want to hire interns from a school whose students have a commitment problem?

Backing out of an internship after accepting it causes problems for the company, too. At this point your second choice company has already turned away its second and third choices when you agreed to intern.

If you receive an offer from your second choice and you’ve already been in contact with your first choice company (e.g. you’ve interviewed or have an interview coming up), you can try to nudge your first choice with this information. First, find out when the second choice needs your decision. Then, reach out your first choice. Let your contact there know that you have received an offer from another company (you don’t need to state where) but that your first choice company IS your first choice!

Sometimes this will encourage the first choice company to move more quickly. Sometimes it won’t. It’s possible that your first choice won’t be able to get back to you until it’s too late. At this point, you need to weigh what is more important: taking a good opportunity at your second choice, or waiting for your first choice and facing the potential of not having an internship this summer. This is a tough decision, but trust yourself to make the best decision you can with the information you have at the time.

If you choose the latter option and decide to wait for your first choice, know that there are PLENTY of summer internships out there for those who expend the effort to find them; going back on your promise to a company is not the way to secure one.