<p>My son is a junior in HS and interested in studying mechanical engineering, and our recent visit to RIT was very positive. We were really intrigued by the prospect of sprinkling coop experience in with conventional coursework. Does anyone know how coop students go about finding short-term housing during their assignments?</p>
<p>We visited RIT this past summer also. From what we learned, if you co-op in the Rochester area you can stay in the dorm and even on your meal plan. If you co-op near home, obviously you could stay at home during the co-op time. For co-ops in other areas of the country you should check with the co-op office but I seem to remember that they mentioned that sometimes the corporation helps with finding housing.</p>
<p>My daughter is in her 4th year and is soon to start her last coop. Sometimes the employer offers help with housing, sometimes not. Her first coop, for 20 weeks, was not in Rochester and not where we live. The company provided moving expenses, and she found another RIT student, already on coop, who shared an apartment with her. Her next coop was in Rochester, and she stayed where she was already living. Her upcoming coop employer is a major technology company and they offer corporate housing. I was nervous about it but it all seems to work out.</p>
<p>To echo nomolas, students are generally responsible for finding their own housing. But it’s not as bad as it sounds; remember, while on co-op your son will be getting paid and won’t have tuition expenses.</p>
<p>It sounds like each coop assignment is with a different employer? Does it alternate semesters or only summer?</p>
<p>According to my daughter, it’s better to go with different employers. The schedule for coops differs with the major since the number of coop weeks required is different. Also, the school is now changing to semester from quarters. But to answer the question the best I can, coops can be for a semester or a summer, and possibly for a semester and summer combined. Her major requires 40 total coop weeks - under the old quarter system, that meant 4 quarters of coop, the summer being the same length (10 weeks) as the other quarters. Under the new schedule, it means two 15 week semesters plus one 10 week summer; or I guess some other combination that works out to at least 40 weeks.</p>
<p>The scheduling seems very complicated, but the students seem to understand it!</p>