There is a lot of discussion in the RIT unofficial facebook family page about the difficulty of finding co-ops. There are many resources on campus, but it is ultimately up to the student to find a co-op. Many families speak of their students sending out 75+ resumes, then receiving offers at the last minute. It seems fairly standard.
RIT does have a fairly robust support network for students with documented learning disabilities, as well as a program specifically for students on the autism spectrum. On this page you can see the types of support that they offer students - http://www.rit.edu/academicaffairs/advising/student-resources
Apart from the schools mentioned here (Cincy, NEU, Drexel, VTech, RPI, RIT, and U of Waterloo) are there any others? I know kids who’ve attended NEU and Waterloo and have had good experiences; S18 is looking to major in Finance or Accounting which surely would lend itself to coop. We liked NEU when we visited for D15 but it looks like admission has gotten really competitive there; S18 is a match when it comes to scores but won’t get any merit aid and we don’t want to go full-pay if other options are available.
@crepes Many colleges offer optional coop, primarily in engineering but also in other majors. Based on posts here on CC some students have hesitated to do it because they will miss their friends and wonder how they will "make up’ the courses that they miss while on coop. Also some have reported limited assistance in landing a coop job at these coop optional schools. This is not the case at the coop schools you mentioned because the curriculum and campus liife is designed around coop.
I know of a school that has mandatory coops in both engineering and business. Kettering University in Flint MI. It used to be the General Motors Institute. Very small, about 1800 students and half are on coop each semester.
I think if you’re lucky enough to get a good co-op job, it’s invaluable. If you’re not a really assertive self-advocate or don’t have good connections it can be tough.
Anecdotally, I’ll tell you my husband went to Northeastern and is still employed by his co-op company 26 years later. No complaints from us!
@Pheebers mentions a good point. At coop required schools like Northeastern, Drexel etc. the connections are those of the college with a myriad of employers developed over decades. At coop optional programs the onus may fall on the student.
UToledo is mandatory coop for engineering. S15 will be starting 2nd rotation of coop in the fall - currently taking summer classes. As for Kettering University, we know several kids going there. In fact, one of D17s friends just moved in yesterday & will start classes on Monday. 10 week semester, week of finals, then starts his first coop rotation. Some kids start off with a coop rotation at Kettering, which just seems really strange that a company would want to hire a coop that hasn’t even been to college classes.
S15 went with UToledo because it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than Kettering.
My kid likely would have attended Alabama regardless, because of the merit money he was being offered, but part of the appeal was definitely that they had a pretty well-developed co-op program in engineering. I didn’t pressure him to go that route, but I did encourage him to explore it as an option, especially since we knew he wouldn’t have any connections for summer internships, etc.
He decided to go for it, and it worked out really well him. Not to say it was easy logistically, because it wasn’t (had to buy him a car on VERY short notice!), but he was able to land a co-op position at the end of his freshman year because he had a high GPA and was willing to work in a pretty remote location in northwestern Alabama. We scrambled and were able to find an apartment for him that summer (thank you, extended Bama community!), but he commuted from campus during the fall and spring semesters he worked - he didn’t want to be away from his friends on weekends and was already paying for his apartment, so …
It did delay graduation by a year, but that’s fine with him. He earned enough money working those 12 months (spread over 15) that he was able to pay for his own board for the remaining four years, so it was kind of the equivalent of doing a paid gap year. And he doesn’t mind an extra football season either. (He’ll actually be working all the home games, so he’ll make a little money doing that too.)
(Kids with loads of AP or CLEP credits sometimes can do the whole thing in four or 4.5 years, BTW.)
He decided to come home for the summer and was unable to find an internship, but the co-op company would have hired him for the summer if he’d wanted to stay down there.
Another advantage is you get to actually see what engineers do in real life - that’s pretty good information to have!
My DD has had a great co op experience through the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ. She’s a ChemE major and will finish her co op in Manhattan in August. From what she described, she had lots of help from the school finding the position (co op fairs, mock interviews, etc.)
Stevens has a very robust co-op program. I know several students who have done very well there (and I used to do college recruiting there for a company I worked for) . It is not a place for everybody - limited majors (very engineering heavy), very high percentage of males, and definitely a city school (although it does have something of a campus). They have lots of connections to NY companies and a very strong career services. They are less selective than some other co-op schools and offer merit scholarships.