To Coop or not to Coop

[tvanhens]

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As a engineering student, my school requires five years to graduate. The fifth year is what my college calls a "coop". Basically, you apply for a job related to your field of engineering, in my case biomedical, and do "graded" work for a year. Now heres the issue, this means there will be an extra year of separation from the bulk of my science classes to the MCAT. As a result, this could slightly affect my score. However, I think that the job experience and the competitive pay from the coop would be beneficial. Additionally, it could provide an awesome letter of recommendation.

What do you guys think, is the coop a good idea for medical school admission? I need to make a decision whether or not I want to sign up for it relatively soon.

Also, I was considering doing a two year rotation on the peace core before applying. Is this even possible with MCATs and such. Would this be a bonus or a hinderance to my application?

 

[mongrel]

As a engineering student, my school requires five years to graduate. The fifth year is what my college calls a "coop". Basically, you apply for a job related to your field of engineering, in my case biomedical, and do "graded" work for a year. Now heres the issue, this means there will be an extra year of separation from the bulk of my science classes to the MCAT. As a result, this could slightly affect my score. However, I think that the job experience and the competitive pay from the coop would be beneficial. Additionally, it could provide an awesome letter of recommendation.

What do you guys think, is the coop a good idea for medical school admission? I need to make a decision whether or not I want to sign up for it relatively soon.

Also, I was considering doing a two year rotation on the peace core before applying. Is this even possible with MCATs and such. Would this be a bonus or a hinderance to my application?

I'm a little unclear as to whether your school actually requires you to take a coop. At my primarily engineering school (and my major is biochemical engineering) coops are optional but about half of all students take them. I took one halfway through my junior year and it did cause me to graduate in 5 years instead of 4. My decision to take it was based on being undecided between medicine and engineering.

It did sway my decision toward medicine, but not as much as actually shadowing physicians (which I could have done without the coop). Also, it did give me great "semi-real world" work experience to on my application, but nothing that I couldn't have replaced with an extensive research project at my school which I gave up by taking the coop. All in all, to do over again I would not have set myself a year behind. I did make a lot of money and get to slow down my academic career (which was nice at times), but as I look back I wish I could be finishing my M1 year now instead of only finishing my undergrad.

As for the MCAT, I don't think there would have been much difference between taking it with or without a coop.

 

[Perrotfish]

Actually a Co-Op semester might be your best chance to study for the MCAT. I had nothing to do when I got off of work, and since I was paid by the hour I got off at exactly 5. if I had had a Co-Op the semester I had the MCATs those nighttimne and weekend TPR courses would have fit in perfectly.

As for the Peace Corps, MCAT scores are good for 3 years, so you would need to take them right at the end of your college and apply right at the end of the Peace Corps.

 

[chr123]

As a engineering student, my school requires five years to graduate. The fifth year is what my college calls a "coop". Basically, you apply for a job related to your field of engineering, in my case biomedical, and do "graded" work for a year. Now heres the issue, this means there will be an extra year of separation from the bulk of my science classes to the MCAT. As a result, this could slightly affect my score. However, I think that the job experience and the competitive pay from the coop would be beneficial. Additionally, it could provide an awesome letter of recommendation.

What do you guys think, is the coop a good idea for medical school admission? I need to make a decision whether or not I want to sign up for it relatively soon.

Also, I was considering doing a two year rotation on the peace core before applying. Is this even possible with MCATs and such. Would this be a bonus or a hinderance to my application?

No offense but this seems like a stupid idea. Why not get a real job at that point? The whole point of the program is to get consistent internships to gain work experience while still in school. If you already completed the coursework for your degree, I would just start looking for a job instead. I was a Co-op , but our program worked by alternating work semesters and school semesters. I worked a total of 4 semesteres starting my 2nd year.

What school do you go to?

Sorry, that may have sounded bad. It just seems like a weird way to do the program. How far along in school are you?

 

[Picklesali]

lol - I thought this thread was going to be about chickens!!

