<p>Would any current students like to expound on their Co-op experience at RIT? What type of company did you work for? What area of the United States were you in? What type of work did you do? Was it a good learning experience? Thanks in advance!!</p>
<p>Not a current student (09 alum) but I am assuming that the information you want is more about the co-op experience then anything else.</p>
<p>The co-op experience is, by itself, a compelling reason to go to RIT. It allows (or forces) you to discover what you like in the workplace and then you can choose your later classload to prepare you for your job.</p>
<p>I worked at 4 companies during my time at RIT:</p>
<p>First Summer: Microsoft, Washington State
Second Summer: Citrix Systems, Florida
Third Summer: Laszlo Systems, SF Bay, California (startup)
Final summer: Truviso, SF Bay California (startup)</p>
<p>They were all tech jobs (software dev work mostly) and the last company hired me upon graduation.</p>
<p>My son is senior @ RIT, ANSA major in Golisano College. First co-op last summer was difficult to come by, even utilizing the school’s job fair. He landed something good at the 11th hour, but pay was low, considering it involved lengthy commute between Rochester and Buffalo. However, he gained solid experience and a blue chip name on the resume. That made a BIG difference when he started looking for second co-op in the fall. Because of the experience on the resume, he got much better volume of responses through the job fair and online registration system. Had several interviews, and landed a great position with top company (Cisco ) in San Jose where he is doing a double block co-op and enjoying Cali lifestyle for 6-9 months – and avoided winter in Rochester! Son is adamant that co-op needs to be part of everyone’s education, and that RIT has best organized co-cop system, after comparing notes with his other co-op colleagues from places like RPI, NEU & some of the CA state schools. As a result of his experience, my D has applied and been accepted to RIT (College of Engineering) for ChemE.</p>
<p>My daughter is interested in the game design & development program at RIT. According to the brochure on Coops - the degree is 4 years which includes 3 coop periods. Are these coops guaranteed? As the jobs can be anywhere - do we NOT pay tuition for the terms she is doing a coop?</p>
<p>Co-ops are required for credit (and thus graduation) but are not guaranteed (if you are asking if RIT will guarantee that a student will get a co-op). I believe they have a policy if students cannot find any co-op, but I know nothing about it.</p>
<p>The jobs must be closely related to their field of study. As an example, a Computer Science major is not able to get credit for data entry on computers. The specific requirements for other majors should be available on the college website (look for the student handbook).</p>
<p>Finally, you do not pay tuition for quarters spent on co-op. Effectively you are still a full-time student, but you are not paying for Room & Board (unless you continue to live on campus, which some do if the job is close) and you are not paying for classes.</p>
<p>My son has been accepted at RIT. We were wondering what the avg. co-op salary is. I know this will vary between majors and jobs but we’re looking for a ball park figure.</p>
<p>Actually, the RIT Co-op office keeps track of all the salaries, and provides a fair bit of data. They track averages both for co-op and for full time once students graduate.</p>
<p>Look here: [Students</a> - Salary Data | Office of Co-Op and Career Services](<a href=“http://www.rit.edu/emcs/oce/students/salary]Students”>Salary and Career Info | Career Services and Co-op | RIT)</p>
<p>Keep in mind that the salaries there are the Global average, so they are not accurate in high rent areas (say, the SF Bay area in California).</p>
<p>Thanks for the info.
I guess I’m confused if coops are required but not guaranteed - what happens if you can’t get one? I guess we’ll find out when we attend the admitted students open house.</p>
<p>Rachel</p>
<p>They can’t guarantee them because they can’t force employers to hire someone that they don’t want or if the students are not prepared. We heard at Drexel that there are several offers for every person in my son’s major but there are still kids that don’t get co-ops because they just don’t do the necessary paperwork/interviews to get the jobs. </p>
<p>Thanks for the link tabletcorry. I actually found that same information in a print out that we must have gotten when we visited last summer. I guess one could just assume a forty hour work week for 8 weeks?</p>
<p>rachelfran: Students not finding any co-op is relatively rare, as long as your standards are not too high, and you are a good student. What is much harder is finding an amazing co-op.</p>
<p>kathiep: The minimum number of hours for a co-op (on the quarter system, which will end soon) is 40 hour weeks for 10 weeks. Employers will sometimes require up to 12 weeks, especially if they are used to a semester long co-op.</p>
<p>(Keep in mind that my experience is that of a computer science student. Requirements may be different for other colleges.)</p>
<p>Hey,
how is the co-op at rit as compared to that at Northeastern?
