Budget Guidelines

Guidelines for Preparing your SIF Budget

All applicants need to complete the Summer Internship Budget Form (link to PDF).

Your budget will be evaluated as a measure of the feasibility of your project. In other words, if your project requires a budget that exceeds an amount that you can reasonably attain, or is far too low to support your plan, it may have an adverse affect on your evaluation. It is best to specify, as realistically as you can, how much funding you will need to complete the internship. We expect that you will provide a reasonable student budget for your individual expenses based on the cost of living in the location of your internship. For example: travel to New York can be done reasonably and economically by bus; food costs should be based on preparing your own meals the majority of the time, not eating out all the time unless your living situation requires this.

You may find it helpful to speak with a second year student who resided in the city of your choice during their summer internship. (Refer to past HKS student summer surveys (log in required) for possible recent internships in a particular region.) Because SIF can rarely meet the full need of any student pursuing a summer internship, you should pursue additional funding sources to fully meet your budget needs. As a rough guide, in 2008, the average SIF grant was $2,500; we expect to have similar funding levels this year. Please keep this in mind as you plan your internship.

The following are some specific guidelines that might be helpful:

• Transportation: You will be expected to take advantage of your student status when making travel arrangments. For overseas travel, be sure and check with a number of sources. Specify an estimate for daily travel to and from your internship and your expected means of transport.
• Rent: As a student, we expect you to live in student housing or to share apartments with others when feasible. Regarding your Cambridge area apartment, it is our expectation that if you are taking an internship outside the Cambridge area, you will sublet your Cambridge area apartment if you hold a lease through the summer.
• Other: You should also include basic expenses such as food, phone and utilities, transportation costs to and from work. PERSONAL EXPENSES SUCH AS ENTERTAINMENT, CREDIT CARD DEBT, CLOTHING, AND VACATION TRAVEL ARE NOT ELIGIBLE EXPENSES.