In one of my past posts I asked about OSU versus UC and it seemed to get mixed responses but I think one of my higher priorities with engineering is the coop option. One guy said UC for coop. Is it more preferable to have a mandatory coop considering you have a better guarantee to be in and out by five years (UC) or making coop optional choosing when you work either doing internships or cooping with coops stretching over two semesters (OSU). Both seemed like they had a pretty big list of companies for coop. If you do comment please try to keep your biases out of it.
If you are sure that you want to do a co-op, then it makes no difference if it is mandatory or not. Most engineering programs have a co-op option and they make sure it does not delay your graduation unduly. on the flip side, if you are not completely sure about whether you want to do a co-op, then choosing the mandatory co-op program might not be the best idea.
First, I’d suggest making it a habit to use the full name of each university at least once in your first post, because here it is not obvious. I am guessing from context that in this case OSU is Ohio State University and UC is the University of Cincinnati?
My opinion is that a mandatory co-op does not really, in and of itself, represent an advantage over an optional program. On the one hand, it does guarantee that a given student will have some job experience upon graduation, which is a huge bonus. On the other hand, most schools where co-ops are not mandatory still have ample co-op and internship opportunities, so it’s not like you are left high and dry in those cases; it’s just not provided for you by default. The advantage there is that you have the flexibility to decide to only do internships over the summers if you so desire rather than spending a full semester at a company.
Which approach is better for you really depends on your goals. For example, if your goal is to go straight into graduate school, then delaying your graduation to do a co-op may not make a lot of sense when you could just do summer internships to get that experience without tacking on an extra semester or two to your program. On the other hand, very few students are able to actually predict whether they will go to graduate school early enough that it can affect their original college choice. For me, then, if I was making this decision now, I would prefer a program without a mandatory co-op so that I am free to make that choice later on. Of course then the onus is more on the student to make sure they get some work experience, but that’s not necessarily a disadvantage.
@boneh3ad Yes I meant Ohio State University and University of Cincinnati; my bad. Even though co-ops seem much better, are internships just as beneficial or do they have any advantages over co-op?
Mandatory co-op programs often give the opportunity for more, longer experiences in industry. That can be a really good thing, but certainly summer co-ops/interships are valuable too.
Mandatory co-ops and the co-ops at other schools are generally the same: semester-long (or semester and a summer) work experiences. Mandatory just means it’s mandatory, not any different in content.
Summer internships are essentially the same except they don’t take up any actual school semesters. The advantage is that you don’t delay your graduation at all. The disadvantage is that you don’t get as much experience from them.
One difference between a mandatory program and a non mandatory one is how the universities are set up to handle the students schedule. Since all students are required to co-op at U of Cinc. you will not need to worry about not being able to get a required class. Our D goes to Purdue and is doing a five term co-op. She is in the Honors college and was stil unable to take organic chemistry yet. She’ll take it in the fall of junior year. At UC that wouldn’t have happened. She’ll get done in 5 years but she is a bit out of sequence.
Long ago, I considered “Semester in Industry” at Clarkson. It would have meant fall semester co-op. However it would have made housing/roommate situation complicated. Instead I opted to do a summer internship (not as long/useful, but easier logistics). When DS looked at Northeastern co-op program, I immediately appreciated the advantage of a campus / schedule geared toward co-op. Many students actually live on campus and do co-ops in or near Boston. They continue their campus clubs during co-op semesters. It’s just part of the culture.
Yes, check to see if all courses in important prerequisite sequences in your major are offered every semester. If not, then you may have some semesters that must be school semesters, rather than co-op semesters.
If all other things are equal (e.g. course offerings at school, co-op job opportunities), it may be slightly preferable to do a co-op in the fall rather than the spring. Fall semesters tend to be more heavily enrolled than spring semesters, so courses may be more likely to be full in the fall.
As mentioned in post #6, you should look at the colleges you consider to see how well coops are integrated into the curriculum. Engineering degrees require a set of courses often taken in a fixed sequence, and a coop program can interfere with this unless the school provides otherwise.
One advantage a school with a mandatory program offers is they usually guarantee to find a position for everyone. If it is optional its up to you to land your own; if you do, great, if not, so sorry.
I agree that mandatory vs. non-mandatory co-op doesn’t make a difference, as long as you do it (especially if you have a lower GPA, because if you do with no experience no one will hire you). Rather than looking at how it fits into your curriculum, however, I would look at the strength of the co-op program. Don’t get me wrong, looking at how it fits into your curriculum is very important. But the strength of the school’s program is more important. We have a co-op program that is one of the oldest at my school. It is very well known, basically every student gets a co-op that wants one, and if they don’t want one they are still highly encouraged to get one. And then the employer will hire them after usually and sometimes even pay for the remainder of their schooling. So co-op at my school, although not mandatory, is basically expected and it would be stupid if we didn’t do it because of the strength of the program here.
The advice provided above is very sound. Fwiw my understanding of the OSU co-op program is that it’s well-supported. (This is not true of all universities with co-op programs. Some Unis prefer the “out in 4ys” philosophy, and my sense was that the co-op program can be a token option in that case) OTOH I would think that, if it’s required, a Uni has additional pressure to make it work. I have no basis to say which is better for you, just adding .02. Are there curricular differences or environment differences that help with your decision? Those are important to consider, as well.
Lake Jr. just received an offer for his first school-term co-op, so the opinions in this thread are helpful. Delaying his graduation to take advantage of the 9-month co-op is probably worth it, as the job seems to be very well suited to his prior internship/research experiences and classroom work. In any event, he needs to thoroughly discuss the logistics with his advisers on campus, as was suggested above.