This article is an excerpt from The Internship Bible  by Mark Oldman and Samer Hamadeh

You have decided to apply to some internships. But your GPA is less than stellar and your college didn't come close to cracking the top colleges list. Add to that the fact that you have taken few courses relating to the industry in which you want to work.

No hope? Should you invest in a spatula and head to the nearest burger joint?

If you were applying to a top grad school, the answer might be a hearty "yes." Grad schools are notoriously interested in their applicants' grades, courses, and college reputation.

But internships are a different bag. Unlike "ivory tower" admissions committees, internship coordinators are more flexible in deciding whom they will select.

To be sure, some internship programs impose a minimum grade-point-average, although such requirements are relatively rare. The CIA, for example, seeks undergraduates with at least a 2.75 GPA, while the Environmental Protection Agency draws the line at a 3.0 GPA. Moreover, a few programs also scrutinize the coursework of their applicants. The auction house Butterfield & Butterfield favors art history majors, and The Washington Post seeks out students who have taken classes in journalism. And every now and then, one runs across an internship that seems to have a disproportionately high representation of students from the Ivy League and other top schools.

But with most internships, application requirements are typically looser.

According to the vast majority of internship coordinators, the deciding factor is often an applicant's attitude. Specifically, coordinators use cover letters and interviews to gauge an applicant's motivation and energy. Organizations want interns who are fired-up and who will accept all assignments or ask for more during slow periods. Says the internship coordinator at Rolling Stone magazine in New York, "We look for applicants who want to learn every aspect of magazine publishing . . . [ones who are] inquisitive and enthusiastic, even when carrying out clerical work."

Counterbalancing the "go-getter" attitude, applicants must also show they realize that as interns, they will be temporary observers, oftentimes in a sensitive, hierarchical institution. Consequently, coordinators highly prize interns who display diplomacy and discretion. Interns have to know when to check their enthusiasm and assume the role of low-key team-player.

The importance of intern discreetness is best illustrated by the experience of a former intern at the White House. During his summer at the world's most powerful address, the intern kept a small camera in his pocket, just in case he came upon a photo opportunity with a bigwig. As luck would have it, one day the Vice President walked by the office in which the intern was working. Armed with a loaded Minolta, the intern pounced, begging the Vice President to pose with him for a picture. Although he was late for a meeting, the Veep begrudgingly complied. The intern got his way, but days later the story was relayed to his supervisor, who considered it a serious breach of White House protocol. Not surprisingly, the intern lost the faith of his supervisor, who distanced himself from the intern for the rest of the internship.

The key for internship applicants is to play up not only their enthusiasm, but also their professionalism and maturity. As the internship coordinator at Lucasfilm in San Rafael, Calif., says, companies "don't want people with pixie dust in their eyes."

It is essential for prospective interns to understand the importance of the attitude they display in their cover letters and interviews. It will go a long way—often further than the GPA—toward securing a rewarding internship.