<p>A few days back I was admitted to Northeastern and I am looking forward to attending it. I have one technical question, though, and as I am from Poland I do not have peers to ask about that.
So, let's assume I take the four-year option. 6 semesters I spend at school and 2 doing co-op. I would like to know if I pay for 6 or 8 semesters of education. It's seems quite obvious to me that the former is correct, however, I would like to have that confirmed.</p>
<p>Even with a 4-yr option you will still need to complete 8 semesters of school in order to graduate and will need to pay for 8 semesters. Co-op does not take place of classes and the total amount of classes you take will still be the same as what you would take in 8 semesters but you take some of them in the summer and so it is spread out differently. Typically a 4-yr student would only have 1 co-op. Also, co-ops typically last 6 months, they are taken during half of a summer and a full semester. You then take summer classes to make up for the semester(s) that you do not take classes while on co-op.</p>
<p>See this sample schedule.</p>
<p>[Experiential</a> Education > How Co-op Works > Four- and Five-Year Schedules](<a href=“http://www.northeastern.edu/experiential-learning/coop/howcoopworks/schedule.html]Experiential”>http://www.northeastern.edu/experiential-learning/coop/howcoopworks/schedule.html)</p>
<p>Actually, whether you choose the 4 year or 5 year coop option, you will still spend 8 senesters in class and pay 8 semesters of tuition (ignoring AP credits etc.).</p>
<p>After freshman year, you do not have the traditional summer vacation. Check out this site under “How it works”:
[Northeastern</a> College of Business Administration - Cooperative Education](<a href=“http://www.cba.neu.edu/ugrad/co-op/]Northeastern”>http://www.cba.neu.edu/ugrad/co-op/)</p>
<p>scansmom: You beat me to it! :)</p>
<p>TomSr - all that matters is that they get answers; the co-op thing can be very hard to understand… :)</p>
<p>Thank you for quick responses, guys.</p>
<p>However, there’s one thing that still confuses me. According to the first link ([Experiential</a> Education > How Co-op Works > Four- and Five-Year Schedules](<a href=“http://www.northeastern.edu/experiential-learning/coop/howcoopworks/schedule.html]Experiential”>http://www.northeastern.edu/experiential-learning/coop/howcoopworks/schedule.html)) I would do only one co-op. Here [Northeastern</a> College of Business Administration - 4 Year Co-op Models](<a href=“http://www.cba.neu.edu/ugrad/bsba/co-op-models/4year/]Northeastern”>http://www.cba.neu.edu/ugrad/bsba/co-op-models/4year/) it says I would do two. Is it a mistake, am I getting it wrong or do I simply get to choose?</p>
<p>Hmmm! Very observant. The first table is a general one for the university. The second table is for business, the school I am familiar with.</p>
<p>The schedule showing only one coop has several vacation breaks. It is confusing I admit. Maybe they are trying to show the flexibility of the schedule. If you take the 4 year option, you will normally have 2 coop periods as in the second example.</p>
<p>Well, as I picked College of Business Administration I feel a great relief right now. Two co-ops would be just right for me. On the contrary, having just one would make me feel like I wasn’t taking advantage of what NEU has to offer.</p>
<p>TomSrOfBoston, would you mind answering a question or two about CBA? I am especially interested in the kind of companies one can do co-op at. Obviously, NEU lists the big name companies on its website. However, I wonder if, let’s say, the average company one could do co-op at is a good one or does it happen that instead of valuable experience someone wastes biggest part of his or her co-op.
Oh, also, I am not really sure how the companies for co-ops are assigned? Do the academic results decide if someone is sent to a Fortune 500 company and someone else not or are there any other factors?</p>
<p>^^I graduated from Northeastern more years ago than I care to admit so I am not up on what companies provide current coop jobs. </p>
<p>One thing that has not changed since my day, I believe, is how a student gets a coop job. The jobs are not assigned. After meeting with your coop advisor and their review of your interests and record, you will be given options for existing coop positions. An interview will be scheduled with that company. You may be competing for the job with other coop applicants. This is like the real world. If your advisor sees you as eager and motivated, s/he may recommend you for a “better” company. </p>
<p>As for the actual coop experience, it is what you make it. I inteviewed for a coop job with a startup high tech firm in Cambridge. It was in a dumpy building, run by hippies. I actually smelled marijuana smoke in the building! The pay was low and they offered shares of company stock to make up for it. I decided not to pursue it. The company’s name was Lotus! Six months later they came out with Lotus 1-2-3, the forerunner of Excel. Damn, that was a LONG time ago and I still can’t laugh about it. 
The student that took the job is probably retired and living in Aruba now.</p>
<p>Just one qt, so would i end up paying 54,000$ every year even with co-op?</p>
<p>^You pay by semester. So if you’re only taking one semester of classes one year, that year you’d only pay half of that.</p>
<p>I am a Junior who’s extremely interested in applying to NEU in the fall. If I were to get in, and chose the five year plan, would I only get a break during Summer II in my Senior year after my Freshman summer break?</p>
<p>Maybe. People do things differently, so it’s hard to say “yes, you only get a summer break freshman year and summer II senior year”. </p>
<p>I ended up doing only 2 co-ops in 5yrs, which means I always have a summer session off. Some people manage to get in enough credits that they don’t need to do one of their summer sessions. A lot of people spend their summer session on dialogue, and 6 weeks of travel doesn’t really feel like being in school anyway. Lastly, summer classes are awesome and really laid-back, so even if you do have to take classes, it’s very different than regular semester.</p>
<p>Point is there are lots of options and a lot of flexibility in your summers… I wouldn’t worry too much about summer scheduling, we all find ways to make it work.</p>
<p>My daughter was accepted into the Business Administration program for Jan. From their website, two co-ops are required. The 4 year option shown doesn’t allow for any breaks. The two five year options shown have a student taking three co-ops with three breaks in summer one or two, depending on when the co-op was taken. I suppose if a student only wanted to do only two co-ops with the five year program, he/she would have more vacation time. The B.A. website also shows that freshman stay for the first summer one session. Can current students comment about which program most students follow? I also wonder with the three co-ops and only one two month break at a time(summer one or two) if it would be difficult to find jobs at home for the two months when other college students have three months off.</p>
<p>It is very difficult to get a part-time job if you are only home for one summer (as in summer I or summer II), although obviously expections exist. The “typical” student who does 3 co-ops only get the full summer after freshman year off. If you do two co-ops in 4 years, you probably will only get that summer off (or maybe less, depending on your required courses). Doing one co-op in 4 years or two co-ops in 5 years obviously lets you have more summers (referring to a 2 month summer), but it depends. A lot of people choose to stay in Boston anyway, because their part-time jobs are here or their leases are for a full year.</p>
<p>Moreover, you’ll find that even if you get to go home for two months, most college students are taking classes anyway. It’s not fun at all to go home, not be able to get a job because you’re only home for two months, and discover that all of your friends are away taking summer classes anyway.</p>