My son is a senior this year and is interested in schools with strong co-op or internship programs in computer science. Right now he likes GA Tech (in state) and Northeastern. Over the summer we visited RIT, RPI and WPI as well. Of those three he like RIT. He has a 3.8 unweighted gpa and ACT 35.
I am looking for other schools with strong co op and computer science which he can attend for under 40k.
Thanks so much for any guidence.
At a school like Northeastern there are 2 big advantages to the coop program: 1) they likely offer all required courses both semesters so that someone off on a coop can pick up where they left off 2) for weaker students the school can help them get placed due to its ties to employers.
But for CS majors don’t close the door too early on schools w/o a big coop program. CS majors are in high demand these days and I’ve seen kids get summer jobs even after frosh year, and plenty of demand for rising juniors. Employers are generally quite willing to take students on for a 6-mos coop since they can get more useful work done than in a 10-week summer internship; they almost become like entry-level staff. The catch may be that if you take a semester off you won’t be able to get into year-sequence classes. Check at schools you are considering to see if you can start these sequences either semester or if they even have that many year-long sequences for CS students. For the 2nd point above, the ties to industry that can help to place all students, for that I guess you’ve just got to not be in that pool…
Even without a formal co-op program, many schools have relatively accommodating withdrawal and readmission policies that would allow a student to make his/her own co-op, but such policies need to be checked at each school.
Of course, a school where each important course is offered each semester is desirable, so that taking a semester off to do a co-op will not cause a student to miss or delay an important course. This may be more of an issue when the CS department is small, such that it is less likely to offer every course every semester.
Purdue has an optional co-op program but it is strong and many students participate. U of Cincinnati would also be worth a look.
CWRU (with merit scholarships)
Re co-ops, another factor to consider is the social effects. Taking a co-op at a school where it is uncommon (optional if fine in common, see Purdue/GT) means that you’re gone from your friends for 6 months when they aren’t expecting it. At a school where co-op is a big part of the program, it’s built around academically as mentioned but also socially.
As mentioned, you absolutely don’t need a co-op program in CS, but the advantage of more time vs internships and professional resources still makes them valuable in my experience.
As a CS major with a hands-on priority, my list included Northeastern, WPI, and RIT, would reapply to all 3 again and am very happy at Northeastern currently. The other schools I applied to I wouldn’t really recommend today for various reasons in this scenario, but here are some schools that would have been on my list if I applied today, ignoring location which also was a big factor personally. Many will reaches/expensive, so filter accordingly.
UMichigan
Brown
Rice
UMass Amherst
UT-Austin
A good co-op safety option with sufficient CS (check affordability): Drexel
Note: Purdue is a great option for engineering but I hesitate for CS. It’s by all means a solid program but not as well known in CS like it is engineering, and tends to have a bit more of a pressured environment than required for CS. For engineering that pressure is a lot more useful. For CS, I think it’s better for more competitive students in nature (not ability) so again filter accordingly. Northeastern, WPI, and RIT are very collaborative schools and while academics are tough, it seems to be a better experience in that regard based on people I’ve talked to from each school.
Thank you all for your replies, they are so helpful. @mikemac I agree completely that there are many advantages to co-ops but you should not right off a school just because it does not have a robust program.
@ucbalumnus that is good to know and something to look into as he looks at other schools. I will have him look at CWRU, Prudue, and U of Cincinnati.
@PengsPhils it is great to here your incites. We did look at Rice and he liked it, but it would be a reach for him with little chance at aid. Being at a school that more collaborative and hands on is appealing. The social aspect is something I have thought about, at Northeastern as students assigned a track for co-op? This way they tend know most of the kids in their major for classes?
Every student is usually either Fall (July-December) or Spring (January-June) co-op cycle. The first 3-4 semesters are all together, then you alternate co-op and classes for 2-3 times, then your final semester/year and graduation. So you know everyone from the start and then you tend to know what co-op cycle your friends are on. It’s not uncommon to switch cycles, and some majors don’t stick to Fall/Spring depending on the program.
