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CURRICULAR PRACTICAL TRAINING
INFORMATION
For International
MBA Students
(revised February
2004)
Accepting Payment for
Employment:
In order for
international students to accept payment for an
internship or other off-campus work experience, they
need to get work authorization and CPT is the fastest
way to obtain work authorization. If international
students get a non-paid internship, they obviously
don't need CPT.
CPT
must be tied to a course:
Because our MBA program does not have a course that
requires an internship or a paid work experience, CPT
is attached to an independent study BA 391 that the
student creates.
Because
advisors can't give degree credits for working, the BA
391 deliverable must be more than a paper about what
the student did for his/her summer job... it must focus
in detail and in depth about one area of the summer
work.
The
area of focus and the details of the academic
deliverable (# of pages for the paper, # of sources the
student needs to research, etc.) are worked out between
the student and BA 391 sponsoring professor, usually
after the student has accepted or even started the
internship.
Faculty
member must "sponsor" BA 391:
Even before an
internship is obtained, international students should
be considering which b-school faculty member(s) might
be interested in the type of internship work they are
seeking and start establishing a connection with
that/those faculty member(s). Professors must be on
the payroll the semester the student will be getting
credit for the BA 391 independent study.
Professors do
not have to agree to sponsor independent studies for
students. This is a courtesy professors extend to
students, if their faculty schedule allows.
Faculty who agree to sponsor an independent study are
actually taking on extra work and doing a generous
favor for the student. (This is the main reason why it
is important to match internship with professor
interest/research/expertise.)
http://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/faculty/guide/
The
student and the professor can decide how they will
communicate during this "research project." The “when,
where and how to communicate” (between student and
professor) are unique to each BA 391 situation. And
finally, the student and the prof will negotiate how
the deliverable will be graded.
(While the deliverable may
be turned in any time during the Fall Semester, the
grade sheet for BA 391s won't be available until early
December.)
Registering for CPT BA
391:
Because the supervising faculty has to be on the
payroll the semester the student will get credit for
the BA 391, we allow international students to register
for the summer internship CPT BA 391 in the Fall
Semester. (So, students do the work in the summer, but
get credit for the internship in the fall.) Far more
faculty are on the Fall Semester payroll than on the
Summer Sessions payroll, so students have a greater
choice of professors from which to request assistance.
Also, if a student
registers for any class during the summer (even a BA
391), he/she will have to pay summer fees in addition
to the tuition for the class. Summer fees can be $400
to $600. This is a way to help students save some of
the money they earn as internship payment. Students
will be paying fall fees anyway, so no extra fees will
be accrued for the Fall Semester CPT BA 391.
When Fall Registration
happens in April, international students should
register for 5 fall courses. Then, students can decide
during the first week of their Fall Semester if they
want to drop one of their electives and add the CPT BA
391 as their 5th class, or if they want to
add the BA 391 as a 6th course.
In either case, to add
the BA 391 when the Fall Semester starts, students need
to fill out the BA 391 form (obtained in the MBA
Office) and follow the established procedures for any
independent study. Signatures need to be obtained from
the sponsoring professor and his/her department
chair. The completed form is then brought to an MBA
Academic Advisor, who will register the BA 391 for the
student. The BA 391 must be taken for a letter grade,
counts as three credits towards the MBA degree, and
costs the same as any other MBA elective.
(In order for international
students to accept payment for work off campus while
they are a student, CPT or OPT must be acquired. CPT
BA 391 will essentially take the place of one of the
elective courses required for the
MBA.
No
MBA
student is permitted to count more than two independent
study BA 391s towards their degree.
If a second CPT BA 391 is needed in order to work
during the second-year Fall Semester, the same
procedures listed above must be followed and a
separate, second CPT BA 391 class, form, and
authorization must be acquired. If the student is,
again, offered to continue working during the
second-year Spring Semester, the student should
immediately visit with both an International Advisor
and an MBA Academic Advisor.)
Obtaining CPT
authorization:
Once an internship is obtained, students need to get
the employment offer in writing from the hiring
company. Students
then visit with an
MBA advisor to obtain an MBA CPT form
and to get detailed instructions regarding the
registration of the Fall BA 391.
When the CPT form has
been completed by the student, signatures are obtained
from the BA 391 professor and an MBA Academic Advisor.
Students then take this letter to the international
office, along with other items requested for CPT
authorization. In the past, CPT authorization has been
granted within the same day. For more information,
visit:
http://www.utexas.edu/international/com/cptflyer.pdf |
