<p>I am an admitted student at NEU and am seriously considering attending next year. I have a full-tuition scholarship, my parents will pay for food (board) and some fees, and my brother is contributing 15k over the 5 years. Ill be looking at 20-25k in loans before interest. Will i be able to earn enough from coop to reduce some of my debt? Even if it wont significantly reduce my debt, is the program worth it enough to forego another school where id take on no debt.</p>
<p>What major?
At engineering open house they said around $16+/hr for first co-op, and higher as you get more semesters under your belt.</p>
<p>No idea about other majors.</p>
<p>Definitely not engineering, otherwise im very undecided about my major.</p>
<p>what about business/international business majors? i want to possibly minor in computer science as well</p>
<p>This is a post I wrote way back about where co-op money goes. It’s not really specific to your question but will address how much you make on co-op and how students typically spend it. It’s copy/paste from this thread:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/northeastern-university/976473-does-co-op-money-make-difference-far-paying-tuition.html?highlight=expenses[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/northeastern-university/976473-does-co-op-money-make-difference-far-paying-tuition.html?highlight=expenses</a></p>
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<p>But, specifically to you, how are you planning to spend that 20/25k in loans? If you have full-tuition, parents pay food and board, brother contributes 15k… what are the loans for? Are they just for general spending/living expenses? I’m going to assume you’re thinking 20-25k just for general living expenses and answer your question based on that.</p>
<p>If THIS is the case, then co-op can help you cut down on loans. I usually say, NO! CO-OP WON’T HELP YOUR DEBT! </p>
<p>But if your meal plan/board is being covered by your parents, that means that the bulk of your co-op income can be used for basic living expenses, and you would be able to avoid taking out a ton of loans. You’d still need some loans taken out, especially for the first two years of college, but co-op would enable you to take out less.</p>
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<p>Um yeah, exactly. You’re 20-22 years old. College kids aren’t capable of doing work that earns real money. They have no real work experience, little life experience, and are still figuring out how to be functional human beings.</p>
<p>Broken down to hourly wage, sure, I could make more being a waitress 40hrs a week than doing co-op. But what happens when I graduate? I’ll have “waitress” on my resume, which qualifies me for… other waitressing jobs? Internships and work experience get you real jobs. </p>
<p>You have to start somewhere. better to start getting work experience while in college, rather than being a new college grad with no actual work experience. Economy blows (just this rumor I heard once), the clock is ticking on those loans and mom and dad are always nagging about moving off their couch, while your friends are finally financially independent, working in their chosen field, and doing cool things that you can’t afford. Making a few grand less per year while in college is worth it if it means having an actual grown-up job when you graduate.</p>
<p>Need extra bones, work a service job on the side. There, extra bones.</p>
<p>(Although, most engineer co-ops get paid very well. You just have to be an engineering major with a sick GPA to land those gigs…)</p>
<p>And as a note about my “average”, this is for most science/arts majors. Business is probably slightly higher (maybe $11-$16), engineering higher ($15-$20), while nursing majors and computer science majors also make pretty good money. Some science majors can hit around $18 if they work in biotech.</p>
<p>As first timer co-op students, you’re probably going to be on the low side of the spectrum (upper-classmen with co-ops already on their resumes will get the top jobs). Also, some students choose lower-paying jobs if it will be a better experience.</p>
<p>And, grain of salt, I’m just basing this off of people I know/what people around campus say about wages, not based on any real statistics.</p>
<p>thank you Emily2007!</p>
<p>Well I’m an economics major, and I made 18 at my last co-op. McDonald’s is minimum wage- aka 8 in Mass and even lower in most other states. I’d say that ten extra dollars helped out a bit. Especially with the 10k+ I’ve saved from my co-op funds while my parents helped me pay rent, which is the same they would have paid at another school since I still graduated in four years like a normal college student.</p>
<p>Course if I had done my co-op at McDonald’s, I probably wouldn’t have landed a job in banking with wicked high pay in NYC after graduation…</p>
<p>Good luck with the co-op at McDonald’s, dterino! You may be interested in this article (note the $9.77/hr average rate for managers although apparently some do make up to $13/hr. Not that a co-op student will walk into a manager position without prior experience, especially the higher paying ones…) ;)</p>
