Coop Information

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Alabama
1

I am currently a student at UA. I am going through my first coop process this semester and it has been stressful. I have learned some things, and I also have alot of questions.

1)The application is due after the orientations sessions are given. You must attend one orientation session to be able to go through everything.
2)The day the applications are due, you get an email telling you what your interview signup day is. There are 4 days, each between 7 and 10 am. You get your interview sign up day based upon a point system. The higher your points, the best day you get. The most points are given out for high GPA and sophomore status. The closer you are to a sophomore status, the more points you get, so juniors and seniors are screwed, and some don’t even get to sign up for interviews.
3)Interview day is allllll day Oct 12 2016 for the Fall 2016 semester. Online, it says two things: Interview day is held at Bryant Denny and that Interviews are given in the Ferguson Ballroom. Does anyone know which is correct? I’m hoping it’s the ferguson center because I still have class that day.
4) I have been told you should be able to sign up for 5 interviews, however, I did the math, and if each company only does one interview at a time (like bring one interviewer instead of two) then only 285 students will get interviews. If they each bring two interviewers, 570 students will get interviews.

5) From my understanding, if you are a chemical engineer, you will pretty much only be able to interview with paper companies.
6)You have to sign up for a class (register) that is 12 cred hours and will show up on your transcript as a coop and it lets you stay enrolled in the university. No tuition is required for this class, but there is a small fee of about $260.
7)From looking at that class, they only expect 125 students to receive coops this semester. Let’s look at that again: 125 PEOPLE OUT OF 400 WILL GET A COOP. (from what I’ve heard that is the approximate number of students who submitted an application successfully)
8) My interview sign up day is tomorrow. I am going to wake up at 3am and camp my butt in front of Hardaway at 4am because if you arrive any later, you will be waiting in a long long line. Apparently just arriving 15 minutes early means you are screwed, as the line will be out the door. They have even had people camp overnight.
9)Apparently some companies will ask you questions pertaining to classes, like if you have taken heat transfer they will ask you what Fourier’s law is, whereas others will as you what your greatest strengths and weaknesses are. (The answer is never Netflix binging.)
10)Definitely go to the Career Fair that occurs earlier in the semester, the same companies with some of the same reps will be there.

11) Some companies at the career fair will be offering coops not through the coop office. Instead they will be through Crimson Careers. After I figure out the mess I’ve gone through with crimson careers, I’ll start a new discussion on it. It was awful, and you need to start two months (not two weeks like I did) ahead of time to get anything out of it.

Now do not completely rely on this information. Especially my math, I tend to over worry, but from the rumors I’ve been hearing this year, it isn’t as easy to get a coop as it used to be. Supposedly they just hand them out, but this is way too stressful. And you NEED a coop to get a good job. Companies will take college grad applications and sort them into three stacks: 1)coop experience, 2)internship experience, 3)any other prior work experience including research. They will most likely discard the rest. This is true. Confirmed by several sources. Then they sort each of those piles by best to worst based upon GPA and campus involvement, some companies prefer one over the other.

2

My initial advice: take a deep breath :wink:

My son is a civil-e major and he’s completed all 3 of his co-op sessions (he also did a summer internship after his freshman year (before his co-op).

I don’t know where the interviews are (or were when my son interviewed), but you only need to be present for the time slots you sign up for interviews, so you can do your best to schedule them around your classes (although if you want to sign up for a highly demanded company you may have to work with the time slots that are available).

The year my son interviewed there were so many students that signed up that they limited each student to 4 interviews. To my knowledge every student that submitted the completed application on time got an opportunity to interview and all got to sign up for up to 4 companies. Some highly demanded companies were filled quickly so not every student got to interview with their preferred company, but all did get to choose up to 4. Then after all interviews/offers were complete the co-op office sent out additional emails with ‘second chance’ positions that were not filled for students that didn’t get or accept an offer during the initial process.

I’ve seen stories online about the students that camp out overnight to sign up for interviews The only reason Id consider it is if you need a specific time slot for a highly demanded employer, my son just squeezed it in that day when he had time and managed to sign up for 4 out of the top 6 employers he was considering.

Yes, some companies will ask questions about course material and others won’t. My son got some of those questions when he was interviewing for internships after his freshman year and got very frustrated because he felt he didnt know enough Just answer the best you can. My son didnt get the internship that asked specific knowledge questions since he hadn’t had any upper level classes at that time, but he still did get another position, so it all worked out in the end.

Regarding the ‘place holder’ class, it’s so you retain full time student status. The credits are removed after you complete the semester. If you are in or near Tuscaloosa you can also pay additional fees to use the student health center and the activity fee so you can go to the rec and participate in other campus activities during your co-op.

‘From your understanding chemical engineering students only get to interview with paper companies’ - while I don’t know how accurate that is, the co-op office should have provided a list of all the companies interviewing, the majors they are looking for, and any other requirements such as GPA. Students should have had an opportunity to research the companies prior to signing up for the interviews so students can decide what companies interest them before they sign up.

