1/3 of CoE do co-ops at Purdue. Not sure the percentage outside of engineering.
All the co-ops D knows got full time offers from their companies. And I’m not exaggerating when I saw “all”.
Our D’s experience was that her company made a big investment in her too - they paid for her six sigma training, Kaizen training, leadership training, gave her access to their in-house courses, they flew her around the country for workshops and conferences, etc… I think that is more than norm than the exception based on what I heard from her friends so these companies are planning for long term employees.
I also wouldn’t call it cheap contract labor. She was very well compensated and they paid for housing, transportation costs, did 401K match, gave bonuses, etc…
Sure - when I said cheap - I meant, i wonder if any companies are saying - we can have so and so for $20-30 an hour vs. hiring someone on a full-time basis. Someone to do projects - which many companies do hire college kids to do so they don’t have to hire full-time.
But you answered the question when you said all got offers.
In my son’s case, and it was internship but they have co op because part of his co hort was a co op from Ole Miss…they have 50 people each summer and not sure how many co ops - but they don’t have a formal full time college recruiting program - so many/most I’d venture to say don’t work there full time.
In his case they said we’ll call you in March and we will find the right fit as we want you full time - to which I told him - yeah, you need to get a job now (in the Fall).
That’s all I meant by that - …but it sounds like it’s a pure investment - at least in your daughter’s experience.
None of the colleges my S was most interested in offered co-ops ( to my knowledge). But when it came to internships we advised our S to use them to explore different company cultures. Over his college years he had 4 summer internships (masters degree). He interned at very small startup, unicorn startup, and ultra large companies ( Google was one). Having exposure to all these different cultures definitely shaped what we valued most as he considered full-time employment.
Seems like Northeastern and Purdue do co-ops differently, and have different terminology. At Northeastern, a “co-op” is one 6 month job; another 6 month job later would be another “co-op”, and not necessarily at the same employer (with encouragement to do it at a different employer). At Purdue, a “co-op” would be the series or collection of 6 month jobs interspersed with school semesters, typically all at the same employer. Correct?
Mostly correct ; ). Purdue does 3 or 5 term co-ops, with a single company. One term = one semester and at least 1 - 2 terms are summer terms, depending on co-op length.
That is similar to Georgia Tech, which has the largest voluntary co op program in the country. Co ops are 3 months and either fall, spring or summer semester. At least one is in the summer if not two. There are some companies that do mostly co ops with few interns. Delta is an example - they have a lot of Georgia Tech co op students.
Pitt still does not require a Co-Op to graduate, but they are veering towards 6 month co-op model so students can get involved in deeper projects. DD is currently on an 8 month co-op. All of her friends have done at least one semester of co-op. Definitely helps the resume’s when they graduate!! A local engineer friend says he won’t hire engineers who don’t have any experience. And my daughter is finding that she enjoys pharma better than she thought she would. Generally it’s a great way to find out whether you are studying the right things and whether you’ll enjoy employment in your field of study.
