Are unpaid internships an exploitation of students, or are they gaining valuable experience? There’s a huge list of internship jobs, and as the article makes very clear: “Compensation: ‘non-pay’”. Except, perhaps, a stipend for travel. So, the rhetorical question is this: “Is is out-and-out exploitation, or a beneficial opportunity to work closely with mentors in one’s future field of endeavor?” To me, with a sister working unpaid internships, it’s an issue not to be taken lightly. Is she gaining real-world knowledge and useful contacts? Or is she being taken advantage of as an unpaid worker?
The article lays side-by-side the complaints and benefits, including examples of lawsuits where unpaid interns won millions of dollars for their trouble. There aren’t many of them, though, simply because people are hesitant to file complaints -after all, they're relying on the company to provide a reference. The defendants in the article say that they give their interns valuable information and that they leave with something useful. They also mention that profit company internship programs must pass a test that emphasizes training. They also placate their workers by saying that the intern does not replace the employee. Both arguments sound good, especially since their juxtaposed with each other. But the question is, which one is the truth? It seems with the last sentence, our article supports the idea that unpaid internships are not all that great -especially when one needs to pay the rent. 
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