What makes a top-tier internship: ranking internships in industrial design

Students, educators, and professionals find value in industrial design students participating in internships, however, there is currently no approach for evaluating the quality of internships students are participating in. This research addresses the need for a standardized metric to evaluate industrial design internships. During a two-year longitudinal study conducted at three comprehensive universities, data were collected on internship experiences. Using this data, the authors developed a weighted ranking approach, providing a valuable tool to evaluate internships' quality and relevance. This ranking fills a critical gap, offering unique insights for students, academic programs, and internship providers to assess and enhance internship quality, currently unaddressed by existing tools.