The internship concept is a corrupt and damaging gimmick. Students (and parents) come out of years of excessive higher ed costs and then are looking at unpaid/poorly paid time where lives continue to be put on hold. The Globe is a prime example of this custom. Take highly skilled journalists from the top programs, and extract free labor from them. It's time for the money, however much there is, to be spread out in a more equitable fashion. Newspapers, like many other businesses, are struggling to figure out how to make money in the digital era. But that does not translate into moral justification to exploit talented young people who deserve to be paid a fair wage for valuable contributions. This is, in the end, yet another manifestation of putting too much money in the hands of the few at the top who are truly not contributing to output, and too little in the hands of the people who are actually doing the work and creating products and services.

Google has a Cambridge office. Same free food, same awesome people. :) Also, generally internships are a different beast in IT. Interns are paid less than full time employees, but still a living wage (eg %75 of an FTE salary) and are expected to do real work. I'd say they're necessary to get a good fulltime job, but they're pretty far from exploitative. Interns have fun, make money and get real experience, and employers get to vet employees as thoroughly as possible. The question is whether we can export that model to other industries.

I came here from New York for college, and have stayed for all but 2 of the 28 years since, working in software. But after my kids spent 6 months living in DCF custody because they were missing school (I went to them for help with that problem, that was their solution) I'll be trading my house for something bigger at the same price, and taking my skills elsewhere. I would not recommend those who value their children live in the Commonwealth.