<p>Drexel’s neighborhood addjoins Penn, where I went without a problem. Pitt is a fine and much lower cost suggestion. Toledo is an underrated school. Widener I would not recommend. Perhaps Worcester Poly or NJIT?</p>
<p>Northeastern is not out of range for B/B+ student. I know many B+ students that got accepted there. If you want coop program, Northeastern has extensive network with advisors that are assigned to just work with you to get coop job which is great for practical field like Engineering. Coop used to be a requirement for all students, maybe not anymore but still a majority of students do it. Student can get paid quite a bit which really helps with tuition cost.</p>
<p>I immediately thought of Cincinnati. Someone else suggested it but I wanted to second the idea. (I have only heard about the engineering co-ops there.)</p>
<p>Another thought - and a good safety school - is Michigan Tech. Very strong co-op program there, for all majors.
[Michigan</a> Tech: Co-ops and Internships](<a href=“Undergraduate Admissions | Michigan Technological University”>Undergraduate Admissions | Michigan Technological University)</p>
<p>(Does he like snow?)</p>
<p>Does he like snow? Unlike his mother, weather doesn’t seem to effect him too much. I have to keep reminding myself that! Getting home and back in the winter from Michigan does not appeal, but I will keep an open mind.</p>
<p>Yayabe, wow, your suggestion of NJIT really surprised me. I’m so used to hearing about NJ residents looking oos, that I haven’t really considered us looking at NJ colleges, especially one in an urban area, but I’ve got to say that the NJIT website is pretty cool. </p>
<p>I’m not too worried about the Drexel location, at least not at this look-see point. </p>
<p>Northeastern and Rensselaer keep getting recommended. I’m going to have to look at both of them. There are actually several students from our HS that go to Rensselaer and like it. I think I’m just opposed to spending much time researching reaches, but who knows, son is doing well this Junior year, maybe they won’t be so reachy next year.</p>
<p>Kettering looked really interesting when our D was applying to schools last year. She was accepted to Kettering but turned off by her Co-op starting at the beginning of July. That would have given her only three weeks of summer (In her words). They were very generous with Merit Aid. She was also accepted to Rensselaer. She ended up going to a west coast school but both of those schools interested her.</p>
<p>Stevens Institute of Technology in NJ might be another one to consider.</p>
<p>Stevens doesn’t have his major. </p>
<p>emgamac,
We talked about working all summer and my son and his friend both thought that working at a well paying co-op job beat the pants off of working at a minimum wage job. Three weeks vacation sounds great too. Kettering also does not have his major.</p>
<p>I admit that we may be narrowing the focus with a major choice already but there does seem to be a big difference between a CS major and Information Science or Information Systems in that the IST major has a dual business and CS focus. CS majors are more purely computer interested. Son likes things other then computers too, including people. At least that’s my take.</p>
<p>Sorry if I am sounding a little negative, but in addition to finding out whether or not a school has a co-op program and a given major, it might be a good idea to find out how many students in various majors of interest have been placed in co-ops in recent years, and where they have been placed, especially given the current economic climate. (It is my understanding that while internships may be unpaid, and thus not affected by economic downturn, co-op jobs are paid positions only.) Do not assume that everyone is placed, just because some people are placed. Also do not assume that your student will find a co-op job the first semester they are looking, as factors way beyond their control influence co-op hiring. </p>
<p>Most schools will admit that co-op placement rates vary from year to year, but only if questioned. Also find out if placement in a university lab is considered a co-op placement, as in some schools this would NOT qualify as a co-op even if paid, even though the student could get some very good experience.</p>
<p>When one of my children applied to Drexel many years ago with top stats, he was told that students in the honors program could typically expect to send out about a dozen resumes, get called for three or four interviews, and receive one or two co-op offers. This is the type of information you should be looking for, and I would encourage your son to ask not only about co-op in general, but about two or three specific majors. It is much harder to ask whether in hard times, co-op offers are limited to URM’s, women in male dominated fields, or the well-connected, but I would talk to recent co-op students to try to get a feel for this sort of thing as well once you have a short list of desirable schools.</p>
<p>I would urge your son not to rule out a CS major, if placement is significantly better for these majors than for IST majors. (I have no idea about either of these majors, but I would absolutely ask about both.) There are plenty of engineering students who are also interested in people, stereotypes notwithstanding, and who manage to pick up the business end on the job,and with all sorts of continuing education, some funded by an employer.</p>
<p>Stevens does have the Howe School of Technology that may be of interest to your S, with majors in information systems and business & technology:</p>
<p>[Howe</a> School of Technology Management: Undergraduate](<a href=“http://howe.stevens.edu/academics/undergraduate/]Howe”>http://howe.stevens.edu/academics/undergraduate/)</p>
