The numbers tell a good deal of the story.

During recent years, Liberty Mutual Holding Co. has doubled the number of interns it hires during the summer to more than 600, said Maura Quinn, manager of corporate university relations. About 90% of those interns receive full-time job offers, and about 80% of those who receive offers accept them, she said.

“The number continues to increase,” she said. “Our goal is to identify talent as rising seniors, bring them in as interns and convert that into full-time opportunities.”

In 2011, that meant extending offers to 91% of the seniors; 83% of those who received offers accepted full-time employment with the Boston-based mutual insurer.

Ms. Quinn explained that Liberty Mutual has 28 partnership colleges and universities from which it pulls its interns. The schools that participate in the program—which has been going on for more than a decade—are based on historical hiring, majors offered, locations and diversity of the student body, she said.

Liberty Mutual draws interns from various majors, including insurance and risk management programs and liberal arts.

A student accepted into the internship program would have a strong grade point average, have held leadership positions within extracurricular activities, and would typically be a member of student organizations that align with Liberty Mutual's goals, she said.

Once chosen as interns, students are placed in Liberty Mutual offices across the country, said Ms. Quinn.

The students work in nine functional areas across the business: actuarial, claims, finance and accounting, human resources, information technology, loss control, product management, sales, and underwriting, she said. The paid internships typically last 10 to 12 weeks, she said. In addition, students who work in the company's Boston headquarters are eligible for housing stipends, said Ms. Quinn.

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“It's been a huge success,” she said. “We really started scaling this to the national level in 2008. We have a dedicated internship manager, to make sure there's uniformity for all students involved across the country.”

Carolina Baca, a rising senior at the University of Georgia at Athens, is participating in the program this year.

“I'm currently a marketing major, and I am considering working toward a law degree,” she said. She said she hadn't considered insurance as a possible career path—not because of any negative feelings toward the industry but rather because she was not aware of what was out there beside sales.

“One of the things the really attracted me was strong focus on movement in different areas within Liberty Mutual,” said Ms. Baca, who is performing her internship in university relations, where she focuses on increasing marketing and media awareness for the interns and conducting efforts to attract talent for next year's internships.

“I'm interested on the focus of promotion from within,” she said.

Ms. Quinn said that last year, Liberty Mutual did a study of its interns. It found that as a source of hires, interns had a greater retention rate, were a source for minority candidates, and had more competitive performance ratings when compared to non-intern college hires.

“Managers saw the numbers are there. Numbers don't lie,” she said.

“I've really enjoyed my internship and I never thought I'd be working in insurance,” said Ms. Baca. “Now it's one of the things I'm really interested in.”