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August 2007
Did you know…that undergraduate students who participate in NC State’s Cooperative Education (co-op) program are more likely to graduate and have higher cumulative GPA’s at graduation than students who did not? Co-op students take, on average, one semester longer to graduate. However, co-op students graduate with work experience that applies towards Engineering licensure.Undergraduate students who participate in NC State’s Cooperative Education (co-op) program are more likely to graduate and have higher cumulative GPA’s at graduation than students who did not. Co-op students take, on average, one semester longer to graduate. However, co-op students graduate with work experience that helps them transition to their careers. Co-op participation rates, which had been declining, have been on the rise in recent years.
Cooperative Education, also known as co-op, is a structured academic program that integrates academic learning with work-based learning. Participants alternate semesters of full-time study and full-time, paid employment. Successful completers are awarded a Distance Education Program Certificate for working a minimum of twelve months and completing additional requirements. Engineering students may apply the co-op work experience towards professional license requirements. An expanded description and more co-op information can be found at www.ncsu.edu/co-op_ed.
Among the 1998-2000 freshmen cohorts entering in the fall semester, 5.8% of the 11,287 students participated in co-op. When they graduated, students in the College of Engineering and College of Natural Resources were disproportionately represented as co-op participants (see Table I). Given the licensure benefits, Engineering students are justifiably more likely to participate.
Table I
Co-op participation had been trending downward, in terms of total participants (Chart I) and percentage of cohort (Chart II), though recent years have shown increased participation in terms of head count.
Chart I
Chart II
Students who participate in the co-op program are academically more successful than the general student body. The co-op cumulative GPA at graduation is 3.25 compared to the 3.11 of the non-co-op graduates. Co-op participants take one semester longer to graduate than non-participants, because co-op requires a twelve-month break from studies; however, since this translates to two semesters, participants actually spend about one semester less in the classroom. The six-year graduation rate for co-op participants is 93.3%, which compares very favorably to the non-co-op six-year rate of 67.2%. Additional evidence of improved academic success is seen when comparing students who reached their senior year. Of those students who earned over 90 credit hours, the six-year graduation rate of 95.3% for co-op students outpaces the 90.0% for non-co-op student rate.