Forensic Accounting Internships in 2027: Where They Come From and How to Win One

Forensic accounting internships come from four places: the forensic teams at accounting and consulting firms, federal programs like the FBI Honors Internship Program, agency programs that visit campuses, and degrees that build an internship or practicum into the course plan. Openings are scarce, so start early, protect your GPA, and keep an audit internship ready as a backup.

Where Do Forensic Accounting Internships Come From?

There’s no single job board for this. The work sits in several places, and each one has its own rules. This table puts the routes side by side so you can see which ones fit where you are now.

You can chase several at once. Nothing stops you from joining the ACFE as a freshman, applying to the FBI as a junior, and picking a degree that gives you credit for an internship along the way.

How Hard Is It to Land a Forensic Accounting Internship?

Harder than an audit internship, and it helps to know why before you start applying.

A forensic managing director at Ankura Consulting Group, writing for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), says her career advisors warned her that these internships were scarce and highly competitive. A Big 4 internship guide from Extern agrees on the odds, putting forensic accounting inside advisory and calling those the most competitive spots.

Not every firm runs a forensic internship, so read each firm’s page before you assume either way.

None of this is a reason to give up. It’s a reason to apply to more than one kind of employer, and to have a plan B that still moves you toward the same career.

What Do Forensic Accounting Interns Actually Do?

It’s more routine than television suggests, and more interesting than you might fear. Forvis Mazars is a good example because its posting spells the work out.

Interns on the Forensics and Valuation team take part in investigations, litigation support and forensic consulting engagements, analyze financial and legal documents and potentially fraudulent transactions, and help reconstruct financial statements. The posting also lists valuation work, and the same group handles forensic accounting, litigation services and fraud investigations.

The traits the firm asks for are plain: time management, written and spoken communication, attention to detail, and the ability to work under deadlines. Travel can run up to 20% of the time.

Other firms in this corner of accounting run student programs too. Meaden & Moore, which has a Fraud and Forensic Services practice, describes its internship and entry-level programs as firsthand, on-the-job experience. MDD Forensic Accountants, which works with insurers, law firms and government entities, lists an Accounting Co-op Student Intern category on its careers page.

What One Intern Says About It

A former StoneTurn intern in New York City wrote in a Handshake review that the summer let them “work on a forensic accounting case from start to end”, which made the process and the work clear. Their advice to anyone curious about the field is to do a forensic internship.

What a Former Big 4 Manager Looks For

A poster on r/Accounting who came from Big 4 forensic accounting and investigations says they’ve managed interns and first-year consultants. They rate interns on attitude, attention to detail and a logical thought process, not on what they knew walking in. That’s a useful reset. You don’t need to master fraud schemes before you apply, though you should show you can learn them.

What Does the FBI Honors Internship Program Offer?

This is the best-documented route, so it’s worth knowing in detail. The FBI describes it as a full-time, paid summer internship, ideal for undergraduates between junior and senior year and for graduate students, and as a direct pipeline to full-time work. Auburn University’s School of Accountancy describes the same program as a 10-week paid internship.

You don’t need to be a forensic accounting major. The FBI’s own page features interns who worked white-collar cases with bank statements alongside forensic accountants, and others on cyber squads, so a business degree gets used.

Who Can Apply?

The FBI lists these requirements.

• You’re a U.S. citizen.
• You attend a U.S.-accredited school full time as an undergraduate, graduate or post-doctoral student.
• You hold a 3.0 or better cumulative GPA at application, during the process and through the internship.
• You pass the FBI’s background investigation and can receive a Top Secret clearance.

You’ll rank your top three preferred locations. They aren’t guaranteed, but they’re taken into account if you’re selected, and assignments are at field offices and headquarters.

What Does It Pay?

Interns are paid at the General Schedule (GS) 4 grade, or GS-5 if you have a bachelor’s degree and are enrolled in a full-time graduate program. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) 2026 table sets step 1 base pay at $31,103 a year for the lower grade and $34,799 for the higher, before locality pay. A summer internship earns a share of that.

The FBI says 60% of interns receive a full-time job offer after graduation. If you later want the forensic accountant job itself, the FBI’s own hiring page asks for 24 semester hours of accounting and prefers three to five years of experience, so the internship is a first step and not the whole path.

The application runs on the FBI Jobs site, which tells students to set a job alert so they hear when it opens.

