You should understand your internship expectations early on for several reasons:

1. Communication with your manager or peers is easier if you know what you expect from the start. There will be fewer unknowns and you will feel more comfortable asking questions because you know what is expected of you. 
2. Knowing your expectations will also allow you to plan and set goals for yourself. Interns that I worked with that had conversations about their expectations early on were able to prioritize their tasks, stay on track to finish their projects, and were oftentimes less stressed than those that did not understand what they needed to accomplish. 
3. If you know what is expected of you, you will know if you need to pivot and make changes to your workflow or project. The reality is that sometimes our ideas don’t work out the way that we envisioned, so if something is not working the way we wanted it to, you’re able to catch that early on and pivot because you know what you need to accomplish. It’s normal for you to scratch some ideas off that you originally had but just do not wait until the last minute because I’ve seen interns miss the mark on project expectations and oftentimes, their evaluations are affected by that. 
4. You will go into performance evaluations feeling positive because you did your due diligence to make sure that you had an understanding of what you needed to do and by when and if you did that successfully, you shouldn’t have to worry!