How do we build the future? Every year, students at UCLA’s Department of Urban Planning partner with organizations of all types and sizes and dedicate their education to answering this question. Employers and organizations are welcome to reach out to the Department of Urban Planning for interns, client projects or with employment opportunities!
Internships
All students in the MURP program are required to complete a 300 hour internships or fieldwork experience. Overall, the fieldwork should provide the student with a wide variety of agency experiences. Ideally, the tenor of the fieldwork should be one of apprenticeship within an agency, or of collaboration between the student and a fieldwork supervisor.
At the conclusion of the internship experience students are required to obtain a Student Performance Evaluation from their supervisor. The evaluation along with a report, written by the student, relating what they have been studying in their classes with their professional planning fieldwork experience, will be evaluated by a faculty mentor.
Students generally complete their fieldwork during the summer (June-August) but are permitted to work part-time during the academic year (October-May). The department will accept internship announcements at any time throughout the year.
Samples of past internships announcements are posted below.
Are you a current Internship Supervisor? You can download the Student Performance Evaluation form here! Supervisors are expected to review the completed form with their intern at the end of the 300 hours. The final version, signed by both the supervisor and the student, will be submitted to the faculty mentor by the student.
Client Projects
Client Projects are long-term consulting agreements that pair students with external client partners to tackle a planning question. Graduate students — working individually or as a team — define a problem, design and conduct data collection, analyze and contextualize the information, and prepare a written and oral report for their client organization. Students gain experience working as consultants, and clients receive professional-level analysis and recommendations to drive action. There are two types of client projects.
Applied Planning Research Projects
Applied Planning Research Projects (APRP or sometimes called client projects) are conducted by students working on an individual basis under the advice of a faculty member and a client adviser.
Beginning in the summer or fall, the APRP can be completed in nine months or over the course of an academic year. In the fall, students work with their client, a faculty advisor and a faculty project coordinator to define, design and collect data for the project. Analysis, writing and revisions take place during the winter and final reports are delivered in spring (early June), with key ideas presented as posters during an evening department-wide reception.
Examples of Applied Planning Research Projects can be viewed on our Student Projects page!
The department will accept proposals for the Applied Planning Research Projects from April-October. Students are informed of new proposals as they come in. Interested students will reach out to the client directly but the client makes the final selection.
Comprehensive Projects
Comprehensive Projects are completed by teams of students (12-15) from varying backgrounds and interests as part of a pair of master’s degree courses.
Comprehensive Projects are completed over a six month period (fall/winter or winter/spring). During the first half of the project, students work with the faculty advisor and client to define and design the project. The second half mainly consists of data collection, writing, and revisions. Students in this project option are required to host a public presentation of their work at the end of the second quarter. The location and format of these presentations vary by subject matter and client needs.
Examples of past Comprehensive Projects can be viewed on our Student Projects page!
The department will accept proposals for the Comprehensive Projects from October – May for the following academic year (for example, a proposal that is accepted in February 2019 will run during Winter and Spring 2020). Students are informed of the selected projects at a departmental meeting in late May or early June. The faculty advisor for the project will select student participants via an application process during the summer.
Samples of past client project proposals are posted below. Click here for a printer-friendly version of the Client Project information.
Contact Us
Interested in working with an urban planning student? Please complete the form below. We will be happy to answer any questions you may have. Let us know if you are interested in posting an internship, client project, or both. Include a brief description of what you would like to do and we will reach out to you to answer questions, provide more details and/or collect the official posting.
If you are interested in posting a job opportunity please visit the Luskin Career Services page!
Contact the Department of Urban Planning