 

[Boojeee]

lol - I thought this thread was going to be about chickens!!

 

[Mazelia]

I am in a similar program (five-year engineering with co-op); our work terms alternate with academic terms for the middle 3 years. I'm a senior and heading to med school next year.

From my experience, co-op was great for the following reasons, not all of which will necessarily apply to you, but here they are:

- Encouraged me to look into alternatives to a career in engineering, ultimately leading to the decision to go to medical school.
- Corporate R&D experience.
- Letters of recommendation from former supervisors. Many of my favorite engineering professors are unfortunately not very good writers, so this way I was certain to have some well-written letters.
- I studied for and took the MCAT while on co-op.
- I also completed my AMCAS and secondaries while on co-op.
- Interview experience. Although job interviews and medical school interviews are very different in several respects, having had several interviews for co-op made my first few med school interviews a lot less stressful.

I can see why you might not want to spend the extra year, especially if it's optional. In my opinion, co-op is only helpful for applying to medical school; on the other hand, it sounds like not doing it would not hurt you.

 

[tvanhens]

No offense but this seems like a stupid idea. Why not get a real job at that point? The whole point of the program is to get consistent internships to gain work experience while still in school. If you already completed the coursework for your degree, I would just start looking for a job instead. I was a Co-op , but our program worked by alternating work semesters and school semesters. I worked a total of 4 semesteres starting my 2nd year.

Our program works the same way but the coop is optional for biomedical engineers. So, perhaps I explained my situation poorly. If I do not do the coop, I will get to apply a year earlier essentially. It sounds like people generally enjoyed their coops and there seems to be the added benefit of possibly getting really good letters of recommendation. Additionally, it looks like it might actually be an opportune time to study for the MCAT.

As for my second question, how medical schools look at peace core? Is it a big benefit, not much of a factor, or is it a hinderance. As long as it is not a hinderance it is something that I really want to do.

 

[tvanhens]

Bump for the last question.

 

[Doctorverardoll]

I went to a Co-Op school. Did one Co-Op, stayed with it as a part time job, then graduated in 4 years. This may be an option if you want to take time off (i am in a gap year) to explore/gain life experiences, such as the peace corp.

I would imagine that the Peace Corp will only enhance your application; however, I am not sure of the logistics of applying while abroad (i.e. interviews).

 

[nata723]

I'm a senior in biomedical engineering. I had thought about co-oping but my honors program advisor said there was no point to it b/c I already knew I wanted to practice medicine and taking that extra time to do something I wasn't going to choose as a career was not necessary.

In the end, I'm glad I didn't do it b/c it wouldn't have been medically-related and I got enough research experience during summers and throughout the schoolyear. And getting through a medical career is long enough, so I figured, 'why add more time before becoming a doctor?'

Are you choosing between using the 5th year for co-op or using it for more classes? I'm confused as to what your school requires.

However, I think the co-op would be a great time to study for MCAT...use all your spare time possible after work. You wouldn't have to worry about homework or exams, which would be a big plus.

 

[PleaseBelieveit]

I couldn't agree more with the people who say the co-op will allow you time to study. At my undergrad I did 3 co-ops (it works out to be 5 years total of undergrad) and it was during my co-ops that I would study the most. As soon as I got out of work I would hit the books and casually review everything at barnes and noble. Just be careful to not get lazy...It is very easy to get off of work and put off the books until the next week, and before you know it 3 weeks have passed. As long as you know you won't get lazy, your score will only get better for MCAT during that period (at least in my opinion). I think something worth considering is that the classes you took in undergrad don't necessarily equal what will be tested on MCAT. Use the time during your coop not only to recover the material from undergrad, but also use the co-op time period to uncover new MCAT material.

 

[Blade28]

I was a Bioengineering major in college but decided to go straight through, graduating in 4 years. But then again I took the MCAT the summer after my sophomore year.

I didn't even consider doing the coop.