This article is an excerpt from the book Guide to College Majors

Have you ever wondered how people translate their majors in, say, Political Science or English, to actual careers in, say, Broadcast Journalism or Magazine Editing? Well, chances are at least some of them do it through internships and co-operative education programs.

Internships and co-operatives both offer the opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge to the real world, in a real work environment-very important since the gap between the college world and the real world can often seem insuperable. Ever wonder how you can get a job without experience, and how you can get experience without a job? It's a Catch-22 that you can overcome by getting an internship or co-op. These experiences also offer you the chance to test out a career path and decide if you truly like it. And if you don't, you'll still have time to change your mind.

An internship is a position held within an actual company that will offer you hands-on experience with the type of work you may eventually choose to do. Internships are most often offered during summer break, but can also be available during the academic year. They can be as short as a few weeks or as long as a few months or more. Some are part-time positions. They are a fantastic way to experience firsthand what goes on in a business that interests you. The bad part: They're often (but not always) unpaid. As a college student, though, you should value experience over personal profit. You can research several hundred of the most selective and best paying internships in the nation and world in The Internship Bible.

Co-ops - cooperative education programs - are similar to internships, although these generally pay fairly well. Co-ops are usually held by engineering or business students (but can also be held by those in other fields), and they usually take place during both the summer and the school year. If you choose to co-op during the school year, you'll probably extend your college stay anywhere from a semester to a year. Like internships, co-ops offer hands-on experience within your field of study, and in most cases you'll be treated as a real employee - you'll work full days and often be involved in actual projects. It's worth repeating: Co-oping offers a fantastic opportunity to get experience in your field, and many companies hire their co-ops after graduation. Some of the more prestigious companies hire only former co-ops.

While co-ops are usually major-specific (i.e., an electrical engineer will co-op in an electrical engineering company), internships are often not. In fact, it's sometimes possible to have internships in fields unrelated to your major. A warning, though: As with any job, you should investigate the duties an internship requires. The term "internship" is sometimes used too liberally (i.e., dishonestly), and a month-long stint stuffing envelopes or making photocopies isn't going to get you very far. Be sure the internships you consider offer work experience that will be worth talking about in interviews when you're looking for you first "real" job.

Other opportunities for learning outside the classroom include capstone courses, which are industry-sponsored projects that require students to collaborate and work in teams to solve specific real world problems. Your college might offer additional opportunities with different names, and you should investigate these.

The bottom line is that prospective employers and grad school admissions committees give high regard to internship and co-op experiences. A Chinese proverb explains what an internship (the real kind) or a co-op on your resume communicates to a potential employer or a graduate/professional school admissions committee: "Tell me and I will forget; show me and I will remember; involve me and I will understand." Co-ops and internships give you the opportunity to practice what you've learned - to see firsthand how all those textbook chapters play out in real life. They demonstrate that you're committed to learning about your profession and that you took the initiative to gain real world experience in your field. Your knowledge isn't just book-knowledge; you've invested time and energy into learning about your field firsthand. Prospective employers and grad school admissions committees will definitely notice these experiences - and will notice them even more if you can clearly articulate what you took away from them. So pay attention.