[Brandon Holley]

My experience as someone who graduated from Northeastern University in 2010 with a BS in Mechanical Engineering:

The first couple of semesters at NU for an engineering student were definitely a shock to some. I felt much more prepared for engineering school than most of my peers and I think that had to do with taking several AP classes, and my participating in FIRST throughout high school. Many of my peers had issues adjusting to college and learning to balance social life with school work. You could see definite struggles for people who coasted through high school without having to really dig in (I credit my AP Chemistry teacher in high school for really showing me and my classmates how hard work can result in a remarkable improvement in understanding the subject matter- best teacher I ever had).

Being on the FIRST team also instilled this in a couple of ways. First, you had to learn to balance robotics with school work in high school (in addition to social life). On top of that, you also learned to really dig in and solve problems. It taught me that putting actual hard work into something can yield promising results. If i were to estimate, I'd say 1/4 of my classmates freshman year understood this principle. I'd say another 1/2 eventually figured it out, and the last 1/4 eventually threw in the towel. Obviously these are not concrete numbers, but I'd say they are close estimate to reality.

If you can reasonably estimate that the top 25% of students can handle engineering coming into the school, and the bottom 25% are most likely not cut out- the question for me becomes how do you keep the middle 50% sticking around?

For Northeastern they do it with co-op. Co-op is the reason I chose Northeastern, and it quite literally has shaped my life. For those unfamiliar with NU, it is a 5 year school where you spend 18 months working full-time at a company. This 18 months is split into (3) 6 month chunks. Oh, and you lose your summers because you must take classes to make up for the lost time spent on co-op. This last fact turns a lot of people off, but co-op has made a world of difference for me and my classmates.

Spending time at an engineering job and learning how that job works helps people in several ways. You learn what being an engineer is like in a couple different companies which helps to show you the spectrum of jobs available. It shows you a real world application for some of the material you are learning in class. Lastly, it gives you a respectable paycheck which can show you what sticking with engineering can result in (not to say you cannot make money in other disciplines).

Northeastern has been climbing college ranking boards at a blistering pace because they have really embraced cooperative education. It may not be for everyone, but in terms of engineering and retaining students, it seems like an obvious answer to me.

-Brando