<p>Please explain your experience at Northeastern. How did the school help you get your co-op job. Where did you live? What did it cost to live during co-op?</p>
<p>Please do a search and read through other threads exactly like this. Emily and I have given detailed descriptions of co-op multiple times.</p>
<p>neuchimie - you and emily do have some great information out there. I was hoping to hear from others on the topic as well, hence the new thread with what I am trying to find out. Cost of going to NEU is an issue, better understanding of the co-op experience will tell me if it is worth the extra cost over a state school or a less expensive private. When in the dorms for your co-op and your roommate is working outside of the Boston area, do you get the room to yourself or do you get reassigned? Thank you!</p>
<p>I don’t think you’ll get too many other posters here who have been on co-op, but maybe someone else has been lurking and can talk about their co-ops.</p>
<p>Honestly, cost wise, co-op doesn’t change much. Really all it means is that you’ll be able to pay all or most of your living expenses (rent, food, transportation, utility bills, etc etc), but it’s unlikely to make a dent in tuition. We’ve detailed this a lot in other co-op threads. Ideally co-ops will set you up to get a better job right out of college, which will help you pay off those loans, but it’s not likely to help pay for tuition.</p>
<p>As for dorms, if a roommate moves out for whatever reason, you’ll be assigned a new roommate.</p>
<p>I got insanely lucky and wasn’t assigned (it was a mistake) someone when my roommate went on study abroad, and then my summer future roommate got married so I didn’t have anyone from Jan to Aug. Usually you just get a new person though.</p>
<p>Thank you for the information. It does seem Co-Op there is a chance of more roommates than a non-co-op school (of course you are there longer). NEU looks like a great school. It will be a hard decision to make, NEU vs Drexel vs RIT vs RPI vs Buffalo…</p>
<p>[The</a> Coolest Coop](<a href=“http://www.northeastern.edu/studentlife/coop/index.html]The”>http://www.northeastern.edu/studentlife/coop/index.html)</p>
<p>Contest winners for coolest co-op!</p>
<p>My son is a NEU '10 grad, School of Communications.</p>
<p>Not all co-ops are paid co-ops. Without an unpaid co-op, you are living in a very expensive city with no income. Not an option for many kids. </p>
<p>Work/Study students (aka financial aid students) get better co-op opportunities. My son had a great co-op his junior year when he was a work/study student, nothing panned out his senior year.</p>
<p>the co-op did not set him up for anything after graduation. He is working for minimum wage at a liquor store. be careful, NEU sells you a bill of goods that can be misleading.</p>
<p>I’m on co-op right now, my first co-op, and I think the program is amazing. What the poster above said, I completely disagree with. Work-study/financial aid has absolutely no effect on what kind of co-op you can get, other than a work study job maybe helping build up your resume. </p>
<p>Everyone has the opportunity to apply for whatever jobs they want, and its all about how proactive and involved in the process you are.</p>
<p>In my experience, if you work hard and try to build your resume before college to set yourself up to get a job, you will get a great job and have a great experience. Right now I’m working at Boston Beer Co. (Samuel Adams) and it is awesome.</p>
<p>mrfish, do you mind sharing your major and maybe some details regarding what you like about your position…? thanks!</p>
<p>Work-study actually does have bearing on co-ops. It depends a lot on what you’re trying to do. I’ve wanted to work at non-profits, and the work-study program at Northeastern will actually pay you for working at your co-op at a non-profit, so the organization doesn’t have to. There were places that I couldn’t even apply because I didn’t have work-study, and places that wouldn’t have paid me, but as a work-study student, I would have made a decent wage. I took one co-op that was an amazing experience, but I was paid a stipend of $200 week (for 40+ hours). If I were work-study, I would have gotten at least minimum wage. </p>
<p>I don’t think they do that for jobs that are not at non-profits, but major can still have a huge bearing on payment. As a journalism major, I know that many people who wanted to do broadcast journalism would not get paid for co-ops. That’s just how it is in the industry because it’s so competitive. Doesn’t matter how proactive and involved they are; for example ESPN would be an amazing opportunity and whoever got it would be an excellent candidate who had done a great job applying, but they probably still wouldn’t get paid (this information is a few years old, so may have changed).</p>
<p>Wow, I didn’t know any of that. That’s really interesting.</p>
<p>I’m a business major, and I think almost all business co-ops are paid. What I love about my job is just working at an amazing company. Its only my first coop, so the work is not all that exciting, but its fun to work at an exciting company where there is a lot of stuff going on, and where I know there would be potential for me to return later.</p>
<p>Is it possible for accepted students to gain access to the actual list of currently available co-op positions or at least they actual positions that were available for the last round of co-op placements?</p>
<p>I’m going on co-op in the fall and I still don’t have access to the list of available positions haha I’m pretty sure the only way to see that stuff is to be cleared by your advisor, which my advisor will hopefully be doing tomorrow that I’ve uploaded my resume…</p>
<p>Thanks blinkangel. Is there a list of last season’s jobs anywhere? GL with your job search :)</p>
<p>Mathmom, I don’t think they put out lists like that. However, each major has a co-op adviser, and I am certain that this person would have a list of positions that their students had. If your child knows what major they are interested in, you can try to contact that person.</p>
<p>Thanks eireann</p>
<p>Thanks mathmomvt 
Yeah, I don’t know of any such lists, but advisers would probably be your best bet to point you to the best resources!</p>
<p>Don’t know how great a resource this is, but here’s a link to a co-op ratings site that was started by NEU students: </p>
<p>[Co-op</a> Ratings - Home](<a href=“HugeDomains.com”>HugeDomains.com)</p>
<p>College and major does seem to matter. The colleges of business occasionally has more paid coops than they can fill in some areas. Some coops pay over $20 per hour. It is rare for a business student not to find a meaningful coop. Can’t speak for the other colleges.</p>