Cooperative Education (Co-op)

Co-op is a college program that integrates your classroom studies with paid, productive, real-life work experience in a field related to your program of studies.

How the co-op program benefits you:

• Confirms or redirects your career decision-making through on-the-job experience.
• Provides an in-depth opportunity to cultivate teamwork, leadership and project management skills.
• Enhances the affordability of your education through employer-paid wages. This is a means of financial assistance that is available to all students.
• Improves job opportunities after graduation by giving you valuable contacts with potential future employers.
• Puts into practice valuable career development skills such as job search strategies, networking, resume writing, and interviewing techniques.

Participation in the Program

Co-op is an exciting opportunity that is open to all Rensselaer students. Undergraduate students typically enter the co-op program in their sophomore or junior year, while graduate students may enroll at any point with permission from their departmental advisor.

Scheduling Co-op Work Assignments

One of the most attractive features of the Rensselaer co-op program is the flexibility to arrange work terms that fit in with your academic schedule. Unlike most undergraduate co-op programs that extend your degree by a full year, Rensselaer students have the option of graduating in four, four and a half, or five years. While undergraduates are required to work a minimum of two terms (one semester and one summer, usually scheduled consecutively), most students add on extra co-op “tours” during summers or even another semester. Graduate students may elect to co-op for one, two or three terms. Upon entering the program, all students create a “Work Plan” that is approved by their academic advisor and a co-op counselor.

Partnerships With Employers

The co-op program prides itself on its relationships with over 350 employers. Test your entrepreneurial talent by working for a small-start up company; go with a Fortune 100 employer; or get involved in government service at the Federal or state level. Explore career paths such as research, design & development, manufacturing, finance, software development, graphic design, and MIS. Work for outstanding employers like IBM Corporation, Stryker Orthopaedics, NASA, General Motors, Brookhaven National Lab, United Technologies, GE, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, JPL, and hundreds of others.

Explore the Nation and the World

As a co-op applicant, you decide which jobs you want to apply for and which job you will accept.  Stay in the Capital District, work near your home, or venture out to one of 20 different states from Maine to California and Oregon to Florida. Students are even occasionally able to arrange jobs internationally. You don’t have to wait until after graduation to explore the many employment opportunities that are waiting for you!

Learn more about Cooperative Education.