<p>Is no one entitled to ask a simple question? In a place full of cynics I suppose not. Throughout the thread the OP only became aggressive when people starting attacking her for a trivial matter in terms of the thread title. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind and I do not understand the motives of a parent with a high school senior to instigate any sort of emotional argument. College is one of the biggest financial decisions of a person’s life and I can understand if someone is skeptical of the value of a school. In terms of Northeastern the high cost is a common sentiment so a question like this shouldn’t be anything new. Some people just need to grow up.</p>
<p>I think the question is: where would a particular student be if they spent that 5th year in a different way?</p>
<p>Would the student be completing a masters program?
Would the student be completing their first year in a starting position in a real paying job?</p>
<p>Of course those are all variables that we don’t know.</p>
<p>I think it comes down to knowing your child and knowing where they think they are headed.</p>
<p>For example, even though I have looked at Northeastern and know it has a good reputation, I don’t think it would be a good fit for either of my children.</p>
<p>D1 has been interning on her own since high school and building up an excellent resume. She has had 1 or 2 internships each summer and is hoping to land a paid one this summer. She also has been able to intern for several hours a week in sophomore and junior year at companies she worked at during the summer.</p>
<p>When she graduates after 4 years of college, she will be ready to hit the job market.</p>
<p>D2 wants to teach art. After looking at the excellent options for artist that Northeastern offers, I think it would be more beneficial for her to spend her “5th” year earning her master’s in education and student teaching. </p>
<p>So co-op may be excellent for some, but certainly not for all. To question whether it is a good program isn’t the point. It has to be good for a specific individual.</p>
<p>In response to setsuna, I want to clarify the reaction this thread got from NU posters.</p>
<p>First of all, co-op and the 5 year program is the one aspect of this school that students care about the most. We love it and advocate for it and fight for it, and you’d be hard pressed to find many students who think it’s a bad program.</p>
<p>Saying NU is too expensive is not something that any of us get defensive about, saying co-op seems like a scam is. It’s just a blatant lie. The first post by OP is somewhat inflammatory, and the second is about a student’s negative experience with co-op. Of course we’re going to jump in. Co-op is not a scam, and negative experiences are few and far between.</p>
<p>This thread is a year old and out of context… OP wanted her son to go to SUNY Buffalo, period. She did not want him going to any of the other schools he got into, and seemed to be actively looking for reasons to keep him from going here or anywhere else. She didn’t want our opinions, she wanted validation. This was not the only post where OP was insistent on co-op being a scam–if I remember correctly she posted in other threads as well.</p>
<p>Had she simply wanted to know if co-op made all the extra cost worth it, our response would have been very different.</p>
<p>It is concerning that communications and journalism don’t get paid coops. That seems pretty counterproductive to students going to NU for coop. They might as well go somewhere else for internships.?! Why does Neuchimie say they don’t get paid because they don’t have to? I assume the student could go get a job somewhere outside of NU contacts that would pays and it would be acceptable to NU?</p>
<p>I don’t know about other journalism and communication coops but those at The Boston Globe are definitely paid.</p>
<p>lol suny buffalo? good riddance</p>
<p>The Boston Globe is paid, but they are also limiting those jobs, and half are for finance not for editorial. Newspapers are dying, its just a fact. It’s really hard to get a job in journalism as a graduate, nevertheless as a co-op.</p>
<p>And the whole “you could just get an internship at another school” thing is true for ANY major or field. But here has a lot more connections, its a pretty formal system, they are longer than just the summer, and more (in general) are paid.</p>
<p>My student who is an incoming freshman chose NU specifically for the opportuntiies of coop. If a communications major is having 3 six month “unpaid” internships, might not they be better off going to a traditional 4 year that is known for its communications like Syracuse or even BU if they want to stay in Boston. They can get “unpaid” experience in the summer and not put out living expenses for 18 months receiving nothing to offset. Six months is certainly better than two or three for summer internships but, in my opinion, not enough to merit an extra year at NU and 18 months of no money coming in. NU is a fabulous school but if it cannot deliver on certain majors with paid internships, they need to speak to that in their literature and admissions. Hopefully they will figure this out.</p>
