AI Portfolio for University Students 2026: Complete Pre-Graduation Strategy

## 1. University Student Advantage Time, academic resources, low error cost, network, discounts/scholarships, career pivot flexibility — all favor students over professionals for portfolio building. ## 2. 4-Year Plan - Year 1: Python + first projects - Year 2: Coursera ML + first internship application - Year 3: Advanced DL + big company intern - Year 4: Capstone + job search ## 3. Turkish Internship Programs Trendyol, Getir, Hepsiburada, Turkcell, Turkish banks (Isbankasi, Garanti, YapiKredi, Akbank). ₺25-50K monthly stipend. ## 4. Big Tech Programs Google STEP, Microsoft Explore, Meta University, Amazon SDE — $7-9K monthly (US). ## 5. Erasmus + EU TU Munich, ETH/EPFL, KTH, TU Delft — strong AI programs. ## 6. Portfolio Components 10+ GitHub, Kaggle Expert+, paper/hackathon, 1-2 internships, open source PRs. ## 7. Conclusion 4-year disciplined plan delivers junior AI Engineer role at graduation. Turkish market 2026 strong demand.