‘And you NEED a coop to get a good job’ - not true. It is true that companies will have a preference for students that have work experience, especially in their field, but many students who don’t have such experience get ‘good’ jobs My son has a friend he went to high school with that just got an aero degree from another school. He never completed an internship, never completed a co-op, had no engineering experience and spent his summers working as a camp counselor. He’s now working as a contractor at the Boeing plant in Seattle.

3

Could someone elaborate a bit more on the coop process and the timeline. What happens after the initial interview day, are there second interviews? How long is it before our students know if they are offered a coop or not ?.. I didn’t realize the process is so competitive, with so many applicants for a limited number of coops.
Thanks in advance!

4

“What happens after the initial interview day?”

After the initial interview day, the process really depends on the company. My son did have a second interview, but it was a very casual tour of the company and introduction to other employees and not a formal interview. Other companies may have a more formal interview and others may make decisions based upon interview day.

I just looked through old emails and it was about 3 weeks between interview day and the time my son accepted his offer. He immediately heard back from one company that they were not interested in making an offer. It was about 2 weeks before the company that eventually made an offer contacted him for his second interview. He made his decision to accept that offer about a week later. One company never responded to him and he had to follow up with the co-op office to confirm they were not making any additional offers.

I don’t want to say the process is not competitive and it is true that companies are not going to make an offer to any student they don’t feel is qualified for the position they have available, but it’s not as competitive as the initial post in this thread indicates.

If you go to the co-op website (http://coop.eng.ua.edu) and look under the student link under interview day, you can view the list of employers who will be on campus for the fall interview day (there will be another interview day during the spring semester). There are just over 50 employers listed. Most of those employers have multiple positions (the relatively small, local company where my son worked had 3 co-op students each semester, larger business will hire a group of co-op students). If you go to an old news link like https://www.ua.edu/news/2015/01/ua-students-learn-first-hand-in-co-op-during-spring-2015/ you can see a list of the students co-oping that semester. That semester there were just under 200 students working in co-op positions (although some of those were in their 2nd or 3rd rotation and were not all placed that semester). There would be a distinct list of students for the alternating semesters.

I don’t know the statistics on how many students attend the orientations vs how many submit their application packet ON TIME vs how many attend interview day vs how many get offers vs how many accept positions and the co-op office would be the place to contact for specifics, but if students keep their grades up, attend all required meetings, meet all deadlines, and have decent interviewing skills I believe most should be able to get at least one offer and one is all it takes (coming from the mom of a son who didn’t get an offer from his preferred company, but did get 1 offer).

5

Whoops! Didn’t mean to comment

6

I am currently on my second semester of my co-op this time with a second company. After interview day, I got an offer around 5 am the next morning. My next offer came after a second interview around 3 weeks later. And my last offer came a year later (not sure what happened but worked in my favor). My best advice for those looking into a co-op is make sure you have a list of desires in the companies. My first company was amazing to work for. However they had just started their co-op program so we were their first two students. I regret not having a larger group to do stuff with on the weekends and network. But it did push me to get out and make friends at a local university. My second company is vastly different. We have a ton of co-ops from a bunch of schools. Their program is more established. Most students stick with one company and do all three semesters. However I switched majors and wanted something different. I was also one of those crazy kids sleeping there at hardaway. Still proud I was first in line. All my friends who did the full four interviews got jobs. Not saying it was their first and not saying this is normal, but it happens. Just stay optimistic. And sign up for as many waitlists since those are extra interviews!

7

@Tide4CoOp, can you offer any advice here?

8

My daughter (2nd year, Computer Science, JR status) is accepting a co-op offer tomorrow! So exciting!

It’s been a fantastic process so far. I had originally urged her to go through the process just for the interviewing practice, etc, but once she got into the process and learned more about it, she became very eager to match. She really wanted to stay in Tuscaloosa, and she found a very exciting opportunity at a company 2 miles from campus! Anyway, I just wanted to say that so far, this process has been great. I think testing the process and going through all the practice in job-searching/etc is definitely worth the experiences even the student ultimately doesn’t accept an offer. The benefits of the co-op work itself will presumably become apparent once she begins work!

One question, my daughter will be working Summer/Spring/Fall, so I know she’ll need to take a class that summer between Spring and Fall work terms. I read somewhere a detailed description of acceptable options (study abroad, just one class, a home town college, etc) but for the life of me, I can’t find it now. Can someone clarify that requirement and/or give a girl a link?

Thanks!!

9

That’s so great, @mmom99.

My son took a class at our local community college over the summer that fulfilled one of his social science requirements. I would have her contact the co-op office to get specific information. The class must formally be approved by UA before your daughter takes it if she’s going to another school to fulfill the requirement. This is a good place to start: https://ssb.ua.edu/pls/PROD/rtstreq.P_Searchtype.

10

The only thing I see on the co-op’s website is:

“Summer semesters do not require full-time status; however, co-op students are required to make some type of academic progress, as discussed and approved by the Co-op Program Office.” (http://coop.eng.ua.edu/aboutcoop/).

Doing his co-op right in Tuscaloosa worked out great for my son. He stayed in the same apartment and lived with students, so he still felt connected to the university. And we paid the activity fee so he could still participate in campus activities even while working (and never miss a football season).