Also how do students deal with the quarterly semester pattern at RIT ? Is is tougher than the normal semester pattern?
Please let me know
thanks in advance</p>
<p>^ and compared to Drexel and Georgia Tech’s co-op?</p>
<p>RIT is moving to a semester system in 2013. How will that affect the co-op program?</p>
<p>I cannot really compare co-op programs… I only went to college once.</p>
<p>Students deal with the quarter system in many different ways. Quite a few take co-ops during the winter quarter so they do not have to be there. Others like winter weather and take summer co-ops. Of course, all of this will change in a few years when they switch to semesters.</p>
<p>Also, I do not know how the semester change will affect co-ops as they havent really announced such things to us alumni (if anyone, they are still planning the switch)</p>
<p>My guess would be that the impact will be limited, as many companies work with other colleges and just have a standard 10-12 week program (which works with both quarter and semester systems.</p>
<p>RIT is switching to traditional semester from quarter system by the time any of the incoming freshmen class will start CO-ops. Northeastern did this several years agon, going from quarter to semester. There is no guarentee that RIT will handle it as well as Northeastern, but if I was you I would try to see if there are any Northeastern students around at the time they changed and what their thoughts were. I think it is going to be harder on Professers and Administrators who are used to dealing with teaching courses in 7 weeks and now will have to change the way they teach. It is going to be difficult for some. And costly to the college as well. There is a white paper somewhere on RIT page showing the cost if you are sneaky enough to search for it.</p>
<p>Any current RIT students care to tell if they were able to use any of their co-op money to pay your tuition etc. Or did it just cover expenses for the time you were co-op? Thanks</p>
<p>It depends a lot on where you coop, but you will usually end the quarter with at least some net gain.</p>
<p>I would say that RIT’s co-op program is invaluable. After my second and third co-ops I came back with cash in hand, which definitely helped a bit with tuition. To reiterate, you DO NOT pay tuition while on co-op.</p>
<p>My first co-op just sort of fell into my lap last minute when I wasn’t really looking for one. It was for a local school district and didn’t pay well, but I did learn more than I expected.</p>
<p>Second co-op was with Cisco Systems in Raleigh, NC. I would say it paid well for what it was ($20/hr). It was a VERY good learning experience, and they offer many co-ops jobs after graduation [co-ops and interns are an established facet of their full-time recruiting process]. I haven’t graduated yet, but the people who went with me and graduated got ~$75 offers. </p>
<p>Third and final co-op was with a small information security company in Washington, DC. It paid notably more than Cisco, and the work was interesting. The job has given me fantastic contacts and skills and an incredible understanding of how the infosec industry works.</p>
<p>^ how did you get those co-ops? On-campus recruitment or did you find them yourself? How competitive a process? Did you have other co-op offers?</p>
<p>Side question, can you describe your on-campus experience? Any feedback on majors, classes, housing, social life, etc. would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>A bit more on co-ops: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/rochester-institute-technology/867933-accepted-3.html#post12717918[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/rochester-institute-technology/867933-accepted-3.html#post12717918</a>
A bit about campus life: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/rochester-institute-technology/852507-life-rit.html#post11181856[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/rochester-institute-technology/852507-life-rit.html#post11181856</a> (in addition to what I said there, don’t forget about the hockey games which are as fun as any college sporting event I’ve ever been attended)</p>
<p>You’ll find more comments about those other details in the other threads. Generally speaking, it’s good to stay on the original topic for each thread so that data is easier to find.</p>