To get an idea of just how many options technically exist: https://registrar.northeastern.edu/app/uploads/ref-udc-poa-ugd.pdf
The social effect of that is basically that people understand that they can come and go from campus/classes and I think friendships are more “adult” in college in that you see people when you see them, pick up where you left off last, etc. People also often make friends on co-op in other cities and then have those same friends when they come back to campus. For example, I co-op’d in LA and while there visited a friend from Boston who was co-oping in SF. She made friends there who I then hung out with in SF, and then later in Boston. Now all 3 of us are on co-op or living in NYC, as well as a friend who I have from freshman year. But the other friend in that freshman year group is currently in Seattle, but I’ll see her when I move back to Boston for the spring semester. There’s a lot of complex dynamics in play, but the long story short is that schools with popular co-op programs (Northeastern, RIT, Drexel, GT, UCincinnati, etc) have many supporting social aspects to go with it. You can have times where you don’t see old friends, but there can be a lot of opportunities to join new social circles through a new city, coworkers, and other co-ops at your company.
A good Northeastern resource for support on co-op: https://www.northeastern.edu/coopconnections/beyond-boston/
It’d be interesting to hear more experiences and thoughts on the co-op vs intern question. Does a student work at same company over multiple co-op terms. How long does it extend time to graduation (if at all).
University of Massachusetts/Amherst is a great not good CS program. Doing very innovative things. The data sciences department along with a 5mm gift from Mark Zuckerberg the past month or so looking to promote some cutting edge AI initiatives. It’s a great place to be for the field outside of the west coast.
My child while not a cs major did coop at GT. The cycle is every other semester for the same company. GT uses summer as a term so if you intern in the spring you are in class in the summer and back at the coop in the fall then back in school in the spring and so on. She worked in the same city as GT but life is obviously different when you are working and not in class. Friends can do things you cannot and vice versa. A coop would extend graduation at a school where you are not taking summer classes by three semesters or so as you still need to take the credits for graduation. Internship is a one time engagement with a company which tend to be in the summer but not necessarily. At GT the coop is determined by a company accepting you to their program and the semester start dates are dependent on the organization. No one’s schedule lines up at GT. Some start after freshman, sophomore or junior year.
Northeastern is different employers, though it’s not uncommon to return to a co-op. 50% of graduating students have at least one full-time offer from a previous co-op. In the CS world, many in Boston use that as a direct hiring pipeline. For the west coast, it just means an intern with more time for the company’s perspective, and both programs are used for hiring.
Timing wise, summers are used to speed it up, though the classic plan is 3 co-ops with 5 years. I believe any major can be done in 4 years with 2 co-ops though. AP/IB credit tends to also help speed things up. It’s also not uncommon to do 3 co-ops’s in 4.5 years.
IMO co-op for CS is a student advantage too, as you get to be usually more of an entry-level employee than an intern and get a good idea of what it’s like to work at a company, while you can get a skewed experience from a shorter internship. I’ve done both and the intern vs entry-level work difference was big for my internship, but at my current co-op interns get the same treatment so it depends on the company.
OP, since your son is instate at GA, he should be eligible for Hope/Zell Miller scholarships. I think he should try CMU/Stanford/MIT. The rest are not on par with GTech, wherein he will have access to plentiful CS Internships/Co-op opportunities. My D (OOS and a Senior studying MechE) has had internships/part time work (in Atlanta) since the end of her first year there.
I’d respectfully disagree with this. It’s true that GT is more known for CS when it comes to reputation, but these schools are all hired by the big names, and the students are not treated or paid differently from each. I’ve been at one of the big popular CS companies and worked alongside GT and RIT students at the same time. It’s one thing to make a distinction in research reputation or prestige, but many/all of the schools mentioned here will have plenty of co-op opportunities for CS. The difference between these programs is T10 vs T25 essentially. It really doesn’t matter in the CS industry.
PS: School that I forgot - Waterloo. Canadian school, co-op (4 months), a great option that should come in as affordable with no aid or scholarship.
And Rochester weather is more brutal than Boston’s during winter (covering most of the months when class is in session) !
As a former Floridian, I’ll take winter to killer summer 
plus you can always co-op in California for winters!
Here is some info on U of Cincinnati
https://magazine.uc.edu/editors_picks/rankings.html
UC is a 5 year program. Some schools offer co-op and others (like UC) require it. When required, there is more university support for co-op placement which allows the student to focus on learning rather than on finding a co-op on their own.
Just finished visiting University of Waterloo, which has an outstanding CS faculty, and is well known for it’s Coop program. It’s highly selective. Last year approximately 340 students were admitted out of 7800 apps. It has a very strong record of placing interns in companies both in Canada and around the world(i.e. Google, with whom it has a close relationship).
It’s located in a small, benign city of about 250,000 about a 75 minute drive from the Toronto airport.