<p>Is graduating a semester later than you normally would because of a co-op a good idea?</p>
<p>The co-op employment could have given you good experience and earned some money to help pay for school. But the graduate school application cycle and employer recruiting may be scheduled mainly around spring graduates (more so for the graduate school application cycle; employers know that many students graduate at other than the usual spring semester).</p>
<p>Of course, if you do two co-op semesters, then you will graduate in the spring after five years, four (eight semesters) of which were in school.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t bother. Finding an internship is probably just as hard as finding a job. Just graduate earlier and get a full time job.</p>
<p>Oh, this is an ongoing debate in our household. Right now, son is getting daily emails about great co-op opportunities that I would love him to take advantage of. Husband wants him to do the straight four years, then go to grad school. I am just worried that there is going to be so much competition out there for mech eng going to grad school because of the economy that those without co-ops are going to be at a disadvantage. Son has a full scholarship, so financially, he doesn’t need to do a co-op. He doesn’t need to do a paid internship, either, so if he has less competition doing a volunteer research or job during the summers, would that be a better route to take?</p>
<p>I’m no engineer. When it comes to giving advice to aspiring engineer Lake Jr. I see the benefits of a school-year Co-op, but I’m not enthusiastic about delaying graduation and the professional career unless the benefits clearly outweigh the demerits.</p>
<p>The Co-op requirement is one reason why Lake Jr. crossed R.I.T. off her list (I think). I’m guessing that an graduating senior with no Co-op experience but nevertheless has summer internship experience, especially at premier companies such as General Electric, Raytheon, Boeing, United Technologies etc. won’t be at an disadvantage for job possibilities.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>If he is getting barraged with offers, it does not hurt for him to check them out and interview to see if any of them are interesting to him in the context of his academic and professional goals (is he planning to enter the work force or go to graduate school immediately after graduation?).</p>
<p>At the moment, I’m planning on just doing internships over the summer since CMU will probably land me some new ones. I really rather not take more than 4 years to complete my undergrad unless there’s something significant to gain. (ECE Major)</p>
<p>The reality of the workforce is that even in a good economy, you simply won’t get an interview without at least one good internship, and preferably two internship semesters. You have diminishing returns beyond two semesters. Ideally you find those two semesters in the summer, but if you don’t you really should consider delaying graduation.</p>
<p>A 3.0 GPA + 2 semesters of internships is in a better position to find employment than a 4.0 GPA + 0 semesters of internship experience. Unless you’re dead-set on grad school, you need to take some time to intern. Graduating a semester “late” (which really isn’t late because you were working during that time) is better than graduating on time and unemployed. Besides, graduating in the Fall is the best time for employment prospects (employers hire in September/October and prefer someone they can hire in December rather than May).</p>
<p>If you are going to industry (not graduate school) immediately after Bachelor’s, PURSUE a co-op/multiple internships. I did, and will be graduating a semester later with more opportunities than my friends in the same major (I had my first full-time interview 11 months prior to when I would start). The money is great, the experience is good, and it usually leads to better things. In reality, few hiring managers care about graduating in 4 years. Heck, there are plenty of people that take longer than 4 years just because they’ve failed classes.</p>
<p>With respect to the grad school thing, many engineering grad schools accept students in the Fall and Spring, so it doesn’t hurt that possibility. Although, IMHO, co-ops and internships become less important for grad school purposes.</p>
<p>It is outrageous that there are people on this thread suggesting that you don’t do the co-op. There is no guarantee that we will be able to find a good summer internship and, like others just said, if you graduate with no internships under your belt, you are going to be in a very tough ordeal.</p>
<p>montegut, your intuition is correct, your son will be at a disadvantage if he chooses not to get real work experience before graduating. Do me a favor and slap your husband for me.</p>
<p>Take a co-op, you’ll get paid pretty well, you learn things on the job that you will likely learn later in school, you gain experience in your field, and if all goes well that co-op could turn into a full time job. Additionally its a break from school. Engineering is a tough field and at some point you will likely be mentally exhausted from all the school work and worries that come along with college (midterms, finals, ect). A co-op definitely helped me lose some my stress and mentally rejuvenated me when I got back to school after it.</p>
