CURRICULAR PRACTICAL TRAINING
Policies & Procedures
for Ph.D. Students in the Viterbi School of Engineering.
Students must also attend a CPT workshop and file OIS forms for CPT.
1. Requests for CPT must be made in person by the student upon presentation of photo ID and an original offer letter on company letterhead from the company where the student plans to work.
The last day to turn in your offer letter to OHE 332 is Friday of Week 2 of classes.
The last day to register for ENGR 596 is the last day of Drop/Add.
The offer letter must contain at least the following information:
· name and address of employee
· location where student will work **
· description of job responsibilities
· hours per week to be worked
· beginning and ending dates of employment
** The student cannot do CPT from home. He/she must do the CPT work at the company location where the company resources to be used are located.
- The earliest date you can work is the first day of classes of the semester.
The latest date you can work is the last day of final examinations of the semester.
2. The supervising faculty member will decide in consultation with the student what type of academic effort is required to earn the internship credit, but in every case the work will meet guidelines of the ENGR 596 syllabus.
3. The supervising faculty member is also responsible for ensuring that the internship activity:
- is instrumental to achieving the academic objectives of the student's degree program and will contribute to the student's academic development
- does not exist for the primary purpose of facilitating employment authorization
4. The student must register for the required internship course ENGR 596 for one (1) unit only.
5. CPT will not be allowed during the student's first semester of enrollment in a degree program.
6. Engineering faculty will not grant incompletes in ENGR 596 for the sole purpose of enabling the student to continue working, even if the employment is academically beneficial to the student. Incomplete grades will be assigned only for the reasons allowed by University policy as described in the University Catalogue.
7. A student cannot receive CPT authorization and contemporaneously hold a 50% assistantship at USC. A student may hold a 25% assistantship at USC and be approved for CPT if the employment is in the Los Angeles area and if the offer letter states the outside employment will be for no more than 10 hours per week. An exception may be made only if the student is eligible for full-time CPT.
8. In order to receive permission for CPT, the student must have already completed the academic work required for all previous CPT registrations.
9. A student must have at least a 3.00 overall graduate GPA at USC to receive CPT approval.
10. Full-time vs. part-time CPT is regulated by the US government. Please consult with OIS.
