Northeastern Co-op

[Krazzydhoom]

Hey! Can someone who is/was in Northeastern university’s co-op program just give me some deets about it???
How was it??
Did you like it??
What did you do??
Im going in as a biology major! THanks!!

[PengsPhils]

Hey! You seem excited

You can find a lot of general information on co-op on Northeastern’s website:

https://www.northeastern.edu/coop/

Here’s a basic summary of scheduling:

Majoring and minoring is the same as any other school. You’ll take 8 semesters of classes, also like any other school, so academic space is no problem.

Scheduling works by having the academic calendar as follows:

Spring (4 Months)
Summer 1 (2 Months)
Summer 2 (2 Months)
Fall (4 Months)

When you go on co-op, you either do Spring or Fall, both for 6 months. You either do summer sessions (2 classes, half of a semester in every way, including tuition), stay for 5 years, or a combination of both. Most people do a 5 year 3 co-op patterns, but it’s really “create your own adventure”. Some people will do 4.5 years, some 4 years, etc. I believe all majors can be completed in 4 years with 2 co-op’s if you take a decent number of summer sessions. Summer sessions are common and have pretty extensive offerings relative to most schools as a result.

You’ll have an academic and co-op advisor to help with all the ins and outs, but you get used to it pretty quickly. The gist is you still take total 8 academic semesters with summers counting for half a semester with some number of co-op’s mixed in over usually 4-5 years.

Here’s an excerpt from a quote on another thread about co-op employers in the College of Science.

The medical community of Boston is a huge resource. Merck is a common employer I know of for chemistry type stuff from my friends. I’m not as involved personally in that area so I don’t know as many of the usual suspects, but I know many pre-med types that work in hospitals around Boston on co-op in various positions. That’s a nice thing to have on the resume for anyone going pre-med. Lots of healthcare companies as well.

Here’s a COS co-op stories page:

https://cos.northeastern.edu/experiential-learning/students-stories/

At the bottom of the page linked below, there is actually a map of every current student on co-op in the college. It’s a terrible page design, but if you zoom into Boston you can click around a bit. You unfortunately have to know a bit of Boston geography to get meaningful info out of it, but if you zoom in on the Longwood medical area, you’ll see about 25-50 pins in that area alone. The downtown area and Tufts medical center have medical concentrations and another big concentration is in Cambridge along the shore of the Charles.

https://cos.northeastern.edu/experiential-learning/co-op/

Some notables I found in looking through:
Merck
Novartis
Pfizer
Claritas Genomics
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Boston Children’s Hospital
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Harvard)
Mass Eye and Ear Infirmary
Judge Baker Children’s Center Inc

I tried to pick a decent sampling to show big names and depth/specialty, but that was all from a pass over that map focusing on the medical regions of Boston. I know people personally who have worked at 3 of those listed, and probably more I’m not aware of. Again, pretty small sample size there.

Personally, I’ve had a great time. I’m a CS major and have had two very well paying jobs with top tech companies as a software engineer, as well as an internship over a summer with a healthcare company. But co-op varies so much by major so it really depends on what you’re looking to do! For biology, you can go any route from environmental to medical to ecology to marine life to healthcare and more I’m probably forgetting or unaware of.

Co-op is the main reason most come to Northeastern, and it’s the real deal. I think one of the most telling stats is that 50% of students graduate with a full-time job offer from a co-op. That means not only do you have a full-time job offer, you’ve already tried it out for 6 months or more and can use that to decide if you want to come back.

[Krazzydhoom]

Wow that makes me so excited to go there! Hopefully I get accepted because I got deferred /
Thanks so much for all the info!!!

[TomSrOfBoston]

The concerns about coursework and social life may be valid at a school where coop is optional. The curriculum at Northeastern is designed around the coop experience, as is the entire experience. You will need to earn 128 credits to graduate (less any AP credits) just like any other school.

Many pre-med/life sciences coops are in the Harvard medical area and provide the opportunity to engage in research, and be paid for it.

[Krazzydhoom]

HI! So NEU is my top school. I applied EA and was deferred but I sent a letter of continued interest and hope to get in! I am mainly applying for the co-op which is why I think most people apply but I have 2 questions that will be the deciding factor for me if I get in.

1. If I do co-ops outside of Boston, and then end up coming back there for classes, will I have a huge miss on social life? How do roommates work if you are going to leave for a 6-month co-op? Is it going to be hard to maintain and make friends?

1. Are the co-ops going to be a hindrance to my education? I want to go to med school so going to have to take the MCAT, but if I keep going on co-ops, will that mean that I am losing learning time?

Thanks for the help!

[PengsPhils]

To add to the post above, there’s an entire co-op connections office that helps organize students in various cities while on co-op. Some of my good friends currently in Boston are people I met while on the west coast originally on co-op. There are usually also Facebook groups for each city/region.

As far as medical school, co-op’s can provide great experience that will make you stand out in med school applications, and you can choose a 4-year pattern over a 5 year one if you’re worried about being in school too long. As said, you’ll have the same number of credits as any traditional school.

[FwiendGuy]

@PengsPhils So do you pay tuition for four years or five year with the co-op?

[PengsPhils]

@FwiendGuy

You only pay tuition while in classes, not on co-op. 4 years / 8 academic semesters of tuition paid as with all other schools.

[FwiendGuy]

Thanks

[GarpRules]

@PengsPhils Do you happen to know if a student does a co-op during the fall or spring term and has a NU Honors Scholarship or a National Merit Finalist Scholarship if their status as a full-time student is still in tact and would not be in jeopardy of losing that status which is one of the requirements to keep the scholarship .

[PengsPhils]

@GarpRules

Northeastern is built around co-op’s and neither scholarship or financial aid is affected by them in any way - it’s put on pause, and aid/scholarships are run by academic semesters taken, not years, so they still apply for 5-year programs.

[GarpRules]

@PengsPhils @TomSrOfBoston How many credits per a full semester (fall or spring) is considered full-time (no overloading), based on TomSrOfBoston response above about it takes 128 credits to graduate , it would be 16 credits. So if that is correct then how many credits is each course worth that is offered in either the Fall or Spring; is it 4 or 3, or do they vary by course. Trying to figure out how many courses (not credits) you would need to take in each of the Fall & Spring semesters to be considered a full-time student at Northeastern.

[TomSrOfBoston]

@GarpRules The normal course load is four 4 credit courses per semester. There is a 1 credit Intro to Coop course and science labs would be an additional credit.