<p>You have nothing to loose by going in September to the job fair. Fact is most freshman don’t go because they think they don’t have a chance and yet my D went and got an offer. As a sophmore she got 3 co-op offers – she is outgoing and interviews well, but not an extraordinary student. Here is a link to the co-op page at Tech and a list of co-ops by major and company <a href=“http://www.career.vt.edu/CEIP/EmployersListByMajor.asp”>http://www.career.vt.edu/CEIP/EmployersListByMajor.asp</a>.<br>
She got first research opportunity during the school year spring/freshman by going up and talking to a guest lecturer after a class – just asked. Second opportunity was through the Scieneering Program – which is a minor in Interdisciplinary Engineering and Science – here is the link <a href=“http://www.undergraduate.vt.edu/Scieneering/students/students-page.html”>http://www.undergraduate.vt.edu/Scieneering/students/students-page.html</a>. On the left side of the page is a link to a spreadsheet “2013-2014 Project Database” that shows some of the research opportunities that the scieneering minors get to choose from – they have to do research. It will give you just a taste of the scope of research available.
Be excited about the real work experience and research at Tech. As far as honors, nice to get to register first but otherwise not so much of a benefit as it is very tough for engineering majors to make the grades to stay in honors and the GPA requirement is the same as all other majors. Opportunities above had nothing to do with her Honors status.</p>