Joe:
1) Your GPA is not poor. It isn’t stellar, but I have dozens of advisees that would kill for your 2.61 GPA. Some would kill for a 2.0. And I assure you that they, and you, will get really good jobs when you graduate.
2) Summer internships, on the other hand, are notoriously difficult to get. We dump everyone in school out at the same time along with millions of high school students, and the companies just get flooded with requests. Go to http://lowery.tamu.edu and click on Section K, then on anything and everything under Section 1. Read anything that might help you look better to an employer.
3) Go to our jobs website (email me if you have lost the address if you are from A&M) and see what job offers have come in recently. They were looking for specific talent, but they might also have internships, or be able to put one together if you write and send them an impressive resume.
4) Go to the civil engineering internship web page and see what’s listed there. Again, email me if you can’t find it. Lowery@tamu.edu.
5) Decide where you would like to work, if you have a preference. Perhaps in your home town where you can live at home. Get the phone book out and dig out all of the engineering firm addresses or put “engineering companies in college station” for example and get their addresses. Make sure you know what they do, and send them a copy of your resume, saying you are a current civil engineering student at TAMU and are hoping to widen your practical experience with an internship in construction (or structures or surveying or whatever they do that you would actually want to do over the summer).
6) Be sure to read Section 2 on getting your resume in order. Make it 2 or more pages long and put a photo of yourself on the front pate, along with anything else that they will remember when they go through 60 other resumes. List references on there, including me.
7) I will post this on my suggestions list, and add things here as I think of them, on section 8.d.
Good luck, and let me know how things go.
L^3