Wanting to round up information about co-op financial outcomes

Parents Forum
1

So I’m curious about those that have had kids do co-op and whether they were able to contribute to the cost of college. DS has options for schools that range from about $15k to $35k per year. Can they make enough to offset a higher priced school? Maybe not $20k difference, but say half of the difference?

I recognize that a lot depends on major and company where they work. He will be in CS most likely, so a tech field, which tend to pay higher. I’m trying to determine what a realistic contribution might be, or will he be lucky to cover his living expenses?

When I did co-op back in the 90’s, I was able to support myself and save money for spending when I was in school. Of course tuition was $700 a semester and my parents paid for college.

I’ve looked around the threads on CC, but if there’s a good one, feel free to link it here.

2

Good question! My daughter went to Northeastern, and really wasn’t able to contribute a lot through co-op, although she was in science research and not CS, which I assume would pay more. When she was on co-op she paid for her rent/expenses, and once her co-op was over she was offered a part-time job at the same lab, a job she kept for 3 years. Through that, she was able to cover many of her personal expenses and paid for books. But otherwise, the bank of mom and dad still covered her tuition and the lion’s share of the high cost of living in Boston.

Honestly, I think computer science kiddos could go just about anywhere and still get good summer/part-time jobs while they’re in school. They don’t need the extra career boost you get at the co-op-centric privates. Most CS students/grads do just fine at plain ole state Us that cost less than a Drexel, Northeastern, etc. Just MHO

3

Many colleges have optional formal coop programs, and many have withdrawal and readmission policies that allow a student roll his/her own.

Of course finding a coop job and its pay level can vary a lot from one student to another. Major and location can be significant factors.

4

My advice is to not factor in co-op earnings in paying for tuition and expenses during academic semesters. Many kids can use co-op earning to support themselves during their time on co-op (some co-op in their home town so there is no room and board to pay). If a school is unaffordable, co-op will not make it affordable.

5

Especially in CS, co-op earnings shouldn’t factor in to the decision as, even if the lower-priced school doesn’t have a formal co-op program, he could likely easily take as much time off from school and work the same amount of time to make the same amount of money as in a co-op program.

6

The danger in just taking time off and not being in the formal co-op program is if the school gives merit scholarships for 8 consecutive semesters.

7

Some six years ago my D and I were discussing the same things. She wanted to study Chemical Engineering and she knew she wanted a coop with the idea it would help pay for college. I forget our exact calculations but we figured her coop earnings could contribute around $15000 towards 4 years of education. This was predicated on attempting to be as frugal as she could be and a projecting a moderate income amount and guesstimating the expenses.

In the end her coop provided significantly more. She was able to do a 5 term coop rather than 3 terms, work for a large company in a low cost area. The company provided a housing stipend and she lived in local housing rented specifically to coop students. The cost of the housing was pretty close to the stipend. I did have to get used to the coed living environment but overall the students were well behaved during her terms.in the end her coop probably contributed around $40000 to her education allowing her to get her degree with no loans (our original plan had her borrowing the maximum she could.

Things to consider. First, the number of terms. My D went into her degree with 42 credit hours from AP courses. She was able to graduate in five years (she graduates in May and has a job lined up) and with 22 months of work experience because of those credit hours. Second would be the company. She sought out companies at the industrial round table her university hosted and started her coop the spring of her sophomore year. She ended up having 4 different job offers and was able to take the one that fit her future goals the best. Third, the cost of living. Chemical plants tend to be near water and frankly in sparsely populated areas. As such the cost of living was pretty low. Other coop students she knew had to contribute a larger portion of their income to their living expenses. Finally, finally how frugal they are. Much of this you won’t know until your child gets into college.

I can ramble on about her experience and if you have questions I’d be glad to answer them. There are factors such as scholarships and financial aid and how they’re handled, ensuring courses are available etc. in the end for us and many other coop students I know through my D’s experience the outcome had been better than expected. Good luck.

8

I know a few CS students at top LACs. No coop but they get very high paying summer jobs, making in excess of $20K for a 3 month summer internship. Downside - they are often in high cost of living areas so unless they have family/friends that could put them up, a good chunk does go to their living costs.

