What is the Disney College Program?

For the past four years I have known that I wanted to do the Disney College Program. Throughout those years I have shared this goal with people and found that they either knew someone who did the program and knew exactly what the program entails or they have never heard of the program before. For the people who had never heard of the program I would quickly reply with “It’s a paid internship at Walt Disney World”. In reality the Disney College Program is so much more than that. 

The Disney College Program, also referred to as DCP, is a paid internship at Walt Disney World or Disney Land. I will be participating in the program at Walt Disney World. On my application I specified this location. 

There are four different time periods to chose when to do your program:
Fall Advantage: May - January
Fall: August - January
Spring: January - May
Spring Advantage: January - August
There are separate application times for Fall/Fall Advantage and Spring/Spring Advantage. On your application you choose your preference. I put Fall Advantage as my first preference, but also put Fall just in case. I ended up being accepted for my first choice, Fall Advantage.

There are three main components of the Disney College Program: 

Living 

Disney provides housing to all of the participating college programers. The rent is subsidized and is taken right out of your paycheck weekly. The apartments come fully furnished. You have the option of sharing the apartment with 1-7 other college programers. There are four apartment complexes to choose from: Vista Way, Chatham Square, Patterson Court, and The Commons. 

I will be doing a more in-depth review of each apartment complex after I start my program. I also will be uploading a video of my apartment tour.

Learning 

Disney also gives college programers the opportunity to take Disney University courses free of charge. The only thing you have to pay for are any course materials needed. These courses are broken up into two categories, Collegiate Offerings and Seminar Offerings. 

Collegiate Offerings are credit courses. They involve papers and projects similar to a course taken at college. These courses are eleven weeks long and meet for four hours each week.

Seminar Offerings are non-credit courses. They do not involve projects or papers. Seminars are eight weeks long meeting for two hours once a week. This is the type of course I plan on taking while on the program. I will be registering in a couple of weeks and hopefully will be able to register for Exploring Disney Heritage and Exploring Marketing. I will also sharing my experience in these classes. 

I encourage you to click here to learn more about the courses through the syllabuses.

Earning 

A major part of this program is working! Upon acceptance you will be notified of your role and pay rate. The pay rate is close to minimum wage. Just remember that this is an internship and majority of internships are un-paid. You will be scheduled 30-40 hours a week depending on your role. From reading and talking to former college programers I learned that there are many opportunities to pick up extra shifts, which is a great opportunity for people who want more hours or want to experience another work location. 

You find out your "home" work location when you check-in. You could be working at one of the four parks, one of the two water parks, a resort, or at Downtown Disney. I personally would love to work on Main Street at Magic Kingdom, Roaring Fork at Wilderness Lodge, or Captain Cooks at the Poly. That being said I wouldn't mind any of the possible locations.