<p>It is my understanding that Purdue has two different co-op opportunities, a 3 unit co-op and a 5 unit co-op. I was wondering if there were any Purdue students that have co-oped on CC and what your opinion is of each of them? Has your co-op experience been what you expected it to be and finally for those who have graduated from Purdue did it lead to your first job?</p>
<p>@lvvcsf:</p>
<p>Did you get any offers?</p>
<p>My D has been accepted to Purdue’s Engineering Program. She plans on studying ChemE. She very much wants to co-op. I am curious as to peoples experiences with Purdue’s co-op programs. It’s always been one of her top choices it has become, much to my surprise, one of her best choices. The other is Case Western Reserve.</p>
<p>My son is a soph. in ChemE there at Purdue and is currently doing his first semester in co-op. He had hoped to be offered one last year as a freshman, but there were not too many offers, and many of those who did receive an offer happened to be female. He is enjoying his co-op very much and will be with this same company for a total of 4 semesters. I know Purdue advertises the 3 and 5-semester co-ops in their literature, but I guess others can be structured as needed by the company? He is really enjoying learning new things, and the money is coming in very handy, too! I am happy for him to have this work experience, and for the maturity and engineering connections it opens up for him. And I think the rotations from ChemE classes, which are very hard, to work and back will be a breath of fresh air!</p>
<p>Thank you gersheplvr, D chose Purdue and is excited by the opportunity. She spent a week last summer at one of their STEP engineering camps and loved it. It seems their co-op program is well organized and offers more options than other programs. Best wishes to to your son.</p>
<p>My son is graduating in under a month and did the 5 semester co-op through GE and it really made his whole education at Purdue amazing. His was optional 3 or 5 semesters and he loved it and did the 5. The hardest thing for me as a parent was that he never really got home (we are out of state). At least with GE, when he was done with classes, they wanted him there the next Monday. When it was time to go back to school, they wanted him there until the last possible moment.
At least with his co-op, he was treated as a full engineer. He had his own projects, he had his own presentations, they took him on two business trips and he loved every minute of it. He said that it made the classwork so much easier too as he saw the real world applications of what he generally would be learning the next semester.</p>
<p>Hi fourkidsmom, </p>
<p>Can you help clarify? So if a student is in 4-year undergrad program, doing 5 year Co-op actually postpone the grad date to 5 years right? We are out-of-state so will be experiencing the same scenario. How does the 3 vs 5 work with 4-year degree?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Yes, his “class” graduated last year although there are many engineers with co-ops in the same position graduating with him. From freshman year on, he was either at school or at the co-op (which sadly, meant little time at home) If he was on the 3 plan, he could have finished on time. However, he truly loved where he was. They had him doing presentations, took him on a business trip and to a seminar, he took over one time for the engineer who quit on his second day and (just a bit of bragging) ended up with two patents pending for things he developed for the company.
I don’t know where your child will end up, but it more then paid for school for a semester, if that’s a concern. He got a scholarship to start and we were always paying for college so we have let him pocket the money.
His roommate has also done co-op but he is doing a management minor so he’s graduating in August. For us it was perfect as my d graduated high school last year so it meant we had a graduation a year instead of doubling it up.</p>
<p>How do coops compare to internships from the employers perspective. Is one more widely available than the other? What I mean is that do employers look for a student who can commit to work for them for the duration of their study at Purdue (coop) as opposed to offering the student an internship and if they like the work offer a position again during the following internship period(s). Any interns out there that can share their experiences and jobs availability/offers.</p>
<p>I would say Internships are more widely available, since co-ops usually require a lot of risk and company involvement and organization. If you look at the list of companies recruiting for internships vs companies recruiting for co-ops, internships will probably win (however, remember you’re competing with >4x the amount of people for internships). Employers would love to have co-ops, but I’m pretty sure it’s hard on the company to organize and start a co-op program. Cummins pretty recently changed from being only internships to accepting co-ops and internships. I don’t know of any companies offering both internships and co-ops if that’s your question…</p>
<p>Thanks again for your prompt reply. I just wanted to know if the recruiters have a preference in hiring a coop student as opposed to an intern. I understand they are not obligated to keep hiring the coop student if it didn’t work out. Would you say a student can gain the same experience doing 3 summer internships as a coop doing a 3 unit coop. I haven’t looked up the number of weeks for each. I guess semester being longer than the summer the work duration of the 3-unit coop will be longer. is the hourly pay about the same for the 2 programs, coop and internship.</p>
<p>I’m saying they usually don’t have the *option *to have a preference. The company usually only does interns or co-ops. Hypothetically, if the company had the option to choose either and they had the resources available to make a co-op program, they’d probably hire co-ops if they really want to keep the people. In my company, before you leave the co-op, you have like an exiting interview where your supervisors will talk with you about your future plans. I’m pretty sure they try to get you to stay. </p>
<p>No, a student doing 3 summer internships, especially at 3 different companies, will not get the same experience. Ignoring differences in length of terms, it also lacks a sense of continuity. You kind of start at step one at each company as they train you how they do things, and the supervisors aren’t familiar with you. Co-ops kind of hit the ground running as far as I’ve heard when they’re back at their company. You get raises with every term, and more responsibilities. How many interns do you know who can be leaders/ in charge of a team at their job? 3-5th term co-ops can be. </p>
<p>Not sure about pay, but with a co-op, you get a raise every term.</p>
Bump, I would love to know about how to find out what schools have more Co-ops.
What schools as in the school of mechanical or civil or electrical engineering? Or schools such as Northwestern or Drexel or UIUC?
Lots of schools have co-op, but they might be run differently and have different rules.