Best internship
Every year, a new crop of college students appears in Boston primed to tackle that eternally nagging question: what should I do with my life? Internships are one method of arriving at an answer. Companies, agencies, and political offices all over the city offer undergrads exposure to various realms of business, politics, and activism. Not to toot our own horns, but we're here to report that, having surveyed all the internship opportunities along the MBTA routes and beyond, you, dear readers, tell us you'd opt to hone your skills at the Phoenix Media/Communications Group (a/k/a the Boston Phoenix, WFNX, and Stuff@Night) - and not just because you'd get to pass the home of baseball's world champs on your way to work. Each semester and every summer, the company invites about 30 applicants to dive headlong into the daily grind of weekly journalism and take part in the publishing process, from generating ideas to lending reporters a hand to laying out the paper and Web site. Interns land positions in design, editorial, programming, marketing/promotion, sales, and information technology; the primary requirement is enrollment in a college or university. There aren't any monetary rewards for the work, but internships offer something far more valuable: experience. And there's the built-in opportunity to mingle with the fashionable, in-the-know staffers and show them what you can do. Many interns have gone on to work with the company or have maintained relationships as freelancers. The biggest perk? Show up as you are, no suit required.

Phoenix Media/Communications Group, www.bostonphoenix.com.