<p>i do know that it depends on an individual student's performance, but are there a lot of positions available in the first place?</p>
<p>coz i saw the statistics and it seemed as though not a lot of students took a part in it.</p>
<p>is it because a majority of students aren't interest in doing the co op? (they already get a lot of hands on experience through the projects)</p>
<p>or is it because there aren't many co op potions available?</p>
<p>my financial plan to attend WPI depends heavily on doing co op after year 2 and using that money to fund myself for year 3 but what scares me is if i am able to find a position :s</p>
<p>current students and parents feel free to reply</p>
<p>oh and also comment on summer internships! are they plentiful and easy to get as well or not.</p>
<p>They told us that only about 3% of students do co-op because the students prefer to use summer internships and their experiences with IQP and MQP to gain industry experience. But co-ops are available for students who want to do that. In fact they said that employers are always looking to find more students interested in doing co-op. The Career Development Center hosts two career fairs each year where employers come in to interview students for jobs, internships and co-ops. Did you read any of the web pages about co-ops on the WPI site? [Career</a> Development Center - Co-op](<a href=“http://www.wpi.edu/Admin/CDC/co-op7914.html]Career”>http://www.wpi.edu/Admin/CDC/co-op7914.html) [Career</a> Development Center - Co-op Salaries](<a href=“http://www.wpi.edu/Admin/CDC/co-ops976.html]Career”>http://www.wpi.edu/Admin/CDC/co-ops976.html)
Also, be aware that it is hard, but not impossible to get a summer internship between freshman and sophomore years, since you don’t know enough to be of much use to most employers. I hear the odds are very good after that though.</p>
<p>Don’t know about co-op’s but can comment about internships. I was a manager at a large aerospace company (now retired). We would only hire interns that had completed their junior year. One did not have enough knowledge to be usefull to us until then. Also, an internship is usually viewed as a 2 month job interview. We were looking for potential new hires the following year. Too much could happen (more on the companies side of things; like manpower needs, budgets, etc) to look more than one year out. And one year out was usually a stretch too.</p>
<p>We would also get enough resumes that although the job posting for the internships stated a 3.0 minimum GPA, the first screen was usually to drop the resumes under about a 3.3 or sometimes even 3.4 GPAs.</p>
<p>My son who is a sophomore is reporting that his sophomore friends are all getting good internships for the summer. So I’m sure it varies somewhat based on the economy and what major you are in. And I’m sure having a good GPA helps a lot no matter what!
It does sound like a pretty risky strategy that you have. What happens if you can’t get a good internship? Do you have a backup plan?</p>
<p>you guys gave me the much needed reality check! haha…</p>
<p>yes i do have a back up plan, but that would mean that i might have to defer a semester or a year…i was trying to avoid that but now it seems inevitable…</p>
<p>ah nevermind, all’s good that ends well i guess :)</p>
<p>thanks for the replies once again! very helpful!!!</p>