To learn more about plastics as an engineer, Northwestern classes can only take you so far, said McCormick senior Andrea McMartin.

That’s why she chose participate in the co-op program, working for at ITW Technology Center in Glenview, Ill., where she works to improve the technology in plastics.

“Depending on the co-op you get to learn things in detail that you might not be able to learn in classes,” McMartin said.

About one-third of undergraduates, or 293 students, in the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science currently are enrolled in the Cooperative Engineering Education Program. This year, 136 students — mostly sophomores — are applying for the engineering program. The students are waiting to hear back from firms, where students will start their first round of work this summer if they are accepted.

“Co-op started with engineering in 1906 and it has spread to every other discipline, but it is still most common with engineering,” said Helen Oloroso, assistant dean and director of the co-op program.

Working multiple quarters allows for more responsibilities as the co-op progresses, said Mike Marchese, a McCormick sophomore who is applying for a co-op assignment in mechanical engineering.

“You’re treated a lot more like an engineer than an intern,” Marchese said. “You actually do a lot more work then just getting coffee since you’re there for more then just a few months.”

Students who participate in the co-op program also have a greater edge in the professional world.

“Employees often expect students to do co-op,” Oloroso said. “If it comes to senior year and students haven’t done co-op, they ask why.”

Unlike some interns, however, co-op students always are paid. Oloroso said NU students make about $15 an hour on average.

Co-op, Oloroso said, fits with NU’s Highest Order of Excellence II goals by making real-world experience part of an NU education.

“This is definitely something being advanced by the faculty,” she said

University officials want to expand the co-op program and create more programs like it.

Currently, faculty advisers both receive employer evaluations of students and meet with students to discuss their academic schedule. But Oloroso wants to promote even closer interactions between engineering faculty and students in the co-op program.

“We should to do more to create a community among students before they go out to work and during work,” Oloroso said.

Despite the possible benefits, McMartin doesn’t think it is necessary.

“My academic adviser might not be the right person to advise me with co-op,” McMartin said.

McMartin’s faculty adviser agreed that those in the industrial world might make better advisers.

“Let’s face it — we’re academia,” said Ken Shull, a professor of materials science and engineering.

The majority of students in the co-op program take five years to graduate because they work all their summers and at least one quarter during each year, Oloroso said.

These hefty time requirements make the engineering program undesirable to some NU students, Marchese said.

“You have to keep going back to this place during the school year and the summer,” Marchese said. “It interrupts the normal flow of college.”

Based on a survey conducted last year for internal review, students choose not to participate in the co-op program for two main reasons: It delays graduation and also keeps students away from their friends, Oloroso said.

Even with these concerns, Marchese said he will participate in the co-op program if he receives an offer from a good company.

“I’m not going to accept something if it’s boring,” he said. “My standards are higher because it’s for four years.”

Regardless of the pitfalls, Oloroso said students participate in the co-op program for reasons including work experience, income and to figure out if engineering is something they really want to do.

“Once they start working … students begin to see the value of overlapping their studies and their work,” Oloroso said.

Reach Ashima Singal at [email protected]<.>