Co-Ops and internships are both great ways to get real work experience. But did you know that they can also save you money for college? Participating in high school and college co-ops and internships can indeed help you save thousands and minimize your college tuition bill. For starters, doing this in high school can clarify your interests, and save you from following down a college path that isn’t a good fit. Also, companies pay co-ops and interns, which means you can save up that money to pay down your tuition bill when you go back to school.
A brief overview of the two wouldn’t hurt us – while both of them involve getting experience in the field, they differ in slight ways. For instance, co-ops are usually built into the curriculum of certain college majors. As is sometimes the case for co-ops, the major can be a five year program, where one year is devoted entirely to getting real world experience on the job. Internships are something you do aside from your college work, typically done during the summer months and are therefore shorter in duration.
Now, getting to the meat of this topic – how can co-ops and internships help you minimize your college tuition bill?
Companies pay for co-ops & interns
Co-ops are usually built into the curriculum of the major, whether taking a whole year to work, or doing a repeating cycle of 6-months in the classroom followed by 6-months of real-world work experience. In many cases, co-ops are paid for, with students receiving some kind of set monetary compensation (salary or stipend) for working. When added up over the course of the major, this can be quite a substantial sum of money that can help pay for the cost of college itself. To be safe, it’s best to confirm that it is a paid co-op, to ensure that you get the most return on your investment.
Now, in the event that the co-op is unpaid, you still get a great benefit in the form of work experience. When comparing two candidates, one that finished school with no work experience and one that finished with work experience, and all else being equal, companies will most likely select the second candidate over the first, due to the advantage of the second having relevant work experience – the second candidate will be bringing more value into their organization, and they’ll have to spend less time and resources bringing the employee up to speed in the role.
Internships are more than likely paid opportunities. So, in that regard, they share the same benefits of co-ops. However, unlike co-ops, internships are usually scheduled in-between school semesters (summer breaks) and can be relatively shorter than the work experience gained in co-ops. This also means that the total amount of money you received while gaining real world experience must be less, but that might not always be the case.
Avoiding the wrong path
It’s best to do your research on which colleges offer co-ops for your program and balance that against which schedule (co-op or internship) works better for you. To be honest, either track is valuable and each has it’s pros and cons, so spend some time thinking about which direction you’d prefer, then make a decision, and then start your journey. Don’t succumb to analysis paralysis and waste time worrying about which direction is best. Both are good choices and will likely yield similarly positive outcomes.