A co-op is a three semester job with a company where you actually work a full time job instead of going to school. They are paid rotations and you can make pretty good $$. Average is $18-25 + per hour. Three semesters of that can be quite helpful in paying for college.
Not trying to be difficult, but very curious about this statement. My D20, VERY interested in Pitt, also applied to Georgia Tech. She was notified that their acceptances will be sent out on March 14th. If you already know you are in, did you apply “early decision”? Why, if you weren’t very interested in attending?
In our case, D20 would like to experience life outside the southern states, so as strange as it may sound, Georgia Tech is both a reach school and a regional safety for her. I “get” the not too interested in staying in-state.
I’m not familiar with this. Is it different than a paid Internship? How would it impact scholarship money?
@TwoHighSchoolers GT Early Action came out mid January.
A coop usually last several months. It is like an internship where you work at a company and get paid and get experience by learning on the job.
Some schools have a formal coop (cooperative education) program and a list of employers they work with.
At Pitt the coop can be done from sophomore year on I think, usually alternating with semesters (including summer) where you take classes.
If you have a scholarship, that should only be used for semesters that you take classes.
During coop semesters you shouldn’t have to pay tuition, just a coop fee.
It sounds to me then, that you want a LAC and not a stem degree, right? Did you apply to any LACs that might give you money?
Again, if you DO end up taking chem, what career are you looking at? This co op talk is great for eng and CS kids, so don’t get too caught up in that unless this is your plan. I don’t know if straight chem undergrads get that many great co ops.
Ah ok, good to know. Thanks!
If you aren’t sure what you want to study, may I suggest to take advantage of your affordable instate options and that way you might be able to afford graduate school?
My parents and I are thinking the same thing. It seems to be the smarter move to just go to UGA or GT, but neither of them really appeals to me. I’m trying to decide if it’s worth all the extra money to go out of state, and if I can’t get anything extra from Pitt, I might just end up at UGA.
A co-op is like an internship but not just in summer. You are usually working at the company full time over the course of 3 semesters. Most of the companies have a formal program that rotates you through the different departments. Those who have done co-ops say they get more deeply involved in projects than internships.
An internship will be only in the summer and won’t interfere with graduate date. A co-op will interfere with graduation usually (but not always.) My student will have the same amount of total semesters at school (8) but will graduate December 2021 instead of May 2021.
Merit scholarships from Pitt are pure merit and not dependent on income. She could literally earn a million dollars and that would not interfere with her scholarship or reduce it in any way.
We do not have need based aid from Pitt so I have no idea how co-op earnings would interfere.
@sadieseahawks - have you given any thought to your offer from the University of Arizona? Pricewise, with a $35,000 OOS scholarship it would come in comparable to UGA or GT with your Zell Miller.
D1 had similar stats and scholarships elsewhere too - NMF, biology pre med track - chose Pitt and is loving it . Already doing research in a wet lab. , The city is fun and met diverse , smart and fun friends so far !
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Searching2020, the reason why I applied to Arizona was because I knew I would be getting a good scholarship, and money (and maybe location) is probably the only reason I would go there. I think academically they’re a step below the caliber of UGA and GT, which makes me hesitant to go there.
College4Four, would you mind sharing what made you pursue Pitt instead of other options (especially if you are out of state)?
GT is a much stronger school, both overall, and in chemistry, than Pitt or UGA.
I am here to give you hope. Just about this time last year my D19 really wanted to go to Pitt. She had been accepted and received merit $. The problem was it wasn’t enough. She wrote a letter directly to the director of admissions. It definitely pulled on the heartstrings. We also included her offer from Miami Univ(OH). Pitt did offer D19 $5K more a year. The ending to the story might not be the one you want. See in the end for us $5K wasn’t enough. D19 and I went to visit Miami in April. She really liked it. She ended up picking Miami and she really loves it. First semester was good. Although she hated her roommates but switched over break. She just went through rush and is now a member of a sorority.
The kicker to the story is she didn’t want to apply to Miami. I made her apply. Actually it was part of my plan all along to use Miami’s offer against Pitt. In a way it worked and got Pitt to come up with more money just not enough.
But this first hand knowledge that a letter with an enclosed letter from a similar school worked in getting merit $ increased.
Good luck.
I have what I know may sound like a ridiculous question to many of you, but I am truly naive when it comes to this. Where does this mom go to find a list of which colleges might be comparable to Pitt, so we know if it is reasonable to present their scholarship offers to Pitt admissions?
D20 is still waiting on admissions decisions from 6 universities, so we have a very long way to go in this process.
@TwoHighSchoolers
have you looked at USNews World Report rankings? Pitt tied for 57th as National University. That is a frame of reference for starters. There are other types of rankings or groupings- Carnegie Classification by research or # of undergrads, publications like Fisk Guide, Princeton Review, Forbes, Kiplinger, Money, Niche, etc.
@TwoHighSchoolers this can be a helpful tool.
https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/peers-network?fbclid=IwAR0E8CReoPt9vafWMrlLYSZRaNvHLMHJEBjN8jKpV9Ro9EeetCvJZhj9uJk
I appreciate you sharing your experience from last year. Based on what I have been reading on these various threads, it looks like scholarship awards are all over the place with Pitt.
We visited Pitt for the first time over one of their Multicultural Visit Program weekends at the beginning of this month. D20 really, really, really liked it there. She listened intently to the presentations and was very wowed by all that the engineering program has to offer. She is still waiting on decisions from five other universities, but we told her that if she was seriously considering Pitt that she needed to reach out to all the presenters and to her admissions officer. Curious to see where she will wind up in the Fall.