<p>This is to Romman</p>
<p>This is probably the biggest misperception that many people have about their kids going to Northeastern. In reality you really don’t do an extra paid year at Northeastern because the way that your schedule is set up for most 5 year students is 3 co-ops (each 6 months long) and what comes out to about to (depending on the student and APs the student came in with) 3-4 years of actual in-school full-time student time that you as a parent will be paying for. My choice when deciding between schools was Northeastern or NYU or Seton Hall(at which I received $100,000 in aid) and to be honest Northeastern was by far the best decision for me, I am an incoming sophmore this year and the people that attend the school are some of the brightest and most interesting people from all around the world and its highly unlikely that he will get that type of submersion at SUNY. I by no means am saying its a bad school, quite the opposite, its just that Northeastern will give him something no other school has experience in at this time and that is a strong co-op foundation. Hope this helps!</p>
<p>I know this is really old, but since there have been some posts lately I just wanted to post my thoughts.</p>
<p>I mean - there are more things than just the co-op program to think about when choosing between Northeastern and SUNY Buffalo. Yes, Northeastern is way more expensive. But Northeastern is ranked 56; SUNY Buffalo is ranked 106. Northeastern is a private school; SUNY is a public school. If you’re going to compare, compare against something similar. Northeastern is similarly priced to similarly ranked private institutions. This doesn’t mean it’s for everyone - for a lot of people, the cheaper school might be a better value. But coming on here and saying Northeastern is a scam is ridiculous. A whole lot of other schools must be scams too.</p>
<p>As everyone has stated, you don’t pay extra for the extra year, unless you’re counting like, housing. If it makes more sense for you to do four years, most programs allow you to.</p>
<p>Also, you can’t just give away jobs to people. If you have a poor GPA, are a poor interviewer, or simply have some weird major where there’s not really a job market - there is only so much Northeastern can do. The internship market is competitive. A benefit of being at Northeastern is that you are primarily competing against a bunch of other Northeastern students for the job. Whereas for a regular internship, you might be competing against students from MIT and Harvard, your competition for a co-op position is usually just against other students who will be available to work full time for six months, which is largely just Northeastern students. The fact that Northeastern has connections with companies and has shown them the value of having someone for the whole six months is hugely beneficial.</p>
<p>Why type of internships, if any, would be available for a Pol Sci/history major who intends on going to law school?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>At an information session I went to, the presenter had a co-op at a law firm (not sure what capacity) which made him decide he did not want to be a lawyer. So, I guess one answer would be jobs at law firms.</p>
<p>A guy I knew who was a poly sci major had his coop as a bartender in a local bar in Boston. Very relevant if you think about it, LOL.</p>
<p>There are a lot of co-ops at law firms. If you’re in poli-sci, working for a political campaign or in a politician’s office are also options.</p>
<p>Thanks, is it possible to opt out of co-ops? Or if you want to not participate in co-ops would it just be better to go to school elsewhere?</p>
<p>Go to school elsewhere if you don’t want to do any co-ops. I believe the school requires something called experiential learning to graduate. From their website:
Experiential Core Requirement
Our alumni consistently cite real-world learning as the element of their education that enabled them to move into leadership positions in their careers. Thus, unique among colleges and universities, Northeastern’s core curriculum requires all undergraduates to pursue at least one integrated experiential learning opportunity that includes formal reflection on how the experience expanded their knowledge and understanding. Students may pursue co-op to fulfill this requirement, but can also partake of dynamic opportunities in research, service learning, study abroad, clinical and professional practica, and internships.</p>
<p>Not every major requires co-op, but I think it is entirely to your advantage to take advantage of co-op. Check your specific major’s requirements, but I think your requires just some form of experiential ed, not necessarily just co-op.</p>