What About Federal Pathways, the IRS and State Offices?

The FBI isn’t the only federal door. OPM runs Pathways, and its Internship Program gives students paid work in agencies and a look at federal careers.

You need to be enrolled at least part time. Each hiring agency runs its own internship program, so you’ll watch USAJOBS for specific postings. Interns who complete the program and meet its conditions may be eligible for noncompetitive conversion to a term or permanent federal job.

IRS Criminal Investigation takes a different approach. Its field offices bring a Citizen Academy to campuses, a day-long simulation of a mock criminal investigation. Students sharpen forensic accounting skills and get introduced to interviewing, surveillance and document analysis. It isn’t an internship, but it’s a fast way to see whether special agent work appeals to you. Colleges that want to host one can email the IRS.

State government is worth a search too. The Extern guide says the IRS, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), state comptroller offices and large nonprofits all hire accounting interns. Those roles may be general accounting, but they put you in a financial-integrity setting and build the audit foundation forensic employers like.

Which Degree Programs Include an Internship?

Some schools hand you the experience as part of the degree. Of the 65 programs we track, 13 record an internship, practicum or co-op: five master’s and eight bachelor’s. You can compare them on our forensic accounting programs with internships list. The table below shows what several of them say on their own pages.

Other schools offer routes of their own. Embry-Riddle’s Prescott campus, which counts forensic accounting among its forensic degrees, says its students can explore internships with government intelligence agencies like the FBI and the Central Intelligence Agency.

The University of New Haven has an internship director and career advisor who help graduate students secure internships. Saint Xavier University includes internship and mentorship opportunities in its MBA, and Franklin Pierce University sets aside a summer slot worth 2 to 4 credits that you can fill with an accounting internship. Lakeland University says students often land paid internships at local CPA firms as early as sophomore year.

Those details come from the schools, so ask each admissions office how placement works for your own plan. If you want more choices, our bachelor’s in forensic accounting list shows the full set of undergraduate programs, and the best forensic accounting programs page covers every level.

How Do You Win a Forensic Accounting Internship?

Most of what wins one is ordinary and within your control. A working order helps.

1. Protect your GPA. The FBI and Forvis Mazars both name a 3.0, and the Extern guide says most Big 4 firms want one too.

2. Take the accounting core and one fraud class. The FBI asks forensic accountants for 24 semester hours of accounting, and our forensic accounting courses guide shows what a fraud class covers.

3. Join the ACFE as a student. You’ll get access to the mentoring program, local chapter events and the career center and job board, where you can search for jobs or internships.

4. Read the firms’ forensic service pages. The former Big 4 manager above recommends this to learn the vocabulary before you walk in.

5. Go to recruiting events. The Extern guide calls on-campus recruiting the single biggest lever for Big 4 hiring, and it says to follow up with recruiters the same week.

6. Show you’ll sit for credentials. Forvis Mazars prefers interns who want to take the CPA exam, and the ACFE says earning the CFE credential sets you apart among recent graduates.

7. Apply early and to several routes. Firm, federal and school routes each run on a different calendar.

For the credential side, see the Certified Fraud Examiner guide and the forensic accountant career guide.

Should You Take an Audit Internship First?

Often, yes, and it isn’t a consolation prize.

The AICPA managing director mentioned earlier followed her advisors’ advice and took an 8-week PwC internship split between four weeks of audit busy season and four weeks of forensic projects. Seeing both let her decide forensic accounting was right, and she started in PwC’s forensic practice after finishing her degrees. She later earned the CPA and the Certified in Financial Forensics (CFF) credential.

The Extern guide points the same way. It says audit has the most summer spots and advisory, which includes forensic accounting, has the fewest, so an audit internship at a firm with a forensic practice keeps you in the building.

The takeaway is simple. An audit internship teaches you how financial records are built, which is exactly what you’ll later take apart. Use it to get close to the forensic team, ask questions, and let people know where you want to end up.

What Should You Do Next?

Pick two routes from the table near the top and write down what each one needs from you. Maybe it’s a 3.0 GPA and a fraud class for the FBI, and a resume for a firm. Then check the programs on our internship list, so your degree and your plan point the same way.

Expect detail once you land one. The Forvis Mazars posting lists document analysis and reconstructed financial statements, not courtroom drama. That’s good news, because the entry bar is care, curiosity and follow-through, and you can show all three before anyone hires you.