<p>On a Northeastern vs. Drexel thread I started in the Northeastern forum, a Northeastern parent who lives in Philly is claiming that the company that cleans her pool hires Drexel co-op students to do pool cleaning for their co-op. (Students are in biology and chemical engineering.) My understanding was that a job like that would not count as a co-op, so I feel like something is missing from that story. </p>
<p>So I'd be interested to hear from Drexel students or parents what they've experienced and heard regarding kids doing not-very-relevant jobs for their co-op rotations.</p>
<p>I unfortunately am not too familiar with biology co-ops at Drexel but I think you should be looking at the best (and not “bottom bucket”) opportunities that exist at Drexel and Northeastern. I would encourage you to look at current Drexel student’s LinkedIn profiles to get a feel for what type of companies, positions and work experience they are getting. I can see how it is easy for a parent to want to measure the co-op system by “what will my son/daughter get if they do absolutely nothing” …but a better perspective is “where/what can my son/daughter have the opportunity to do if they strive to do their very best at Drexel?”</p>
<p>I know I answered this question in another thread of yours, but I’ll just repost my response from before (which just elaborates on SixersFan6’s response) just for others to see:</p>
<p>In terms of Co-Ops, I saw your other thread about the friends who have the pool-cleaning or what not going on. While I hate to say it, I can attest that no all Drexel Co-Ops are that amazing. But I can guarantee you with 98% certainty that those students doing jobs like that are the students who expected co-ops to be handed to them. It is IMPOSSIBLE not to get a relavent or good co-op if you have atleast somewhat decent grades, and, more importantly, go about the application process correctly. Co-Op positions aren’t handed to you at Drexel. As a student, YOU have to use Drexel’s databases to find them, YOU have to apply, YOU have to have the grades or the interview skills or the resume to land yourself the job. If you slack too much in any of those aspects, you end up in a last-minute panic, taking the first job you can find. In your friend’s case, pool-related stuff.</p>
<p>If students don’t find a co-op by the time their co-op term starts, then they have to take a class with Drexel and maintain a job-search diary, proving that they’re still looking. It could be that the pool-cleaning job was the only job those students could find, based on their GPA, interviewing skills, etc. Like OnWithTHeDiotDU said, it’s really up to the student. You need to make sure you have some sort of experience (or at least fake it), keep your GPA up, and really put in the effort. While Drexel helps you out, they don’t hold your hand and baby you through the process. </p>
<p>I was pretty much unclear why Drexel would count a pool-cleaning job for co-op credit if the point of co-op is that the jobs have to be <em>relevant</em> work experience. Obviously the students in those “last resort” jobs are the ones who didn’t have a successful job hunt for whatever reasons, but what I was trying to figure out was why Drexel had such low standards in accepting a non-relevant job as a co-op job. I wrote to Drexel career services and they confirmed that they do place students in co-ops at that pool cleaning company, but claimed that the jobs were not “just” pool cleaning. They did not elaborate further.</p>