DVDizzy Forum

I searched UD and was surprised not to find a topic on this. The Disney College Program is a paid internship program for student currently enrolled in college. They can work at one of the American parks (and get paid at least minimum wage, depending on the "role"), stay at nearby housing, and take up to two of a handful of Disney courses, two of which are eligible for credit from ACE (the American Council for Education, I think?), as well as online courses from other colleges. I believe international students are also eligible for this. They're recruiting for fall (August through January) right now, so if any of you are interested, get started soon! http://disney.go.com/disneycareers/disneycollegeprogram

Has anyone on here participated in the Disney College Program? Has anyone applied? On another Disney forum, there's a big old thread about this with people swapping interview tips, so it seems fairly well known.

I just applied for the Disneyland program on the 20th and had my phone interview today. I think if I'm accepted, they're going to put me in custodial. The interviewer seemed the most interested in custodial and ticket selling. I hope I get in ticket selling. One of my childhood friends got in for the spring advantage, and she's in Quick Service Restaurants. Anyone else out there in the program/finished with the program/applying for the program?

I find it extremely confusing. Yet, it sounds amazing.

Yeah, it's kind of confusing. Sorry, I was trying to condense a lot of info into a short post. The link makes it clearer. But, the gist of it is that if you are in college right now (taking more than 4 units, I think), you are eligible to apply for the Disney College Program, in which you could intern either at Disneyland or Walt Disney World while taking exclusive Disney College courses. The courses don't look too great to me, because they seem to be aimed at mostly business majors. The paid internships are just regular Disney parks jobs, although I believe that you can intern as an "atmosphere character" or performer at WDW. For the Disneyland program, you get paid at anywhere from $8.36-$11.? an hour and are guaranteed 28-40 a week. I'm not sure what the WDW rates are, but I've read about people complaining they just want cheap labour over there, so I'm guessing it's below minimum wage?

Just to clear up the whole college thing, they don't expect you to continue taking your regular college courses when you're in the program. You'd probably have to take the whole semester off. You can take local classes or online courses if you want, but you can only take up to two of the Disney-offered courses (you can find the syllabus somewhere through the link). This is great for me, because I missed the deadline to apply to my transfer college, so I have an empty semester.

You apply online, after watching an e-presentation. Then you take an online interview (I think most people pass it), and if you pass it, then you're invited to a phone interview. You find out 3-4 weeks after the phone interview if you made the program.

Oh, and another thing, the housing isn't free, but it's fairly reasonable, considering the wages.

After completing the College Program, you can continue doing the College Program (you have to reapply and be accepted) for as long as you are still "in college." I saw some people online stay in the College Program for as many as 6 times (and still going!). After completing the program, you're also eligible to apply to Disney Professional Internships, but I think you have to have certain college experience for this. I don't know too much about Disney Professional Internships, except that it's more of a "real" internship, and it pays more, I think.

Anyway the link in the first post says all of this and more, but with pictures!