Financing your engineering education

Get back to Engineering Rocks

Get back to Engineering Co-op Program

  First, it is important to understand that the average matriculation time for an engineering/computer science student is 4.8 years. However, there are many, many opportunities for students-in-progress to earn significant income from engineering employers who are anxious to have first access to engineering/computer science talent.

About 1/3 of our students work part-time with local industry or are fortunate to find at least one or two engineering/computer science related summer job opportunities. These are sometimes referred to as "internships" and are usually well-paid. Another 1/3 will participate in the traditional, alternating semester co-op program, where salaries range from $12 to $28 per hour. This is a 100 year-old engineering tradition practiced across the country. Three semesters of full-time work, alternated with semesters at school usually stretches the junior year into two years. Surprisingly, these co-op students average 5 years to graduate. The co-op program requires structure and preplanning and must be accomplished in conjunction with the engineering co-op staff. Students on co-op work sessions retain full-time status (for insurance coverage purposes) while paying one hour tuition.

What about the remaining 1/3? There are funded research opportunities with faculty, study abroad programs, and corporate sponsored scholarship opportunities.

How are my scholarships and financial aid handled when I co-op?

Most of our co-ops have several types of scholarships: the Singletary, KEES, Governors Scholars - Presidential, National Merit, and Continuing Engineering .

In addition, co-op participants average $14 to $18 per hour in salary. That translates into roughly $9,700 to $12,400 per co-op semester.

How does all this work out?

Singletary and Presidential , for example, are awarded for eight semesters. The money involved each year changes to keep pace with coverage of full tuition and some additional costs. Should a student be off campus in a co-op position, let's say for the fall semester of his/her junior year, the full scholarship amount is applied to the student's account. After paying the one-hour co-op tuition, ($282 plus $15 engineering course tax - which retains full-time status, mainly for insurance coverage by parents) a residual check is sent to the student. This money can be invested and applied to the fifth year's tuition. The same holds true for the current set amount of $1,500 per year from the Provost Scholarship .

KEES and National Merit Scholarship money consists of set amounts, as opposed to varying with tuition coverage. This money can be applied to only eight semesters; however, the student may take five years to use the KEES and the NMSC money. Thus, in the case of a co-op student who is away from campus during, for example, the fall semester of the junior year, an optional request to defer KEES or NMSC money to the fifth year assures that the senior year is covered. If no request is made, the money is automatically applied to the co-op semester. For the NMSC, simply call 847/866-5100, request scholarship services,

Engineering students who apply for "Continuing Engineering Scholarships" in April of the freshman year may remain eligible is based on GPA for the next eight semesters.

Please note:

• Each curriculum sheet within engineering is a four year plan. However, yearly reviews of average time to obtain the engineering/computer science degree result in 4.8 years. Students who finish in four years are usually the ones with significant AP credit, as many as 18 hours, and who know they are headed to advanced degrees in engineering, medicine, law, etc., as opposed to the job market with the B.S. degree.
• A co-op curriculum sheet for each major within engineering is a five year plan. The same reviews (cited above) of average time to complete the degree program is 5 years.

In either case, engineering students need to plan ahead for the possibility of a 9 th or 10 th semester.

Students approved for financial aid f or a given academic year receive payments while on co-op assignments. Earning a co-op salary and working closely with advisors in financial aid, may eliminate the necessity for such aids as loans.

Here is a possible scenario based on a hypothetical 10% increase in tuition yearly, and on a co-op salary beginning at $14 per hour first session and increasing to $18 per hour by the last:

Sample Co-op Program/ Alternating Schedule

Example: Current ME Sophomore who begins co-op in the fall of his/her junior year and has:

1) Presidential scholarship -covers tuition (8 semesters / non deferrable)

2) KEES money - set amount, assume about $1,100 per semester (8 semesters / deferrable)

3) Continuing engineering scholarship for sophomore year, plus 3 more years of eligibility.

($500 per semester as long as GPA above 3.0.)

Aug. - Dec.                                     Jan. -May                                  May -Aug.