On the job with three co-ops: Co-op programs give students a chance to try out the “real thing” before graduation. The experience sometimes leads to surprising discoveries

Co-op work gives students a chance to investigate their chosen careers before graduation, and the experience is sometimes very revealing. One co-op student, for example, discovered that his real interests lay in a different area of electrical engineering than he had originally intended. To another student, the co-op experience highlighted the reality gap between the classroom and actual on-site work. Still another discovered that she really liked what she was doing. The overriding common denominator of these students' experiences, however, was the feeling they got that they were being treated like “real engineers.”