What was your cooperative education experience?

Hey guys, I am a sophomore going to the University of Alabama and I am very interested in the cooperative education program here. I was just wondering what some of you guys’ experiences were as farm as:

  • type of work you did in the program
  • your experience level when you signed up for the coop program (like what classes you had taken beforehand)
  • how well were you treated by the employer
    I ask these things because I am interested but I have no idea what I need to know before I start the program. Do I need to have prior knowledge or will they teach me pretty much everything I need to know?
    Thanks for any replies.

My son is a 5th year student at UA (in his 4th year of classes because he completed a co-op)

The type of work will depend on your major. My son is a Civil-E major and he worked for a geotechnical engineering firm. He primarily worked as a concrete technician and went to construction sites to test the concrete.

When my son began the co-op process, he’d completed a full year of classes and had already completed a summer internship (after his freshman year). He didn’t go through the co-op application process until his 2nd year and didn’t begin his position until the 1st semester of his 3rd year (so by then had completed 2 full years of classes). But it is possible to start the co-op process as a freshman and start the summer following freshman year or the fall of your second year. Most businesses aren’t expecting students to have any professional experience. At least at Bama, you must complete 1 year of classes before beginning your co-op.

I think he was treated very well by his employer (but he might debate that somewhat). He was allowed to drive a company vehicle, he received an industry certification that the company paid for, and he travelled out of town for business several times paid for by the company. He was paid decently and also qualified to participate in their company 401K retirement program.

At Bama there are meetings you must attend if you are interested in the co-op program and then you will submit an application and attend interview day. You will be told in advance what companies will be attending interview day, given descriptions of what the company does, what majors they are looking for, and any requirements you need to meet such as GPA requirements. Then you will get to sign up for 4 or 5 businesses to interview with, students with more credits get to sign up first, so they get to select the more popular/in demand businesses.

Most of the businesses are in the south-east area, but many are not within commuting distance of T-town. Some provide a housing stipend, others don’t and you have to locate your own housing, it just depends on the business.

If you are interested, I highly recommend watching for the mandatory info session and attending and going through interview day. If you decide you aren’t interested or aren’t happy with any of the offers you receive you can always turn them down, but if you don’t go, you’ll never know what you may have missed out on.

OK, just looked it up if you don’t know but if you are interested in interviewing this fall you must attend one of these orientation sessions:

September 19th (4-5 PM) OR September 21st (3-4 PM) OR September 22nd (4:45-5:45 PM)

All sessions will be held in the Ferguson Center Theater

Your application would be due no later than September 23rd.

And interview day is October 12.

This is from the co-op site and may answer some of your questions: http://coop.eng.ua.edu/files/Program-Requirements.pdf