Career
When unpaid work is worth doing, and when it is not
Unpaid work can genuinely open a field, and it can also be ordinary work that somebody has stopped paying for.
Volunteering at a non-profit is lawful and often valuable, particularly for building a record in a field you are entering without one. What it provides is references, demonstrable work and a network, and those are real.
Unpaid internships at for-profit companies are a different question. Federal rules examine who primarily benefits, looking at whether training is genuinely educational, whether it is tied to a formal programme, and whether the intern displaces a paid employee. An unpaid internship doing the work of a paid role generally does not meet them.
Either way, the value depends on the work being visible. Something you can point to — a project, a portfolio piece, a named responsibility, somebody willing to speak for you — is what converts into employment. Hours alone do not.
Set a term at the start. Open-ended unpaid arrangements drift, and the conversation about converting to paid work is far easier at a date agreed in advance than one raised months later.
What to do next. Agree what you will produce and for how long before starting, and ask at the outset what a paid route would look like.
studentaid.gov outranks this page. Rules, figures and dates change
between academic years. This is written to help you read the official sources, not to
stand in front of them. Start there.
Nothing here is a determination. We cannot tell you what you qualify
for, and no website can. The programme and the office that runs it decide that, after
you apply.
Still have a question?
Describe what you are trying to work out and a member of the team will answer, or direct you to the office that makes the decision.