A low unemployment rate and fewer students have enabled students nationwide to find themselves in a very good position as they seek and secure summer internships.

Just look at what one student who has agreed to work for Ernst & Young in Milwaukee will receive. For a three-month audit department assignment, he will make between $8,000 and $10,000, receive top-notch training from one of the top firms in the world, and even travel to Disney World for a conference--all expenses paid, of course.

The odds look favorable, too, for long-term job prospects, since Ernst & Young reports it hires about 90 percent of the firm's interns.

Recruiting tactics on campus also swings in the students' favor. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, students used to pay $30 each to be listed in a database for potential employment. Because it is an employees' market, businesses who previously relied on the database have now chipped in $50,000 to list all students so they can more easily choose the best candidates and make the database readily available to everyone.