Cover letter for internship: a full sample, a template and examples

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Example

Jordan Ellis

Columbus, OH

jordan.ellis@example.com

(614) 555-0147

November 9, 2026

Priya Raman

Marketing Insights Manager

Larkspur Foods

Columbus, OH

Re: Marketing Analytics Intern, Summer 2027 (posting MA-2027-04)

Dear Ms. Raman,

I am applying for the Marketing Analytics Intern position for summer 2027 that Larkspur Foods posted on Handshake. Your posting mentions the launch of your new snack line in 40 more stores next spring, and measuring how shoppers respond to a launch like that is exactly the work I want to learn. I am a junior at Northfield State University, majoring in marketing with a minor in statistics.

This fall, in my consumer research course, I led a team of four that surveyed 412 shoppers at two Columbus grocery stores about how they choose snacks. I cleaned the data in Excel, built the charts in Tableau and presented our findings to the store manager, who moved two displays based on our results. Outside class, I run the Instagram account of our campus marketing club: over two semesters, I grew it from 600 to 1,450 followers by posting on a weekly schedule and tracking which formats were saved and shared.

I want to intern at Larkspur because you sell in the very stores where I did my research, and because your posting asks for the tools I use every week: Excel, Tableau and survey software. I would bring the habit of checking numbers twice and the ability to explain them to people who are not analysts. I am available full time from May 24 to August 13, 2027.

My resume is attached. I would welcome the chance to talk about how I could help track the launch this summer. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Jordan Ellis

This internship cover letter answers a specific posting and says so in the first line, with the exact title and term. The second paragraph proves two skills with numbers from a class project and a campus club, the third explains why this company and not another one, and the last asks for the next step: a conversation.

To adapt this sample cover letter for internship applications in your own field, change three things: the fact about the company in the opening, the project in the second paragraph and the reason in the third. Those lines make the letter impossible to send to anyone else.

Your resume lists your major, your classes and your activities. The cover letter connects them to one internship. A hiring manager reading intern applications does not expect years of experience: they want to see that you understand the role, that you can already do part of it, and that you will show up ready to learn.

• It answers the posting: on Handshake, LinkedIn, Indeed or the company's careers page, or through your school's career center.
• It fills the gaps of a student resume: a project that deserves more than one bullet, a change of major, the reason you want this industry.
• It shows how you write: for many internships, the letter is the first writing sample the team sees.

Should you send one when the application says “optional”? Yes, unless the portal has no place for it. CareerOneStop, the career site of the U.S. Department of Labor, notes that many employers do not ask for a cover letter, but recommends a tailored one for each position when you do write one.

1. Read the internship posting twice and underline the tasks, the tools and the skills it asks for.
2. Find one recent fact about the employer: a product launch, a new office, a campaign, a report. One is enough for the opening.
3. Pick two proofs from your resume that answer the posting, with a number if you can: a sample size, a deadline, a grade, a result.
4. Write three or four short paragraphs, one idea per sentence. CareerOneStop suggests about 200 to 400 words.
5. Use the words of the posting: if it says “data visualization,” write “data visualization,” not a synonym. Many employers screen applications with an applicant tracking system (ATS).
6. Proofread every name: the company, the hiring manager, the internship title. A wrong name is the mistake people notice first.

This template follows the same structure as the sample. Replace every bracket with your own details, then read the letter out loud: if a sentence is something you would never say in the interview, cut it.

The structure stays the same from one industry to another. What changes is the proof in the middle paragraph and the vocabulary of the posting. These intern cover letter examples are the paragraphs that change: keep your own greeting, closing and signature around them.

Internships exist so students can get experience, and recruiters know it. Your proof comes from somewhere else: coursework, group projects, clubs and sports, volunteer work, a part-time job in retail or food service, a personal project. Give each one an action and a result, the same way you would for a job.

Your resume carries the rest. See our resume with no work experience and our high school student resume examples.

Pay rarely belongs in an internship cover letter, but the rules shape what you can expect. According to the U.S. Department of Labor's Fact Sheet #71, a for-profit employer must pay interns who are, in reality, employees. Courts decide with a seven-factor “primary beneficiary test”: among other things, whether the internship is tied to your education or academic credit, and whether it complements the work of paid staff rather than replacing it.

• If the internship is for academic credit, say so in your opening or closing paragraph, with the term, so the employer knows your school is involved.
• If the internship is paid, do not mention pay in the letter. The offer stage is the time to discuss it.
• For nonprofits and public agencies, the Department of Labor notes that unpaid internships where the intern volunteers without expecting pay are generally permissible.

Source: Fact Sheet #71: Internship Programs Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, Wage and Hour Division, updated January 2018.

• Through Handshake or a careers portal: upload the letter as a PDF named “Jordan-Ellis-Cover-Letter.pdf,” not “cover letter final 3.”
• By email: put the internship title and term in the subject line, write a shorter version of the letter in the body and attach the resume and the full letter as PDFs.

• One page: three or four paragraphs, about 200 to 400 words.
• The same font as your resume, 10 to 12 points, with standard margins.
• A professional email address: your name, not a nickname or your high school account.
• A file you can open anywhere: PDF, unless the posting asks for Word.

For the details, read our guide on how long a cover letter should be.

• Sending the same letter to 30 companies with only the name changed.
• Forgetting the internship title, the term or your graduation year.
• Writing only about what the internship will do for you, and nothing about what you bring.
• Opening with “My name is...”: your name is already in the header.
• Listing adjectives (“hardworking, passionate, detail-oriented”) instead of one result that proves them.
• Repeating your resume line by line.
• Misspelling the hiring manager's name or the company.

Once the letter is sent, get ready for the next step: the first question of most interviews is “Tell me about yourself,” and our guide on how to answer “tell me about yourself” shows how to answer it as a student. You can also check that your resume gets through screening software with the AI resume checker.