I recently got into the co-op program and was offered a job with the state of North Carolina Department of Treasury. I'm not very knowledgeable about the co-op program but it sounds like a great experience! Has anyone done it before or have any helpful insight as to if I should take a semester off and participate? Thanks for your comments!

12/14/2009 10:17:15 PM

Did three rotations at Sony Ericsson, then switched majors (mostly related to classes). I highly recommend getting this experience while getting paid $Texas. Even though I switched majors, I have 15 months of experience that looks nice on the resume.

12/14/2009 10:32:30 PM

not worth an extra year in school imo

just do summer internships. worked out well for me.

12/14/2009 11:20:17 PM

Depends on your major...engineering, do what ^ says. If this is a Finance gig it might be more worthwhile since quality internships in that area are a little harder to come by. You can always do it for a semester and get out if you decide you don't want to do it all three. (The co-op office will try and bully you if you take this option, but there isn't really much they can do except act indignant)

[Edited on December 14, 2009 at 11:27 PM. Reason : Also, it might be a good option if you're GPA aint so hot.]

12/14/2009 11:26:08 PM

^the one year thing is really only pushed for engineering. 1 year of COOP = 1 year toward PE.

^^If you want to get out in 4 years, don't do it. The money is nice though. It also gives you an extra year to grow up. Also, I wouldn't compare it to an internship exactly. I know that by the time I was on my second rotation, I had my own projects ( granted, this was after some massive layoffs) and created presentations/presented to reps from other companies and internal (above the engineer I worked with). Obviously others are going to have different experiences.

12/14/2009 11:38:34 PM

there are a lot more interns than internships atm...

12/15/2009 1:25:56 AM

^^Speaks the truth. I did two rotations at US Airways Engineering in Charlotte and although I decided it wasn't the place for me post graduation, it gave me a lot of experience and made the resume look nice. When I started my second rotation I already knew everyone there and how to do stuff, so I just jumped right in without a problem. I highly recommend the co-op program, although it is total bullshit that the co-op department charges you a $300 fee just for doing it.

Companies really like co-ops because A) You are cheap labor for doing a lot of the same things regular employees do, B) They don't have to recruit someone they don't know... you probably wouldn't have to go through an interview and stuff and C) They don't have to train you once you start as a full timer.

12/15/2009 11:44:05 AM

I'm a co-op and am going to graduate in 4.5 years, so not everyone takes an extra year to graduate. The company I'm with treats co-ops like royalty compared to its interns. The co-ops have a much greater chance of being hired full-time compared to the interns. But I don't know if other companies are like this or not.

And the co-op fee is now $430!!! A complete frickin ripoff. I send my co-op advisor emails and she never frickin responds. They're pretty useless IMO.

12/15/2009 5:19:28 PM

Thanks for all the input everyone, its really helped!
I am not so keen or happy about the $430 fee the co-op program charges but I guess it has to be done for insurance purposes, etc. I am not an engineering major, just communications but I think it would still be a great experience & an awesome resume builder.

I'm planning on still enrolling in a few online/night classes while I'm in the co-op program so I wont be that far behind on my graduation date, does anyone have any input on this? Will it be too much stress?

Thanks again !

12/15/2009 6:42:21 PM

^You're still considered a full-time student. You can use the gym, live in dorms, have a meal plan, and attend student functions.

12/15/2009 7:28:09 PM

Double-majored, one minor
Cooped 1 semester and 1 summer
in
4 years + 1 summer

At the end of the day, nobody is really going to care how long it took you to graduate. 4 years, 5, 7, what matters is what you did with your time.

For a coop, the work experience you have from your coop experience will help in a career. Also, as has been mentioned, you are given an opportunity to "grow up", i.e. get exposure to the business world before entering it.

Also, although the coop office may say otherwise, you are NOT required to complete 3 semesters of rotations. Would recommend talking to your advisor (if they are available right now?) if this is a decision that needs to be made for Spring 2010.

12/15/2009 8:10:19 PM

I know when I cooped I did whatever the hell my manager and I agreed upon schedule-wise, and beyond that I did whatever the hell I wanted.

While I couldn't help but give the coop department money to maintain my full time status, I didn't follow their exact traditional coop schedule.

[Edited on December 15, 2009 at 8:52 PM. Reason : ]

12/15/2009 8:30:21 PM

You need to do atleast 1 or 2 coops or internships while in school. You will be very happy you did once you start looking for a fulltime job.

12/15/2009 9:25:01 PM

You will have much harder time getting full time job out of college without a co-op or internship.

I postponed graduation by a year to do summer internships + part time --> very happy I did.


DEFINITELY WORTH AN EXTRA YEAR OF SCHOOL

You will have a resume ready to go your last year and you will have lots of money from working.

12/16/2009 8:40:02 AM

However --> a December graduation is dangerous

There are many companies in RTP who will not hire you if you graduate in December. Not all of them but certainly a few.

If you are graduating in December without a job --> stay in school the spring semester and apply to jobs taking classes for audit or pass/fail.

12/16/2009 8:42:30 AM

I am finishing my second rotation now with the North Carolina Department of Transportation. For engineers its very beneficial because as someone mentioned already, its one year less you have to work towards your PE license. The money is great and I have learned a lot here. I am really in no hurry to graduate; to reiterate, as long as you graduate with your time well spent, then your golden. Congratulations on the job, hope it goes well for you!

