<p>More on the co-op front…</p>
<p>I just phoned the co-op office at Marquette to get a sense of co-op availability.</p>
<p>First, the economy has negatively affected the process, so availability of jobs NOW should not be taken as a predictor of availability in 1, 2, 3 years.</p>
<p>MU has a mandatory seminar offered to all sophomores in the first semester. It deals specifically with job-finding skills: resume, working job fairs, interviewing, etc. In that same semester there is a career fair in which employers meet prospects. There are online postings of opportunities and campus recruiting visits. Students can do mock interviews with co-op office staff to brush up. There is a TON of support for the student seeking a co-op but the student MUST show some initiative and have decent grades. The GE cutoff that Kickback mentions is 3.0, incidentally, and not 3.5.</p>
<p>She mentioned that some students feel the co-op is a gimme or entitlement. It is not. But nor is it for the elite. 40% of students co-op and another 30% intern. As the economy improves, these jobs will be available to students that show a thimbleful of initiative.</p>
<p>I agree with all of the info that beastman said; the GE 3.5 cutoff was there for the first round of applications on MU Career Manager, but there was also a second round that was 3.0.</p>
<p>Funny story - I went to the career fair, the first booth that I was just going to practice on, had no interest in, got offered a job on the spot.</p>
<p>Also, if you are going into industry, it is not necessary to get a co-op in the BME field. We had a presenter at the job-finding seminar who worked with a power company and had a 2-month internship at a BME company in AZ, and was hired by Baxter upon graduation.</p>
<p>That’s great, kickback. Keep us posted. As parents of prospectives we appreciate your in-the-trenches POV.</p>
<p>Wow, thanks, Kickback. You are giving us hope. Love the “got a job” comment. Good for you!</p>
<p>Also like the AZ intern comment. Son has an interest in the Pacific Northwest, and we even looked at maybe applying to UW, or even Arizona State, because of the amount of BME industries there. But we decided not to, because they are both big schools, and he’d prefer the size of Marquette. However, he is hopeful to maybe explore other parts of the country through internships and co-ops, if possible, without committing himself to those regions for grad school. Fantastic that Marquette offers such far reaching opportunities. </p>
<p>But I know son will be content with a Chicago or Milwaukee area internship/co-op, as he loves both places. I am hoping he’ll get to see some of Minnesota as well, or even Ohio, once he gets that ice in his veins.</p>