Summer internships can be some of the most rewarding work you can experience during your college career. Besides the overall competitiveness in the application process, after attaining that dream internship can be a struggle in itself. As I look around me in Washington, D.C., it seems that 90 percent of my peers are working in an office that is unpaid, not offering any sort of subsidy. This may seem unusual, especially to the generations ahead of us who didn't need experience, much less a college degree, to enter the workforce.

Living in the city can be expensive. Most people can barely make it by on their paycheck. Imagine attempting to do that with zero income while paying thousands for dorm living, public transportation and food. After all of these costs, the stock photos of interns partying from dusk to dawn every single night is not even close to the reality most unpaid interns face.

I'm lucky that my family lives near D.C., making unpaid internships affordable for me. While commuting for the summer may still cost around $800, it is a figure I could afford to pay. In my first summer here, I took on a part-time job working retail on the weekend and at night to supplement my 90-minute commutes. By the end of the summer, I was working nine-hour days, seven days a week. It's not fun and games, but I received valuable experience on Capitol Hill and was able to meet and connect with extraordinary people.

However, not everyone is able to have the opportunity to work this way over the summer. D.C. is a city full of nonprofits and government offices. While it's brimming of internships and fellowships, these offices are not required to pay their interns. Few do. This means if you aren't able to afford traveling and living in a new city, it automatically disqualifies you from the majority of D.C. internships. These unpaid internships are a privilege not for the most qualified, but rather the ones who are able to afford to sacrifice their time and (in most cases) their parents' money.

Unpaid internships are a luxury. It's an unfair system to those who are unable to pay for a summer in these major cities. When thousands of eager college students come into D.C. for internship season, the more affluent students have an immediate edge. It's sad that there are thousands more eager college students who are unable to come into D.C. to make a difference and gain the same experiences. There needs to be a change where internships are affordable for all to partake in. Ironically, that begins with a policy change, the kind that those students can't afford to make.