12/16/2009 1:07:36 PM

^^What is their reasoning behind this? That sounds like bs.

12/16/2009 4:24:27 PM

Thanks again everyone, I've accepted the position & am extremely excited to begin! Does anyone have any thoughts or experiences with financial aid when your in the co-op program? I know when your enrolled in the program all your grants etc. will be dropped once your classes are dropped but what about future semesters when you do enroll in classes will my grants stay the same as I've been receiving them or will they change?

12/18/2009 10:29:47 AM

you may get a warning or a letter from the financial aid office saying that you did not complete the required hours and you are ineligible for financial aid. This can be fixed with a simple e-mail appeal, they aren't going to punish you because you cooped. The only way this will alter your financial aid is the income that you are adding by doing the program, this will probably mean that you get less financial aid, especially if you do multiple rotations in the same year. You should be fine, remember to save your money, DON'T BUY A NEW CAR!!!!

12/18/2009 11:25:17 AM

^^^ Reasoning is that for programs that start in June/July -- there is a 6 or 7 month gap between graduation and when you start working. For some reason, many times people find other jobs during that period and resign from the one starting in june/july.

I am not saying this is true for all companies though.

12/18/2009 4:54:32 PM

Co-op was key for me in landing a sweet gig ...

Wouldnt change a thing ... and I was still able to graduate in 4.5 years, doing online classes while doing Co-op.

12/19/2009 8:58:50 AM

Anyone who thinks that employers care more about graduating in 4 years vs. a year of real experience co-oping doesn't deserve a job anyway. And they probably won't get one, either.

12/19/2009 9:30:46 AM

Take the Co-op and run with it. At the moment I know several business majors that aren't having any luck at all when it comes to finding internships or jobs.

I interned for 2 summers for a construction firm and it has been one of the best things to ever happen to me. I was able to gain a lot of knowledge and meet a lot of of people in the process. I still have several other companies pursuing me for learning how to estimate multi-million dollar projects when I was interning.

12/19/2009 8:41:21 PM

I don't get what all of the fuss is over feeling like you have to graduate in 4 years. College should be the best years of your life if you do it right. What's the hurry in getting to a place where you spend 40 hours a week in a cubicle for the next 40 years (ok, obviously a little bit of hyperbole, but still)?

I did 5 co-op rotations, and took 6 years to graduate. I didn't have to worry about money, I partied hard, had an extra two years to mature, and could not really imagine having *more* fun in college if i had to do it again.

12/20/2009 10:46:54 AM

I, too, will say that it is very beneficial. I will go as far as to say that I am glad that it forced me to do 5 years, so that I could spread my classes out, take a few extra interesting courses, and have a social life/join some interesting and fun clubs while my classmates wanted to shoot themselves because of their engineering course load. 10/10, would co-op again.

Quote :

"I'm planning on still enrolling in a few online/night classes while I'm in the co-op program so I wont be that far behind on my graduation date, does anyone have any input on this? Will it be too much stress?"

I did Organic II and Tech Catastrophes during my two rotations. It will be a little bit of a crunch depending on the class, considering you get up early, work 8-9 hours a day, then come back to homework. It isn't that bad though, since it is only one class and your job ends at 5pm (hopefully ) so you don't have to worry about take home from that. Definitely steer towards the humanities...though I don't really know what doesn't count as a humanity for comm majors

12/20/2009 1:15:07 PM

like ThePeter said, humanities are pretty easy to do distance-ed and generally only take a couple hours a week max, and with flexible class schedules you can usually work it in easily with an 8-5 job

I took both ENG331 and STS402 as distance ed classes while cooping and basically consisted of occasional reading, message board posting, (definitely dont have any problems there) a paper or two, and maybe some tests/quizzes. A lot of the time I knocked out the week's work in a night or two or on the weekends if I was really bored.

12/20/2009 9:55:14 PM

I took STS402 as well and really recommend it when you're working as a co-op. I also took HI 207 with Parker distance-ed, and it required more effort than STS402, but it didn't require a lot of time either, but the tests were proctored where the STS402 tests were online.

12/21/2009 5:00:13 PM

Quote :

"there are a lot more interns than internships atm..."

Bullshit.

1/9/2010 6:01:13 AM

mark me up as another proponent of co-op

i started with a summer part time then a fall full time. then my employer asked me to not miss anymore class semesters so i could go ahead and graduate and start full-time work with them. so i just did part-time and summers after that.

having a job in-hand your entire junior and senior year makes things like senior project a lot less stressful. plus while your buddies are all freaking out about interviews and scraping to get by, you're on easy street with your job and your fat bankroll you got from co-op instead of spending summers bullshitting and mowing lawns.

plus, you can still take DE courses. i took some technical writing class online, and another engrish to satisfy two of my CHASS credit requirements. also took statistics online.

[Edited on January 9, 2010 at 10:45 AM. Reason : .]

1/9/2010 10:44:15 AM

Quote :

"there are a lot more interns than internships atm...""

Quote :

"bullshit"

not bullshit...have you been to any of the career fairs lately? seen guys with 5 years experience willing to do internships?

i'm very happy with my co-op...there is no reason to rush to graduate with the current economy..buy yourself some time doing something useful like co-oping

1/9/2010 9:19:25 PM