At an internship, the paycheck is the small part. What you absorb is the real salary.

An early job pays in two currencies and only one of them appears on the payslip. The money is usually small and the access is not: real projects, real constraints, and a view of how decisions actually get made, which no course describes well. That second currency compounds, while the first is spent by Friday.

Treat the placement as the point rather than a stepping stone to a reference. Ask to sit in on what you are not required to attend. Write down what you learned each week, because it will blur faster than you expect.