<p>kathiep: Stevens does have his major and has an excellent optional co-op program…check it out:</p>
<p>[Computer</a> Science Program Information Systems Major - Stevens Institute of Technology](<a href=“http://www.cs.stevens.edu//ProgramInfo/bs_is_prospective.php]Computer”>http://www.cs.stevens.edu//ProgramInfo/bs_is_prospective.php)</p>
<p>Actually, the question you’ve mentioned about co-op placement was the first one asked at the Drexel information session. The admissions person said that they track that closely and this past year, they had a 94% placement rate compared to 96% most years. He said that some companies have scaled back on the number of co-op students they will take while others took on more, thinking that two college students in a one year period would still be less expensive then a full time employee that they have to pay a higher salary and benefits to. He also mentioned that some co-op experiences are unpaid, but that happens more in the arts oriented majors. His example was MTV, who does not pay interns but having that experience may make up for it. Education majors never get paid for student teaching but all are required to do it.</p>
<p>I asked about paid internships at PSU and was told that in the IST field, it’s unusual to have an unpaid internship, but not out of the question. That was pretty much the answer I expected too.</p>
<p>Frazzled, you bring up a good point about how much work it may take to get a co-op position and that was also brought up by one of the students at the admissions presentation. One of the students said that he had been to at least 20 interviews. I thought that while it might be frustrating, it would also be an excellent preparation for life after college. Getting comfortable with interviews sounds like a positive to me.</p>
<p>I don’t think son is ruling out anything just yet, but I haven’t seen a school yet that has an IST program without a CS major, but the reverse case happens often. See above ^. With so many excellent schools available I don’t see the point in looking at colleges that don’t have his current interest. We’re pretty darn lucky on the East Coast that I can drive three hours in just about any direction and find dozens of great colleges.</p>
<p>Thanks dadinator and 1down12go, How did I miss that??</p>
<p>Just for the record, University of Cincinnati was the forerunner of coop programs in the US. In fact, for many years, coop programs around the country were known as the “Cincinnati Plan.” They have a huge number of contacts as a result of their long time program. In addition, they are usually much cheaper than private schools such as Drexel.</p>
<p>Glad to help. I think you have an excellent start to a list of schools to look into further.</p>
<p>Not that I’m partial to any school, but I strongly recommend RPI. (OK, maybe the fact that my S is a freshman in IT at RPI has something to do with it. He likes it there very much, BTW.)</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Dadinator, What colleges did your son look at besides Stevens and RPI? What were your impressions of the other schools and what made him decide on RPI?</p>
<p>Kathiep, you already have on your list all the schools he was interested in.</p>
<p>The major ones were WPI, Northeastern, Drexel, RIT, and RPI.</p>
<p>Impressions are so subjective and personal. I hope your S will have the opportunity to visit all the schools and get his own impressions.</p>
<p>But, since you asked, here goes:</p>
<p>WPI - My S liked this school very much. It was small and seemed very personable, but it only had a CS major, which had too much programming for him. If it had an IT program, he might have ended up there.</p>
<p>Northeastern - he also liked this school very much. He liked the coops and the separate CS school they have (and, of course, it is in Boston). As I guess you already know, ths school has gotten really HOT the past 10 years and applications have gone through the roof - if I remember correctly, they had over 35,000 applications for Fall 2008.</p>
<p>Drexel - He liked the school and the IT program (and the coop option). Since they have rolling admission, he had his application done in early October and he got accepted at the end of October. He was very excited (“I could go to this school!”) and it took the presssure off the whole process. Therefore, I would suggest your S get his application in as early as possible.</p>
<p>RIT and RPI - in the end, I think it came down to RIT and RPI.</p>
<p>RIT - he visited the school four times and stayed over night in the summer between junior and senior year when they have a program for rising seniors (highly recommend). He liked the school - especially the CS and IT facilities (very impressive CS building and school) and he liked the coop program.</p>
<p>RPI - After he was accepted, he stayed over night (in a dorm room) and they really treated him well - he sat in on a few classes and met students and faculty in the IT program. I dropped him off about 3 PM one afternoon and they told me to pick him up at 4:30 the next afternoon - they had all his time and activities scheduled out for the next 24 hours. I think the over night stay is what made him decide on RPI - he really liked everyone he met and he felt that he fit in.</p>
<p>I hope this helps. Please ask any questions you may have (feel free to PM me, too, if you would like to discuss anything more personal).</p>
<p>That’s for the quickie reviews dadinator. My older son did that RIT summer overnight thing and I’m planning for younger son to do it next summer if I can’t get him up there sooner. My nephew is a freshman there and is loving it.</p>
<p>I thought the RIT rising seniors summer thing sounded great, too - nice to hear cc’ers endorsing it. :)</p>