I just want to extend the gentle caveat that it’s important to know YOUR student. Yes, it’s true, if you’re an exceptional student (like @mom2collegekids’ or @aeromom’s or @lisa6191’s, et al.), you’ll no doubt make all kinds of incredible opportunities for yourself, whether you attend UA or another school.
However, by definition, not every kid is exceptional. My comments are directed to this larger group.
MY kid was not going to get admitted to MIT or Caltech or Princeton. He WAS admitted to Penn State for engineering, which is probably more like the schools @CyclonesGrad is looking at, but even in-state it was more expensive than UA once we factored in the scholarships.
If you are the type of student who is going to get a 34-36 on the ACT or 1400-1600 on the SAT (CR/M) without preparation and are applying with all kinds of accolades to elite colleges, then you are likely competitive for the elite UA programs, and something like a co-op might not be a big deal. HOWEVER, if you’re just the “average” honors student at UA, a co-op could be a lot more important when it comes to finding a job after graduation. Especially if you’re hoping to return to your hometown in another part of the country.
My kid had high stats but didn’t apply for any of UA’s elite programs (he likely wasn’t competitive anyway) and didn’t come in with any AP credits because his school didn’t offer AP classes, so he won’t be double-majoring or learning Mandarin Chinese (or something equally compelling!) on the side. For him, to be competitive in our area once he graduates, the co-op makes a lot of sense. We didn’t push it, but suggested he look into it, and he decided on his own to go that route. Only time will tell if it pays off for him once he graduates in 2019 (yes, it will take him five years to get his degree, so he won’t be graduating with many of his classmates), but it paid very well and has been an excellent experience so far. He’s also been prepared since he chose UA over Penn State that there was a strong possibility that he’d only be competitive for jobs in the South after he finished his schooling with only a bachelor’s degree.
The co-op does mean an extra year of paying for housing, and we had to buy him a car earlier than we’d planned, but the one-year savings on attending UA over Penn State more than covered the cost. His co-op is about 90 minutes from Tuscaloosa, so it was a bit of a logistical challenge to find him housing for this past summer, but it worked out. He’s planning (as of now) to commute from T-Town for his spring and fall semesters, but we’ll figure that out when the time comes.
I’m not saying that if your student doesn’t go the co-op route that he’ll have trouble finding a job after graduation, but I do know there are UA families whose kids have struggled to find engineering internships over the summers, especially if they were looking for opportunities closer to home. And I do wonder, if when they’re competing with graduates of their own in-state flagships, etc., after they’ve completed their degrees, if it may be more challenging to find a job if they don’t have some good internship or co-op experiences already under their belts.
Just things to keep in mind as you’re weighing your options. UA offers tremendous opportunities to its engineers, but I want to be careful we don’t over-sell the program.
and my experience only relates to aero…please do not think for a second that my son’s decision to attend UA was a mistake. @lisa6191 brings up a great point: at the early stages of your college decision, it is easy to think that UA is just too good to be true, and you are probably searching for anything negative that will tip the scale away from this opportunity for a tuition-free education. “He would have been equally successful at pretty much any school.” That is exactly true of so many of our students.