I just got accepted to computer engineering at UIUC and I’ve been trying to find out information about Co Op for the past hours. Unfortunately, I didn’t find anything useful regarding to how does co op work at UIUC. Can any current engineer student shred some light on this topic? I’m currently wary of Co Op from UIUC at the moment because some students on reddit said that they had to reapply to their majors for every semester of Co-Op, and there is also a fee of around $1000 for Co-Op which isn’t very attractive to me.
Hi.I’m applying to UIUC for next fall for computer engineering too.Can you please tell me about how the course is there.
Also, regarding the co-op, how long were you able to work and how much can I expect to earn there during my undergrad??
Thank you.
I assume by co-op you are referring to the many internship (usually summer) and co-op (usually during a semester) work programs that you can apply for through the engineering department. There are many such, very good programs with private companies. They provide real work experience and for many it leads to job offers after graduation. Though you can do them as early as first year, usually the co-ops are looking for those beyond first year, often juniors or seniors who already have the basic freshman and sophomore courses. Many consider an ideal co-op situaiton as one that starts with a second semester junior year and then continues through the summer (as a continuing co-op or internship, giving you eight months with one company). The co-op companies typically pay an hourly rate ranging anywhere grom $12 to $25 an hour. The $1,000 you are hearing about is a bit less than that currently and what it consists of is the following: (a) a $200 course tuitiion fee for Engineering 310, a non-course in reality that has zero credit hours but has a prof assigned who you can go to during the semester you are working with any questions and may require you to provide some regular reports on what you are doing; grading is satisfactory or unsatisfactory. As long as you sign up for that course, you maintain your status, including major and registration priority for courses when you return: (b) since you are still considered a UIUC student for the time with the co-op, you have to pay some of the usual semester fees that any UIUC student has to pay, currrently amounting to about $700. A co-op does obviously add a semester to the time you will graduate.