A co-op is a term where you work for a company 
and are not in school but still maintain your student status
for a term during the school year as opposed to an internship,
which is during the summer or winter break where you're not in school
you can still maintain your student status but you're working outside your semesters.
I knew I wanted to get a co-op position and ECS (Engineering Career Services) on campus
basically sets you up with any sort of company you want to look at.
So I started the process by going to ECS.
They helped me write my resume, improve my resume,
write a cover letter, suggest difference types of references to get, ...,
so I knew who to ask.
And then from there I went to a career fair set up by them
with many companies.
You just went around talking to the different companies
finding out information about them.
A co-op makes a huge, huge, difference in your preparation for the real world
because although you learn the theories, 
you really don't know quite how they're applied until you've experienced it.
And you also can get, ..., usually one or two credits for doing it.
So it's worth getting the credit or two, but you more or less,
it's the experience of coming back to school 
and being able to understand what's going on in your classes
that is much more valuable than that one credit.
I would say that the UW Madison's College of Engineering, 
the professors are right there to talk to you whenever you need.
The TAs are overall very good at what they do and very helpful,
always willing to meet you outside their office hours if you need the extra help.
The students on campus are amazing.  
You make your best friends in the world here on campus
through either different organizations or just having classes with them.
The organizations give you a step up, ..., when looking for a job
but also give you a bunch of other experiences
both social aspects, ..., education-wise, ...,
and that the whole atmosphere in general of being at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
is a lot of fun and that it's great to be a Badger.
I wouldn't be anything else!
Copyright 2006 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
Date last modified: Friday, 24-Feb-2006 11:19:00 CST
Date created: Friday, 24-Feb-2006 11:19:00 CST