Prefer east coast schools with the strongest concentration in Mid-Atlantic My son also still wants to participate in music (sax player) when he attends. Thank you for help.
Northeastern has a strong reputation for their coop program.
Lots of schools with engineering offer optional co-ops. Also, even when a formal co-op program does not exist, it may be possible to withdraw for 9 months to work at a “co-op” job, then gain easy readmission afterward. But all of these do require investigating each school individually (usually by searching “[school name] engineering co-op” or looking in the career center and engineering web pages).
Some schools are known for building their curricula around co-ops: Cincinnati, Drexel, Northeastern.
Rochester Institute of Technology includes co-op as part of the program.
Many if not most engineering programs offer optional coop programs. Some of these schools provide little or no assistance in finding a coop job though. In optional coop programs students often complain about being "out of sync’ with their non-coop classmates. Also the need to make up classes after returning from optional coop may be an issue.
Lots of great engineering programs in the mid-Atlantic region. Most offer co-ops as “optional”, a few make it a requirement (like Northeastern). Some are super selective, while others are much less selective. Some are very expensive, others can be surprisingly affordable.
If you give us your home state, about what you want to budget each year on cost, ballpark his GPA/Class rank and ACT/SAT test scores, and folks will start listing likely matches. :-bd
1st school we looked at. He loved it
I don’t know much about NE or Mid Atlantic engineering departments that offer coop programs. My D was a student at Purdue University. They offer 2 coop tracks, either a 3 term or 5 term track. My D did a 5 term track completed her studies in 8 semesters and graduated in 5 years with 22 months of work experience. She made enough money to pay nearly 2.5 years of OOS tuition. Purdue does not have a music program but it does have 2 orchestras and several different bands. My D played in an orchestra 5 out of 8 semesters. They were by audition but she played in both at one time or another. The orchestras are typically a class (hers were 2 credit hours) so it gave her an opportunity to earn credit doing something she enjoyed without having to commit herself to a major or minor.
https://www.purdue.edu/bands/ensembles/
There are many schools which support coop programs and a number that require them. The advantage to those that require them is that they typically have the schedule worked out so you will always have classes available. Sometimes schools that aren’t mandatory coop programs can create situations where courses needed aren’t always available when the student needs to take them.
One school that does not encourage coops was Vanderbilt when my D was looking at schools.
Good luck to your son in his search.
NJIT, Stevens
U of Cincinnati and Drexel.
Northeastern is probably largest and, I believe the entire program is co-op, see https://www.northeastern.edu/coop/students/engage-in-co-op/overview/;
RIT has been big in it for a long time, seehttps://www.rit.edu/emcs/oce/student/intro-to-co-op;
RPI has a program, see https://info.rpi.edu/career-development/06/26/2018/co-op-process
WPI has about 600 participants or about 7%, see https://www.wpi.edu/student-experience/career-development/co-ops;
Drexel has co-op, see https://drexel.edu/difference/co-op/;
MIT has a co-op program, see https://www.ll.mit.edu/careers/student-opportunities/cooperative-education-program
There must be more as listed above.
As WPI has a broadly based multi-project program requirement for everyone with 45+ project centers world wide, they see co-op primarily as an FA tool, but acknowledge that the right co-op job offers educational value as well as financial assistance.
WPI '67
Northeastern co-op is very strong and lots of companies are looking for NEU co-ops.
Others have mentioned a few other schools, and I’ll add Clarkson to that list. They offer co-ops and internships.
University of Waterloo has the largest coop program in the world. All 9900 engineering students participate. It’s an 8-9 hour drive from Boston.
Waterloo is a great school. But a 9 hour drive can get you to North Carolina from Boston. I would fly.
NC State has 1 year co-op that allows students to choose how they brake it up: fall, spring and summer can do any combination with same or different companies - so for example some kids will commit to 2 in a row (usually including a summer) to get better, more in depth projects. Do not have to be done in consecutive semesters, etc.
@privatebanker North Carolina is 200 miles further from Boston than Waterloo. You can’t get to NC in 9 hours from Boston. Maybe Baltimore or DC. Flying between Boston and Waterloo would take you almost as much time as driving, well lots more as there are no direct flights, so you’d have to overshoot and fly back, so it’s better to fly into YYZ and then drive. I’ve done the trip dozens of times and driving would take maybe an additional 1 hour.
Look at capstone opportunities at schools, also. Depending on the program, a senior capstone project may involve an engineering project with a company. This could provide some “real world” engineering work during the senior year.
Oh I know. I was just joking a bit. I make it to dc and Baltimore in about 8 hours in overnight traffic and 70mph plus.