Cisco

Employees are intelligent and hardworking. Most people are pretty self-reliant, and no one in my group was a micro-manager. I never met a jerk during my 3-month internship.

Work-life balance is good. My immediate group made it a point to have a short monthly bonding (a lunch out or a short morning hike). University Recruiting was very active in hosting events and trying to keep it "fun" and keep interns happy. The department had occasional mixers and off-sites. It didn't mean much to me then, but now that I work in a stingy company, I appreciate that my group at Cisco was able to afford that and made a conscious effort to do so.

Intern experience varies between a lot of people. I knew some interns that were extremely happy with their work and felt like what they did mattered. Others felt like they were recruited as an intern just to go through the motions, or to do mindless work that didn't really exercise their skills or teach them anything. I think you just have to get lucky with your group.