My son is currently applying to the Class of 2021 so the Summer Arch Program would become mandatory after his Sophomore year. I believe this program is currently voluntary for School of Engineering and Lally School Sophomores.
What was the reason RPI gave for scheduling the away-semester for the Fall or Spring instead of the Summer?
What were some of your reasons for opting-in or not opting-in?
If you opted-in, was an internship or Co-Op something you planned to do anyway?
Do you feel the CCPD has enough resources to help you find an opportunity for your away-semester or do you feel you have to do much of it on your own? And are the CCPD opportunities mostly local (Albany area)?
If this program were MANDATORY for your class year when you got accepted, would it have affected your decision to attend or not? If Yes, please explain why you feel it would have given RPI an edge over your other choices or why you would have been turned off by it. I think losing your ability to take a summer break would be one obvious answer.
I know that this program is just rolling out and you may not have all the answers yet. Any insight you could offer now or in the future would be very helpful.
If you are a prospective student or a parent of one, please feel free to chime in. Info about the program is at http://provost.rpi.edu/summer-arch
Hey! I’m currently a freshman CS & Computer Engineer and will most likely be participating in the Summer Arch program. I’m going to try and break this down point by point.
The away-semester is in the Fall or Spring since there are no summer co-ops for the most part. Companies enjoy having students for six month periods of time since then you can actually get a vast amount of experience and they can get a clear picture of you as an individual/worker. In addition, the student gets paid A LOT more in six months than two (like 20k+ for a semester for a good one and sometimes a housing stipend). This really is to help students pay for college (and come out with less debt/less amount of money for parents to pay) and also to help students get jobs out of college. With the way the program is set up now, 100% of students that participated in the co-op program got a job out of college - most of which were with the company they did the co-op with (sorry don't have the exact stat). This program is similarly offered at Northeastern and Darthmouth under different names. Northeastern just a regular co-op program that does this and Darthmouth calls it "Sophomore summer." A secondary reason for doing this is so the student has time away from the academic setting to experience working and pursuing their interests so they become a more "whole" human being which benefits them academically and in life - RPI basically wants well-rounded graduates through practical experience.
Opting-in, you get access to an invaluable experience with a potential future employer, it looks REALLY good on a resume, you get paid if you get a co-op or internship, and it also allows you to experience something new. RPI is also gorgeous over the summer and there's a lot to do in the Capital Region as well as activities and you'll be with your entire graduating class so it should also be generally fun. You can opt-out if you're not interested in a co-op and you just want to finish school as quickly as possible or don't want to take summer courses, I guess it's personal preference but I see no reason to opt-out.
The CCPD overs a plethora of resources for RPI students. First of all, there's RPI Job Link. Many of my friends got internships from Job Link and there are SO MANY on campus interviews. You get emails every week multiple times if you subscribe and there are definitely a lot of opportunities. The career fairs are also very valueable since very big companies come - including Google, Bloomberg, IBM, General Electric, Cisco, all the government agencies (NSA, CIA, FBI, etc.), and many more. The CCPD is not at all limited to the Albany area - RPI sends kids all over the world for internships, co-ops, and after college jobs (check: https://www.rpi.edu/dept/cdc/Annual%20Report%202015.pdf for a list of employers/salaries, etc.). Also, nearly 9/10 RPI students have a job or are in grad school within the respective field by the time they graduate (RPI doesn't count students flipping burgers at McDonalds as a real job - many other colleges include things like that to fudge the employment reports so be wary for other lesser tier schools that claim higher employment stats).
I know kids that have gotten jobs basically everywhere from RPI including Pixar, Cisco, Tesla, Apple, Microsoft, a ton of different engineering/architecture firms, banks, Intel/AMD, NVIDIA, Lockheed Martin/Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Pwc/Deloitte, Disney, etc. Most of these companies also come and recruit or go to the career fair. Many fraternities/sororities also get people that graduate that come back and recruit. I know people that got jobs with Vital Vio (a local startup), video game companies, and Hasbro through my fraternity. I also know someone that got a job at Mercer (a big biotech company) through their sorority on campus.
Going off that, I got a co-op with a defense firm for next year and a summer internship at very large bank (Fortune 500) this year as a freshman. It's not necessarily common to start this early, but the CCPD was invaluable in helping me with that. I usually recommend that other freshman should send out 2 applications per day for two months and eventually you'll hear back and get in somewhere. The CCPD can only help freshman so much since companies usually want juniors/seniors.
It wouldn't affect my decision, if anything it would make me want to come to RPI more since these kinds of programs were exactly what I was looking for when applying to college due to the job security that comes with them. Many other top engineering schools (Northeastern, Purdue, etc.) offer these programs as well and they are VERY good to be involved in.
Further insight: From what I’ve heard they are making it so you need to live on campus for Summer Arch (normally students involved in Greek Life by sophomore year live off-campus and pay a fraction of the cost of the dorms). Also, they are updating course offerings for future summers to reflect the number of students so there will be a lot of things offered for students to take - it won’t just be general requirements, etc.
Best of luck :). If you haven’t already, visit campus and wait on your decision/aid statement before making any judgement to enrollment.
@joedoe Thanks for the detailed analysis of the Summer Arch Program. We attended an Open House last Fall and there was only a quick mention of the program. I don’t think the details were in place yet.
You mentioned that employers enjoy having students for six month which makes sense. But each semester is only four months so how do you turn that in six? I can maybe see that Spring plus the follow Summer equals six but what if you choose the Fall as your away-semester? Do you know if there are any breaks between the end of the previous Spring semester and the Summer session or between the end of the Summer session and the start of the next Fall semester?
@joedoe The program is relatively new so that makes sense and, again, it really depends on the student. You give them the times you are available and that’s how that goes. For example, if you do the spring you can choose to do the co-op before the semester starts and after it ends so you make more money/spend more time. So you can begin (for example) after the semester ends in December and finish in May or June and that’ll be a lot more time. Every company varies, but typically co-ops are 4-6 months in length (sorry if I didn’t give the range above). Also, again, breaks vary on your personal preference and the company. Some want you right away, others will let you have your break/you decide. I would say don’t worry about those details until the time comes since every employer is different in flexibility.
@joedoe Thanks again. By “break” I meant official class days off between the Summer semester and the on-campus semester immediately before and after it. Have they established the start and end dates for the Summer session?
Nice pickup about the dorms. If you are required to live on campus in the Summer (and pay another semester for Housing) then they may also require you pay for a Meal Plan. Sounds like a good way to generate additional income from the otherwise empty facilities during the Summer. Do you think they would use the “extra” money to reduce tuition and other fees for students? :)) I guess in a way they already spent the money by upfitting classrooms and dorms with air conditioning.
@newjerseydad888 They claim it fosters “community” but the extra income will allow for increased enrollment/space during the fall as well as renovations to the freshman dorms.
RPI is trying to get you more work experience before you graduate. That can only be a good thing.
Northeastern and Stevens have well established coop programs, and many students take longer to graduate and/or take summer courses with a single coop, and graduate on time. No college can guarantee you a great, high paying job, the employers must select you. That said, working 6 months vs a 2 month summer internship is something much more attractive to many large employers, a better look at you. EVERYONE is looking for those summer internships, less people for those coops. And if you can’t get a coop that makes sense for you, can’t imagine they make you take off time from school to work at a fast food restaurant
