<p>At Northeastern we pay for the semesters of taking classes, usually a total of 8 semesters over 5 years (including some summer time, which is scheduled like a normal semester, complete with the same financial aid). They make a real point of saying that you don’t pay when you are on co-op, which seemed to me like kind of a silly thing to say, since at the time I didn’t know that universities charged you full price to not attend classes. I am not paying anything to the university this semester, but I am still considered a full time student. This means I have access to all of the student services. I am doing an international co-op, and I am actually getting paid $6,000 by the university for this, in addition to my earnings here!</p>
<p>I think the reason Northeastern has this approach goes back to its very early commuter school days, when the main purpose of co-op was so that students could pay for school - so it would be ridiculous to charge students for that. Although you do not get regular “course credit” for co-op, you do get experiential education credit, which is required in some form for all majors. This credit can also be obtained other ways, depending on the major, but some require co-op. Although my major doesn’t require co-ops, I will have 3 by the time I graduate. If I had to pay for them? No way.</p>