The Cost of an Unpaid Internship: Receipts

Welcome to Show the Receipts, a series where we ask interesting people to share exactly how much it costs to get shit done. No matter the task, we’re tracking every last dollar from start to finish. Up next: completing an unpaid internship in New York City.

Dazani, 21, had never been to New York City, but that didn’t stop her from pursuing her dreams and landing a prestigious summer internship with a celebrity stylist in Manhattan. The catch? It was an unpaid summer internship — and it was all the way across the country, meaning that she had to pay for transportation, rent, utilities, food, and everything else that she could possibly need while uprooting herself and moving to a new destination.

Dazani is from Arlington, TX and currently attends Texas Christian University. She studies fashion merchandising, is pursuing a minor in film and media studies, is president of the TCU fashion club, is in two honor societies, and has worked off-campus at a local vintage boutique part-time for the past three years. She spent the last semester studying abroad in Italy, and this summer she lived and worked at her first ever (again, unpaid) internship in the Big Apple.

New York City is one of the most expensive cities in the world – the average rent is $3,867 per month and the cost of living is only rising (and rising and rising), according to data from Apartments.com — but with some help from her friends and family members and a $5,000 scholarship, Dazani was determined to make it work.

Here’s the full cost breakdown.

Task: Completing an unpaid summer internship
Job: Celebrity stylist assistant intern
Location: New York
Timeline: Three months

The Receipts

Flights: $585
Rent: $800 per month, or $2,400 total
Utilities: About $79 per month, or $237 total
Food: $3,680
Miscellaneous shopping: $1,000
Bar: $1,300
Laundromat: $78
Total: $9,330

How I Did It

PS: Unpaid internships are tough, especially in an expensive city like New York. What made you agree to take one?
Dazani: I definitely was looking for paid internships, but the ones I was gravitating toward were all unpaid. I was looking at marketing internships and PR and other stuff but I knew I’d regret it in the long run if I didn’t take this styling internship opportunity. Styling has always been a dream of mine, so I was like, “I’ll just risk it.” It paid off — I really learned a lot and I enjoyed it.

PS: Where were you able to save money?
Dazani: I wanted to live in the city because my internship was based in Manhattan, but obviously the city is super expensive and I financially couldn’t afford that so I was like OK, let me look at New Jersey. My friend is from New Jersey and her mom commutes every day to the city and I heard a lot of people live in Jersey City, so I looked there. The commute was only 20 minutes and the train was really accessible. I went on Facebook groups and found a roommate.

My boss would also pay for our Ubers if we had to go to one side of New York to, for example, all the way to the Upper East Side. He also would cover the cost sometimes for our lunch or coffee, and he reimbursed us for things like subway transportation to and from the office. I also got paid for the shoots I assisted on with Harper’s Bazaar. The photographer who was in charge of those shoots would pay everyone on set $200 in cash, and I worked on two of those.

At TCU, you have to take an internship course that is required as part of your graduating credits and that costs $5,000. I received a scholarship for my internship, so I did not have to pay the $5,000.

PS: Did you have any assistance from family members?
Dazani: My aunt helped me with rent and my mom helped me with utilities and food. I barely had anything in my savings after coming back from Italy. I don’t like to ask people for money so I did feel bad, but obviously they’re not going to leave me out there in the city by myself helpless so I am really grateful for their help. I know it’s going to pay off in the long run because I’m a hard worker and I’m pursuing my dreams.

Final Thoughts

For Dazani, whether the $9,330 price tag was worth it is a hard question. “It was such a love and hate relationship because there were so many days where I just wanted to quit, and I would cry because I did feel sometimes I got overworked,” she says. “There were a lot of days where I was working 13 hours. I’d be getting up at 6 a.m and would get back home to Jersey City at like 9 p.m.”

Still, she’s glad she did it. “I’m so grateful for the experience — I learned a lot, I loved my boss, he was so fun and amazing. He’s really lenient and we could goof off with him all the time and he was really understanding.”

Come graduation, her dream job is to be a personal stylist or a creative director. “I feel like I have really good creative insight as well as leadership qualities,” she says.

Elizabeth Gulino is a freelance journalist who specializes in topics relating to wellness, sex, relationships, work, money, lifestyle, and more. She spent four and a half years at Refinery29 as a senior writer and has worked for House Beautiful, Complex, and The Hollywood Reporter.