The answer to the last question is - yes.
Most any school.
Co-ops – Career Development Center Worcester Polytechnic Institute (wpi.edu)
Co-ops : Career Development & Professional Connections : UMass Amherst
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I think a lot of uninformed comments are made here about NU. Most people wrongly call it NEU and offer secondhand comments based on little knowledge or understanding about the co-op program. As a law student, my co-ops were with a Third Circuit judge, the Dept of Justice in DC, the Alaska Attorney General (I got to house sit for him too) and a DC law firm. The breadth of my experiences were really quite different than sitting in a classroom for three years. Some people understand experiential learning more than others. And it’s largely a huge waste of time to explain it to the secondhand crowd who think they know a lot about it😉. I am so glad my child chose NU over Rutgers.
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The NU students I know are smart, motivated and independent. They have fun. There are parties and they travel, for classes, co-ops or spring break trips. My son just did an alternative spring break environmental conservation trip to Saguaro National Park. There are a lot of opportunities. I think the environment is more cooperative than competitive but suspect it’s easier to get the best co-ops with a high GPA.
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I have always seen NU as referring to Northwestern University, and NEU referring to Northeastern University.
Perhaps this has been answered upthread and I missed it: beyond the resume/interview coaching, does Northeastern do anything to help students find their co-ops? Do they place their students in co-ops or have a special internal listing of co-ops? Or, is it the same as any other non-coop college where kids use handshake, etc. and have to hustle on their own to apply, interview, and sometimes beg/borrow/steal to get themselves an experiential learning experience?
What about the other colleges that market themselves with their co-op programs? ie RIT, Drexel, RPI, etc. Are their students handed co-ops or do they have to go out there and fight for them the same as any college student does looking for an internship?
Yes Northeastern helps students prepare for and select coops by offering required coop course and meeting individually with students to clarify goals and map out a path.
Yes there is an internal listing of established co-op jobs about 3,000 employers locally and overseas (students can also create their own).
No Northeastern does not place students. Students apply and interview just like a regular job.
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Northeastern has a very good career page. It has too many tabs - but it contains a lot of info.
It shows that 94% have participated in a co op, mostly two.
My belief is experience begets experience. There are kids at many schools in top majors that come Senior year, often can’t find a job - in part because they never had a job. They weren’t aggressive up front, etc.
If you go to a school where the expectation is up front - you’re going to get experience - you’re ahead of the curve.
All these kids will have something on their resume. Is it better than what other kids get? Maybe, maybe not.
But the fact that the mindset is there - to me - is a huge win - especially for kids in what seem to be less employable fields (your non engineering, CS, business types).
Now is the overall schedule (maybe taking an extra year and your friends may be gone when you are there) - is that something you can be comfortable with?
Is the cost worth it - if it’s 2 or 3 times another option?
Those are up to the individual.
But I have to think - the overall vision or mindset of the school provides benefit, especially to those kids who are not aggressive on their own - and that includes some of the best and brightest by the way - they can be brilliant academically but have no ability to sell themselves or to pursue a career, etc.
Northeastern found a niche - and it’s likely a valuable niche and they’ve exploited it - and seem to do it very well.
Good for them.
If I’m a poli sci parent (I am) or a bio or Cinema Studies or anything like that - I’d be beyond relieved that my kid has a resume with something on it. At other schools, many wouldn’t.
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As an example of a program that does match students to co-ops, Oregon State has MECOP. Students must go through an application process and interview to be accepted to MECOP. The program is structured with specific courses required for each engineering major before each co-op term. Students who qualify are offered co-op positions at participating companies. (This is just my understanding of how it works, though; I do not have a student in this program, so my info might be faulty in some way.)
However, when students are doing their own job selection and applying on their own to each position (like Northeastern and most other co-op schools I’ve heard about), it would seem that they might have more flexibility and choice in the process?
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Purdue has a well supported co op program. They have one of the largest on site career fairs in the country and bring companies to campus three times/year. Boots on the ground info is it’s much easier to secure a coop than an internship, and earlier (freshman year). The school won’t guarantee it but there is a ton of support, coaching and extra advising for coop students.
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As a graduate of the school of law, I can tell you it’s NUSL and not NEUSL. I think some posters call it NEU to distinguish it from Northwestern but that does not make it correct. And contributes to the feeling of alums and parents that the NEU posters don’t know that much about the school.
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I was referring to undergrad
I understand what you’re saying, but I don’t think any offense is meant. Some abbreviations stick with certain schools that gain nationwide popularity first.
For example, when people say “USC”, most people assume it’s the University of Southern California even though the University of South Carolina uses the same abbreviation. Same with “UC” (University of California vs University of Chicago), UMD (University of Maryland vs University of Minnesota Duluth). In each case, both pairs of universities use the same abbreviation but in common speech and here on CC, people say “UofSC” or “UChicago”, etc. to refer to the other school.
Like you said, these are not technically correct, but it helps people disambiguate between schools. Otherwise, they’d have to spell out the school name each time. I have not seen people get triggered by the use of those unofficial abbreviations, and I don’t believe any offense is meant in any of those cases including Northeastern.
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I have linked this article before from the Boston University website. Yes, a BU student can do a coop but she had to take a leave of absence and was worried about missing out and catching up when she returned. At Northeastern or any coop heavy college that is not an issue because the campus culture is built around coop.
My Experience Taking a Semester off to Pursue a Co-op Opportunity at Wayfair | Hey BU Blog
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Actually, the url www.nu.edu links to National University in San Diego, CA!
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Anyone who doubts the academic quality of UChicago is really uninformed.
I read about a UChicago grad who interviewed at a Silicon Valley company. The interviewer thought it was the same as UIC, the University of Illinois at Chicago.
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I don’t think offense is meant but I think it shows a lack of information about the school. Plus, the posters who say co-op is not a big deal or a reason to choose the school. Not true at all. Again, pointless to argue. You know what you know and you don’t know what you don’t know….
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I agree with this. Co-ops are definitely one of the main selling points for Northeastern, and they’ve built a very solid structure around it. If someone doesn’t want to do co-ops they can choose other schools.
This, I respectfully disagree with. Most people know the University of South Carolina calls itself USC, but people still say UofSC to distinguish it from the University of Southern California. Or that University of Wisconsin uses “UW”, but people say UWisc to distinguish it from Washington. The common speech usage is for disambiguation, not due to ignorance.
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had this debate here a year ago. you are 100% right but group think (another post going on right now) here will prevail. like calling u mum270 they think… no difference.
Wow! What a leap of logic.
Ok, all right. I realize this is yet another trigger point for Northeastern parents. I’m moving on.
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Don’t forget the trigger of folks posting about undergrad… and the rush to describe what happens at the Law School. Apples and kiwis much?
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