Please let me preface this with a sincere apology to the newly formed Stevens Career Center. I am just really shaken up and frustrated with the current standing of the former Office of Cooperative Education, which was my primary reason for staying at Stevens.
Over the past year, I have watched as the last vestige of Stevens awesome went down the toilet: the co-op program.
When I joined as a freshman, I remember that same rush. I remember looking up timidly at the co-op advisors, and learning how to dress for an interview and how to create my resume. I learned about the profound edge that the co-op experience gives you—a chance to practice engineering before you leave Stevens with a degree, or better, a chance to learn engineering concepts before you learn their purely academic versions.
I knew friends who used this experience to learn that engineering wasn’t for them. They pursued other programs like chemical biology. I knew some friends who used it to steal a Master’s degree while alternating between classes and work. But you know what? None of it even matters anymore, because the program has lost almost all that was good about it. Lucy and Catherine are still there though, so at least that is a plus.
There is no more Office of Cooperative Education anymore. Some butt-head high up in the almighty Howe Center decided that consolidation was a good policy. Well, screw that. With this new merger, I have to swipe my card into a crummy wall interface and specify whom I want to see when I visit the office—no more leisurely co-op chats with the people that helped me get on my feet. And even if there were, almost everyone is gone!
Thankfully, Lucy and Catherine are still there, but still, now I have to interact with a bunch of people I am unfamiliar with. Now, sure, as a senior, I would’ve had to go through the Office of Career Developme—oh, I’m sorry, the “Stevens Career Center”—and would have to interact with these new faces regardless. But I am still livid.
That previous bit was just me ranting, but the following two new policies really screwed the future co-op students: Student Activity Fees and the lack of additional classes.
Let’s talk about fees for a second, because I hate them, and Stevens loves giving them to me. I pay roughly $400 to enroll in a co-op semester (I think, I can never figure out what the hell I am being charged for because the system changes every year). That is ridiculous in my opinion, but I suppose it is justified seeing as I can waylay my financial aid for a different semester. But now I have additional crappy Student Activity Fees to pay as well!
Now, I don’t remember if I had to pay these as a co-op Student before. It doesn’t really make sense for all co-op students, because if you are on co-op, odds are you are really tired and don’t have time to benefit from the awesome things on campus. Besides, you’re already paying $400 as it is, so why bother pay an additional $200? One of the nice things about co-op program was that you could make a lot of money. Too bad you’re going to waste $600 every semester on fees that hardly benefit you! Oh yeah, and the lack of additional classes!
Once again, some screwball up above decided that it was unnecessary for students on co-ops to have additional classes. What the hell were you thinking?! Hello, the Registrar is incompetent enough as it is, and classes are impossible to fit into a co-op schedule, because it involved an imbalanced amount of semesters (typically, three Fall semesters, four Spring, and one Summer) and there are not enough technical classes in the summer. So, either students are going to have to perfectly calculate what classes to take when (because in the summer all you can honestly take are humanities and some low level major-specific classes) or they’ll have to take another semester to make up for the missing classes.
You see, the extra class was used by students as a luxury to try to sneak in Master’s credits whilst working, but it was a necessity for other students. I know students who wouldn’t be able to graduate if they didn’t take those additional classes because they didn’t have enough classes to take over the summer.
The co-op students of 2020 are a crippled breed, and I pity them. The only sensible thing for incoming freshmen to do is to not use the co-op program, and instead focus your efforts on getting internships, so you won’t get extra fees and have more flexibility. Stevens’ co-op program was the primary reason I stayed at Stevens. And now, it is nothing but a shell of its former self. How depressing.
