The work seems to be towering above, meetings are becoming more and more common, maintaining a social life becomes a hassle and after all of that an internship gets thrown on top.

This is the situation for many students at Quinnipiac who find themselves overwhelmed with work and lost for time to do everything that needs to get done between classes, clubs and internships.

“I don’t have any free time at all,” said Shoshanna Bailey, a senior public relations major who interns at Universal Republic Records (URR) during the semester.

Students must utilize every second of free time to keep up with schoolwork if they would like to keep their internships and jobs around campus.

Bailey, who is also a resident assistant for QU, part of the Public Relations Student Society of America and the School of Communications honor society, finds herself getting her work done on the hour-and-a-half train ride to and from New York City for her unpaid internship at URR.

“It’s funny when people on the train see me taking up a couple of seats while I’m highlighting my books for class,” Bailey said.

Many students covet their free time, but for Jackie Murray, a senior nursing major who works at the Hospital of St. Raphael in New Haven, free time isn’t even in her vocabulary.

Murray also works at Quinnipiac’s admissions office, is a member of Alpha Chi Omega, is part of Quinnipiac’s Step Squad, and has to deal with a full workload of classes and clinicals throughout the semester.

“I get about five hours of sleep a night and I don’t even have enough time for napping,” Murray said. “By the end of the week I feel like I’m just going through the motions.”

Not only do internships take up students’ free time, they also drain bank accounts. Transportation costs to get to unpaid internships add up and leave students wondering where their money has gone.

“I have to pay $180 for the train to New York, $9 a day in parking, and another $4 a day on the subway just to get [to URR],” Bailey said.

The experience gained and connections that can be made through internships provide some of the incentive for students to continue putting themselves through these grueling schedules, but they also provide other helpful tools when preparing for a job in the “real world.”

“It helps me with my time management,” Murray said.

Internships may take a student’s time and money, but they are essential to finding a job when graduation