<p>[Everything</a> You Want to Know About Being a McDonald’s Manager](<a href=“http://sunnyglitter.hubpages.com/hub/Everything-You-Want-to-Know-About-Being-a-McDonalds-Manager]Everything”>http://sunnyglitter.hubpages.com/hub/Everything-You-Want-to-Know-About-Being-a-McDonalds-Manager)</p>
<p>Son is currently on 1st co-op 17.50 an hour - engineering - even has a couple of paid vacation days. Great company.</p>
<p>That’s how you know it’s a top position- paid sick/vacation days. My CS friend gets $23 an hour, paid sick days, and 3 paid vacation days… Totally unfair.</p>
<p>CONGRATS on the job, neuchimie! …and the wicked high pay! Good for you!! :- )</p>
<p>Concerned,
Do you know when your son started looking, how many interviews he had, and how long it took to get the offer? What company is he working for and is it in Boston? My son is a freshman and will be going next spring. He is also engineering. Did your son feel it was very competitive? Does he have a high GPA? Sorry for all the questions…lol…I am very curious!</p>
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<p>I understand where you’re coming from-- co-op $$ is not making anyone rich. If it is totally necessary for you to save money, then yes, live at home while working on co-op. People do this, and it’s a great way to go. You live at home, have virtually no expenses, and put aside a ton of money. (You just have to manage a co-op near where your parents live).</p>
<p>But this is the thing. It’s not that you aren’t making decent money on co-op. Some students do. The issue is that life is expensive. Rent is expensive. Transportation is expensive. Now, you go out on co-op and make $10k in 6 months? That’s a lot of money for a 21-year-old. The only reason your savings doesn’t add up is because you’re spending that money to live.</p>
<p>Whenever I post my net savings numbers, people freak. I get it. They go in thinking, oh! Full time work! $$$! Dollahs! Benjamins! And then they look at my numbers and think, wait, $2k in savings per co-op? That’s not very many benjamins. But the big picture is that you’re taking in enough money to support yourself, and this is money that no longer has to come from your parents/loans.</p>
<p>A student at a normal school could work part-time for the 8ish months of classes, and make what, maybe $600/month as a waiter/barista, totaling some $5k. Then they “intern” or work full-time over the summer and put away some $3k. That’s $8k per year. A northeastern student? Say $9k on 6 month co-op, plus working as a waiter the other 6 months, $4k, coming out around $13k per year.</p>
<p>Ultimately, doing co-op and working part-time while in classes is going to earn you more than working while being a traditional student. Now. A traditional student will graduate sooner than a northeastern student, being that trads do 4 years and we typically do 5, meaning a trad student will be earning a “real” salary a year before we do.</p>
<p>So, does co-op put us financially ahead of our peers? Not really, except during the 2-3 years that we go out on co-op while our friends are full-time students working at the pizza place and interning during summers. Those few years we’re a bit ahead. Our fifth year, we’re in college and other friends are just starting their first real jobs. They may out-earn us that year, but then we pull right back up with them when we graduate (generally with a job where we know what we’re doing).</p>
<p>I mean, I could go on and on, and I’ve rambled enough on this topic. I just think we’re mixing up priorities here when we’re whining about co-op not paying tons of money. Co-op will give you some money to live off of, which is important for a lot of people. It certainly didn’t fund my designer-jean addiction, but it allowed me to pay my rent and buy groceries. And ultimately? I got a great job out of college that I probably wouldn’t have gotten without my co-op experience.</p>
<p>As for my friends who graduated a year earlier than me? They were all jealous that I got to put off the real world for an extra year. They were all jealous that I was secure in knowing what I wanted to do next and that I didn’t have quite as many job-hunting panic attacks while I was a senior in college.</p>
<p>He had 2 interviews got 2 offers. His GPA is pretty good - above a 3.4 at the moment. Great company outside of Boston - he was told that his company was one of the higher paid ones (in the top 20%). 2 interviews were in early November and had he accepted the job before Thanksgiving - said highest paid sophomores were making ~19 per hour (those with >3.5 I’m sure)</p>
<p>In general (so including engineering), the first co-op depends a lot on your GPA. When no one really has any experience, they’ll sort out the to-be-interviewed resumes mainly on GPA and courses taken. After you get your first job, it stops mattering as much although a lot of jobs still have minimum cut-offs.</p>
<p>And thanks. 
I obsessed over Husky CareerLink in September and October like my life depended on it. I have the finance career services advisor on speed dial.</p>