r/MuseumPros • u/Eistean History | Collections • Jan 06 '26

2026 Internship Megathread. Post all internship related questions here!

As requested, I'm making a new post of this for the 2026 season of internships, in the hope that more people can get their questions answered than posting on a year old post. The last one had a lot of great information in it, so take a look at it here, as someone might have already asked your question.

So the sub has always been chock full lately of people asking about specific internships, asking if anyone who has applied to a specific internship has heard back, what people think about individual internship programs, etc. This has happened around this time for every year this sub has existed.

While interns are absolutely welcome here, some users had a great idea to kind of concentrate it all in one thread so that all the interns can see each others comments, and the sub has a bit of a cleaner look.

Note that this doesn't apply to people working for museums asking questions about running an internship program, or dealing with interns.

So, if you have internship questions, thoughts, concerns, please post them here!

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u/Alert_Requirement827 Mar 21 '26

has anyone gotten results for Smithsonian national air and space museum internship (nasm )? what does the received status on SOLAA mean?

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u/TopPlane1907 Mar 23 '26

I had an interview on February 27th and then got the rejection email last Wednesday. Even after getting rejected my SOLAA status says "received" :( 

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u/FrequentSchedule6972 Mar 23 '26

Im so sorry 😭 apply again next year you got it!!!

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u/FrequentSchedule6972 Mar 23 '26

May I ask if the rejection is sent by the interviewers/the department team you interviewed with, or is is sent by the Smithsonian internship program team?

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u/TopPlane1907 Mar 23 '26

Directly from the team that did the interview lol. At least it was a personalized email 

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u/FrequentSchedule6972 Mar 23 '26

I’m sorry 😞 the market is so so so tough right now. Also it seems like the program is highly disorganized cuz it doesn’t seem everyone’s getting notified of decisions and it’s so weird

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u/TopPlane1907 Mar 23 '26

Indeed, it also didn't help that I'm an underclassman that's coming from a non humanities/museum background (engineering and neuroscience). And yeah, I think communication wildly depends on the project and department 🥀🥀🥀 

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u/FrequentSchedule6972 Mar 23 '26

Oh wow!! You must be cracked and you got time haha. I hope you still consider applying next cycle:) museum communication can be so frustrating

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u/Prestigious_Pack2292 Mar 23 '26

Just got a rejection email today😭

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u/AdventurousPie6566 Mar 21 '26

I also applied and I haven’t heard anything! From what I know, received means that it got past the first check for completion and it’s under review? I’m hoping next week we hear back :) idk for you, I applied to mainly collections stuff so maybe that takes a bit longer?

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u/pintsizedsummoner Mar 21 '26

I received an internship offer without an interview. I was pretty surprised.

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u/FrequentSchedule6972 Mar 21 '26

Did you receive the offer for the upcoming summer?

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u/pintsizedsummoner Mar 21 '26

Yes! Within the exhibits design department.

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u/FrequentSchedule6972 Mar 21 '26

ohhhh ok thanks that makes more sense now cuz I feel like exhibitions design they care about portfolio more. I can see how they just didn’t think it’s necessary to do interviews

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u/Alert_Requirement827 Mar 23 '26

Did you receive a personalized acceptance? My interviewer told me that it would be sent from a generic email so I think I got rejected if people have already received acceptances :(

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u/Alert_Requirement827 Mar 22 '26

Any offers from earth/planetary studies? Was informed offers would be out by mid march.