<p>I am currently comparing a school that focuses on coop (most students do three six-month co-ops) with a school where I would only get internships (although coop is an uncommon option). I like the non-coop school slightly better, but is coop an opportunity I shouldn’t pass up?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>How is it outrageous? So companies set aside co-op positions regardless of the economy? There’s no guarantee that you’ll find a good 4 month internship, but there is a guarantee you’ll find a good 16 month one? Makes sense.</p>
<p>For those saying you make good money and gain experience doing co-op, you don’t really have much of a point there. Anyone that can land a job after 4 years is going to be making more money and getting better experience than the person doing the co-op.</p>
<p>The way I see it, if you have what it takes to get a co-op with the company you want, then you most likely have what it takes to get an internship with them. For someone that has good grades I really don’t see the benefit of a co-op. All I see is a bad financial decision. But somehow it seems everyone is drinking the co-op Kool-Aid.</p>
<p>Is the argument co-op vs. internship? In that case, it doesn’t matter. Companies call and treat them the same and most companies will bring back successful interns in what becomes a de facto co-op.</p>
<p>Work experience vs. no work experience is what matters.</p>
<p>Yea, my argument was based around work experience vs. no work experience, not internship vs. co-op. I though we were discussing based on the assumption that the OP had a co-op offer in hand. Getting experience before you graduate is crucial these days.</p>
<p>Why would I argue for taking a co-op OVER an internship?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I just read that and thought that’s what your argument was. My bad. But yeah obviously work experience is better than no work experience lol.</p>
<p>Work experience is invaluable, regardless of your plans after you finish your bachelor’s degree. I pursued two co-op (which for all intents and purposes, another name for an internship) opportunities at General Electric, have now worked 3 years here full-time, and just got admitted into Stanford for Grad EE (among other programs).</p>
<p>The reality is:</p>
<p>1)Pursuing Grad School: Several grad schools are looking for students that bring more to the table than just their classes. It is important to excel academically, but all the other applicants have that. They are looking for problem solving experiences, hard decision-making skills, and knowledge that is acquired outside the classroom.</p>
<p>2)Pursuing Full-Time Employment: DEFINITELY A MUST. Success in the classroom can only take you so far. Managers are looking for potential to succeed in actual practical applications where the products you are developing will be sold to consumers and quality, reliability, cost and schedule are just as important as the design itself.</p>
<p>Working in industry is a completely different world than what you see in undergrad engineering classes. You are expected to solve problems with solutions that are not found in the back of the textbook, nor by talking to a professor or a TA. You are expected to develop your business sense and presentation skills; creating the design is not enough, you need to sell it to your manager and your peers, convince them why it will work.</p>
<p>What about doing a couple of summer internships, paid or unpaid, and do the four year route to grad school? </p>
<p>Although the ultimate goal is employment, as a parent, I want my child also to have the full college experience. He chose a school that gave him a full scholarship over the one that offered a half scholarship, but possibilities of paid internships, because he wanted the social aspect of college, something he lacked at his rigorous high school.</p>
<p>If getting an internship is so important for admittance to grad school, should one pursue an internship in a field outside of the grad school concentration? For example, son wants to pursue biomedical engineering for graduate school. He is currently pursuing an undergrad mechanical engineering degree. It is quite possible he will be able to get internships in mechanical engineering, not related to biomedical equipment. Should he forego those and instead take biology related courses, or should he pursue the internships even though they are not related to his specific field? I don’t think he’ll go so far as taking an automotive internship, but he may take a computing internship or perhaps a straight science volunteer research position in either biology, chemistry, or physics.</p>
<p>Two to three summer internships is perfectly fine. You would gain nothing by co-oping instead of interning. </p>
<p>However, an engineer should never take an unpaid internship. When an internship is unpaid, the unpaid employee is legally restricted in what he can do. Basically, he cannot do anything that adds value to the company. This is a major problem - if you do not accomplish something that adds value to a company, you’ve wasted the internship and it brings almost no value to your resume. The goods news is that employers know this and I’ve never seen an unpaid engineering intern.</p>