Internships

Fieldwork Requirements

Every Master's student without substantial prior experience in planning (or a closely related field) must complete 300 total hours of professional planning fieldwork. Fieldwork is clinical or "real world" experience with a planning office, a private organization involved in planning, a community action agency, or applied planning research within a clinical context (excluding university-based research projects that lack a professional client and an applied practice focus).

Students fulfill this requirement by enrolling in four units of UP 496 Independent Fieldwork while completing the fieldwork requirement or immediately thereafter.  You may enroll withyour faculty advisor or another Urban Planning faculty member whose expertise may be related to your fieldwork.  Please note that you must receive approval to enroll from the faculty member before enrolling in UP 496 (each faculty member has his/her own section).  Students may also fulfill this requirement during the summer between the first and second years of study with a maximum of four units of credit received for UP 496 in the following Fall Quarter.   Students must complete their fieldwork requirement by the end of Fall Quarter of their second year of study unless they have received written approval for a delay from the MURP Program Director.

Students enrolled in UP 496 must write a 2500-5000 word essay relating what they have been studying in their classes with their professional planning fieldwork experience. The essay, along with a brief letter of evaluation of the student's performance written by fieldwork supervisor (who cannot be a full-time UCLA faculty member) must be submitted to the UP 496 instructor and the Graduate Advisor no later than the last day of finals week during the quarter of UP 496 enrollment.

Requesting a Fieldwork Waiver:

Students who have completed the equivalent of at least twelve-months of full-time professional experience at a responsible level prior to entering the program may petition to waive the fieldwork requirement. The request must be submitted by the end of the first year of studies and be accompanied by a report, in the form of a 1,500 to 2,500 word paper that evaluates the professional experience in light of the ideas and concepts covered in UP 222A. In addition to this report, students should include a copy of their resumé that specifies the positions and employment dates that justify the waiver. Please email your paper and resume to the Graduate Advisor, Robin McCallum (robin@publicaffairs.ucla.edu [1]).

Students receiving a waiver of the fieldwork requirements must substitute other course work in order to fulfill unit requirements for the degree.

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