The Co-op Rotations

For engineering students, a minimum of three rotations (2 regular semesters and 1 summer) are needed to complete the program and earn the Cooperative Education Certificate that is awarded at the time of graduation.  Two rotations are needed for all other majors to earn the certificate, however only one of the rotations may be a summer.  The commitment to the rotations is one of the factors that differentiate the co-op assignment from an internship. Cooperative Education is not a summer job program. The chart illustrates the typical co-op rotations.  A student will interview with companies the semester before he or she begins the first rotation.

Due to academic considerations or teaching partner special requests, students may complete back-to-back rotations. Normally this would be a spring-summer or summer-fall combination.  Engineering majors would still need to complete an additional 18 week semester rotation to fulfill the program's requirements.  Non-engineering majors such as Packaging Science or Business often complete back-to-back rotations.

The Co-op Program is a rigorous educational experience.  While on rotations, the students’ experiences are closely monitored by the program’s academic staff to ensure that they are successfully engaged in their assignments. Students are enrolled in a co-op course for each rotation (COOP 1010, COOP 1020, COOP 1030, etc.).  Students receive academic recognition on their transcripts as the courses are graded Pass/No Pass.