<p>There are schools out there such as Waterloo, Northeastern, Georgia Tech, RIT, Drexel, and Kettering that offer a program called cooperative education which many students at these schools participate in. In addition many other schools offer this program though it is not as popular.</p>
<p>For those of you out there who are not aware of this, cooperative education is a program where students alternate work and school semesters in usually a 5 year program. Some semesters may be spent in school and classrooms while other semesters are spent in the workplace doing something that people in the student's chosen majors do after college. </p>
<p>There are so many positives to this program that I don't get why it isn't more popular:
1) You get paid during the "work semesters" which can help pay off those high college costs that you will have to pay during the school semesters. Most people go to school for 4 years and work 1-2 years and you don't have to pay tuition during the "work semesters". I know that engineering majors at Northeastern get a starting salary of $11-15/hour.
2) You get work experience on your resume. Most students that participate in co-op end up having 12-24 months of experience. When employers look at your resume, you may have an advantage having work experience in your field (1-2 years of it) over somebody who has had zero work experience.
3) The majority of co-op students (unless the company thinks that they are terrible) are offered a job by the company that they work with after graduation so you are at least guaranteed 1 job offer after college.
4) You can find out if your major is right for you. If you choose a major but find out through cooperative education that what the jobs in that major involves is not quite what you want, you still have time to switch your major. It's better to find something you want to do during college than find out that you don't like your job after college.
5) You can apply what you learn in the classroom to the workplace and vice versa. Book-learning is great but you will learn more if you actually use what you learn and use it in the real world.</p>
<p>Just some of my thoughts, interested in hearing what you all think about co-op.</p>
<p>Co-ops can be a good and even great experience for students pursuing very specific, co-op-friendly fields: engineering, business etc. But schools concentrating on co-op education are not ideal for those unsure what they want to study, or those interested in the liberal arts (which is what the majority of students in the US pursue.) Co-ops also change the vibe and atmosphere of the school, with large percentage of students disappearing off campus for months at a time. If you want a traditional campus and a traditional undergraduate experience, the schools you listed won’t be good choices.</p>
<p>Anecdotal, but the jobs near my S’s best friend’s co-op school have dried up with the downturn in the economy. He hasn’t finished his co-op obligations yet, and thus can’t graduate. According to his mom (a friend of mine) a lot of other students he knows are in the same boat.</p>
<p>Based on his experience, I think it’s a dicey choice right now.</p>
<p>The most recent group of college applicants started the process last year when the economy still looked good. It still hasn’t sunk in for a lot of HS students that things are tough, and will get tougher, before they get better. Once they figure that out, I expect that more of them will be looking at practical degrees, and at co-op programs.</p>
<p>Hmm well what if liberal arts majors were more involved in cooperative education? I know somebody who was a history major from Brandeis, graduated and now has no clue what to do so he is working at a volunteer somewhere. I think co-op can benefit everybody even liberal arts majors because it can give them a sense of what they might be doing after college (and for liberal arts majors, the work experience could be a research assistant somewhere in place of a job).</p>
<p>It’s true that the co-op program makes it harder to keep up with friends and changes the campus atmosphere but the real point of going to college is getting a good education and a good start to your career.</p>
<p>"Anecdotal, but the jobs near my S’s best friend’s co-op school have dried up with the downturn in the economy. He hasn’t finished his co-op obligations yet, and thus can’t graduate. According to his mom (a friend of mine) a lot of other students he knows are in the same boat.
Based on his experience, I think it’s a dicey choice right now. "</p>
<p>I think the fact that students have to struggle with finding a co-op job could be a good learning experience. If you can’t find a co-op job, it will be just as difficult getting a real job so one can learn what you need to do to get a job in the real world. Also, you are not limited to the area around the college to get a co-op. You can go anywhere in the world for your co-op.</p>
<p>Not downgrading what the OP is saying but some of the points may be less true today. The coop student does not have at least one guaranteed job offer in today’s economy. In fact, this past year it was difficult for students at coop schools to get coop positions.<br>
In addition, the wages earned during coop may be needed to pay for room and board if the coop position is near the school but not near the student’s hometown.<br>
The other points in the OP have merit. I do think that students who have practical work experience in their field will have an easier time of it in the job market when they finish school.</p>
<p>I think that the coop approach is interesting but the more traditional approach of summer internships can also work too and there is the flexibility with the latter in stead of a requirement for graduation.</p>
<p>My D was accepted to Drexel. Even with the co-op option, it’s still a very expensive school. The financial aid was poor in comparison to several other schools. Also, the $$$ earned during co-op is considered in the financial aid package during subsequent years. </p>
<p>Yes, the co-op program has many wonderful benefits, but for a student relying on FA…didn’t work for us.</p>
<p>ksabbo makes an excellent point. Most of those co-op schools are private. No matter how much kids make, it doesn’t make up for the exorbitant tuition.</p>
<p>It has never been an option for any of my children, while Northeastern University is close to us geographically, their lack of housing and lack of financial aid means it just doesn’t make the grade, so to speak! </p>
<p>When you are putting 4 children through college in 11 consecutive years (2003-2014) things like financial aid & on campus housing are extremely important.</p>
<p>Well, actually a lot of schools (including public schools) that are not expensive have the co-op option too…like I know the public schools I looked at: Clemson, Purdue, VT, Pitt all had co-op, it’s just that most of the students at the school didn’t take advantage of the program.</p>
<p>I definitely plan on doing the co-op program at Clemson to get some work experience in my field before graduating. I think internships are great but if you spread it out over 3 work terms, you can get 3 “different” work experiences.</p>
<p>There are typically three summers for summer internships so you can get three experiences too and NSF REUs are geared towards summer internships so you can get a research internships and one or two industry internships. Research and industry internships may be possible throughout the year too but they obviously won’t be fulltime.</p>
<p>pierre–S’s friend was supposed to have on in the school’s area, not his own (where there was stuff available). At least, that’s what I’ve been told.</p>
<p>garland, I really doubt if that’s true, I know at least for Northeastern and the majority of co-op schools, the co-op advisers will try to help you find a co-op wherever you want in the US. I doubt if a school would really limit you to the school’s own area…</p>
<p>The school’s own area would be the strongest natural recruiting area. Local companies routinely send internship and job openings to our son’s university. I doubt if random companies in California would send offers to this school. Many leads come to professors, department heads and alumni and those people are more likely to be local.</p>
<p>garland, was the friend a pharmacy student, by chance? If so, the pharm schools often limit the co-ops to those places they have preceptor agreements with as they are also using them to satisy AACP experience requirements.</p>
<p>One of my sisters did the coop thing for nursing several decades ago and she didn’t have any trouble finding work. I think that was the case for nursing in general back then though.</p>
<p>Co-op requirements depend on the school and the major. I go to Northeastern and most students are not required to do three co-ops. There is an “experiential education” requirement, which I believe can be filled by study abroad, one co-op, an internship, etc. So most students wouldn’t be held back from graduating because they couldn’t find a co-op.</p>
<p>Drexel factors co-op income in FA? Wow. If NU even knows how much we make it’s what because we tell them. You don’t get FA while on co-op, (maybe if you were on a total full ride you would for your living arrangements) but you also don’t need to pay the school anything. So no need for it, really.</p>