Another thing to consider is that if going into a coop school for CS means extending your undergrad degree length beyond the traditional 4 years, you are forgoing post-grad salary for that extra time, and that can be a chunk of change for a CS major.

9

Thanks everyone, All good information.

So a little more, at least one of the schools has mandatory co-op, and would be on the higher cost side. Also a consideration is that if he co-ops then the cost of 4 years school would spread over five, reducing the annual parent cost. So instead of 35 per year it would be 28 per year for a year longer. So cash flow would be easier for us, but it would cause him to still be in school when his brother starts.

I guess I have a hard time justifying the added cost. I know he can get a CS degree and be employed, but from visiting and looking at the programming I also can see some schools have better and more varied programming, where better could be the variety, the reputation, the company connections or even the difficulty/depth/teaching of the classes. He’d also like to do a BS/MS accelerated program, but the 5th year would cost us unless he can complete it all with his AP/dual enrollment credits. I tend to doubt that since he hasn’t had access to many AP. He will probably get about a semesters credit, 12-15 hours.

So the likely contenders for us are: Alabama (presidential elite scholarship, offered him a new car too, honors, hoping for RRS program), Purdue, RIT, RPI (hoping for merit at all of these, and acceptance at the latter two in RD), with a long shot being MIT (deferred)…but at an even higher cost.

I think RIT (mandatory co-op) is the favorite of the likely options, but we haven’t visited Purdue (will in April). My thought is that he should have some skin in the game if he wants a more expensive school. That could be money from co-op or summer work, the federal loans he can take, him finding, applying for and receiving scholarships.

He has worked hard through high school. I made the mistake of thinking and telling him in 9th grade that he could go the the state school Mom and Dad would pay for, or he could work hard, and go where he wanted (thinking like many that scholarships would be forthcoming). Of course when I found CC, I learned the truth. Scholarships can be had, but there has to be compromise on location, rank, programming…so the reality is finding the balance in those things that are truly affordable. I also never set a specific dollar amount, but in state schools are around $20k per year.

He was also accepted to NEU, but with scholarship I think the cost is still NFW. Case deferred him, but could climb back on the table with acceptance and enough merit. U Rochester as well with merit and acceptance in RD.

Also open to feedback on the CS programs mentioned.

10

New car? From a college?

11

^No, bribery from the parents, haha. We know he’ll need one after school anyway.

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@ChattaChia We were like you four years ago when deciding schools for my DD who is now a 4th year ME. Although she had received merit scholarships for other schools, her current college was her number one choice and being out-of-state it ran at about $32K for her first year (it is now $40K) and didn’t really offer merit money. We told her that if that school was her choice, that she had to contribute $10K a year to help us pay for it. Her contributions would need to come from private scholarships and earnings from co-ops and internships. We agreed then that 70% of her earnings had to be given to us to help pay for her college. We decided on that split because we recognized that the jobs were tough and the 30% would give her spending money at college for extras (like spring break trips etc.).

My DD goes to a college that has an excellent college fair and does a great job attracting employers interested in hiring students. Plus my DD attends conferences with job fairs like the Society of Women Engineers so on average she gets six job offers a year for either co-op or internship positions. (as an fyi, my DD usually applies for travel grants or scholarships so she has her conference costs covered). Each offer has included a stipend to cover rent (and the extra taxes) and transportation to the new job. (By the way she usually makes extra money with the transportation reimbursement because the monies paid for mileage exceeds actual cost-we let her keep that part). Her hourly salary offers have ranged from $21 a hour to almost $40 an hour.

I checked our records and for the internship after her sophomore summer she gave us $13K from her summer earnings. She was lucky her sophomore summer because she had received a job offer from a company that typically pays the most for internships in ME (the almost $40 per hour) and they were very generous with her (they gave her a macbook laptop after her interview). The 70% amount was after taxes but I checked her w-2 and she earned $24k that summer (she worked a lot of weeks because she knew she was making a lot and wanted to take advantage of the higher salary). Most of her friends earn between $20 and $30 per hour. After her internship, my DD then did a co-op for her fall junior year semester at a company that paid $21 an hour and the co-op was flexible that if you did not want to return for additional terms, you did not have to and could do so without any repercussions. Because she had already exceeded our $10K threshold we did not have her give us any salary from that co-op.

