According to a recent article from Inside Higher Education:
“Only 14 percent of the 2,239 undergraduates around the country who replied to a summer survey conducted by Inside Higher Ed and College Pulse, with support from Kaplan, felt that they had received good service from their school’s career center (Just 2 percent felt they had received bad customer service from the career center, and the rest didn’t feel strongly either way.)”
This is important, because employers are more likely to hire college graduates with practical work experience.
If a college does not provide these opportunities to students, then the student has to take initiative in finding them. It's not impossible–just more work for the student.
When we advise students on creating their college list, we recommend they research the university's career center in depth to find out how much support they will have in finding internships.
Location is a key consideration, of course. If you are planning to study computer science, then universities near Silicon Valley will have a wider variety of internships in the field. Similarly, if you're planning to study finance, then attending university near Wall Street could yield better networking opportunities.
So when you're creating your college list, remember to research the career center of a university. And rank your colleges according to how much their career centers can help you find internships!