This past summer (her post-junior year summer) she interned for a company that paid her close to $30 an hour. They gave her $3600 to cover her summer rental costs so my DD rented a really nice Airbnb apartment that included everything so all my DD had to bring was her two suitcases. This internship was in a high cost area but the Airbnb came out to exactly $3600. We went on a very long family vacation so my DD only worked 10 weeks and she gave us $7K which represented 70% of her earnings last summer. My DD really scored with private scholarships this past summer and got $25K so she exceeded our $10K yearly threshold.

Co-oping that fall semester means she will graduate this December which technically is not an extra semester because she only attended her college for 8 semesters. We had a huge tragedy when she graduated high school (our house was heavily damaged in a flood) so we have appreciated having that one extra semester to spread out her college costs). Plus I think she has appreciated the time too because CS and ME are tough majors and the breaks have given my DD time to get re-energized which increases the chances of her getting better grades. My DD is going to be returning to her company from this past summer for this upcoming summer so I know she will contribute at least $7K again this summer. Since she will only in school one semester, she has held up her end of our agreement. Plus between private scholarships from STEM organizations and her earnings, she has not needed any loans and we have been able to fully fund our retirement.

Some posters have commented that the one semester delay impacts the ability to start earning full-time wages etc. I disagree because I think all of this experience from internships/co-ops had made my DD much more marketable and she can command a higher starting salary. Right now companies are fighting over her for full-time employment and they all point to her varied experience from her internships.

With respect to CS, I had my DD check with her friend who does CS at Purdue. He has interned for Qualcomm, Yelp and Airbnb. Each company has covered his travel and housing. In STEM, CS majors typically make the highest hourly wage from major companies so he has earned between $40 to $46 an hour for his internships. Both my DD and her friend say that you can help get those higher hourly wages by what you are involved in at your college. They suggest joining a living learning community that gives you added benefits so that your resume is stronger. My DD is in one and she attended special leadership courses freshman year and had faculty funded research. Both say to join on-campus competition teams where a student can gain additional skills. My DD was on an SAE team and her friend was involved in Purdue Hacks where he was first a member and then went on to become president. My DD also does outreach (teaches STEM to girls for SWE events) and is a leader for a campus organization. Companies want both experience and soft skills so make sure your DS tries to gain them. It also helps to have good grades. Some companies want a 3.0 and others want a 3.5- those companies that want great grades tend to pay more.

I know everyone’s experience can be different. We had a plan similar to what you are contemplating and it has really worked out nicely. My DD is graduating with great experience and no loans. The other added benefit is that I have seen a lot of the United States because my DD has interned all over the place and I usually drive with her or fly to help set her up at her new locations. Her travel monies have paid for my costs also.

I also suggest you check with the career services office at the colleges you are looking at and ask about starting salaries and the list of employers who come recruit campus students. Don’t forget to ask your questions on the reddit forum for the colleges. Students are usually good at sharing information and they can give you an idea of the ease of getting internships/co-ops and salaries. My DD has 5 roommates with all sorts of engineering majors and their experiences have been similar.

Good luck.

13

My DD said her friends at MIT in CS earned between $40 and $48 working at Facebook and Palantir. Friend at Harvey Mudd in CS worked at Microsoft and got between $36 and $44 per hour. (did all summer with Microsoft in Seattle and going back full-time in August). All those companies covered travel and living expenses.

14

I forgot to mention but at my DD’s school, earnings from internships and co-ops are not included in the financial aid applications so they don’t count against aid for the student. Also some private scholarships include an internship offer so that is an added benefit. You mentioned you were having your DS look at private scholarships too. Although private scholarships are the hardest money to get for college, we have found that area fruitful. I put a lot of effort into finding them and my DD puts the effort into applying for them (which frankly is easy for her because she just reuses essays and has a good resume). We have pleasantly discovered that a lot of companies use private scholarships as recruitment tools in engineering and CS. Also the SAE competition team my DD was on led to other private scholarships in the automotive industry by both companies and organizations. My DD’s major puts out a biweekly newsletter listing private scholarships by organizations and companies which my DD follows through in applying for so be sure to ask her DS’s colleges about private scholarships for CS majors.

15

Wow @itsv thanks so much for all that information! Extremely helpful.