If you think a co-op college should be subtracted from or added to this list, please email me at Jeannie@JeannieBurlowski.com. If you don’t hear back from me in one day, text the phone number on my speaking page.
Welcome to the list of co-op colleges I personally recommend.
Colleges do not pay to be included on this page.
It’s recommended that you read my article 7 Reasons to Apply Exclusively to CO-OP Colleges before looking at this list.
To earn a place on this page, co-op colleges must have an established, embedded, institution-driven co-op college program that facilitates undergraduate students completing two or more full semesters of full-time paid work directly applicable to the student’s chosen field of study prior to college graduation. Colleges on this page maintain co-op, experiential, or work-integrated learning staff who: 1) point undergraduates to high-quality career assessing early on to ensure major and career goal are indeed a good fit and not just a guess, and 2) provide active human assistance with placement into full-time co-op employment positions—rather than relying exclusively on student-initiated searches. Though internships are valuable for students, programs that rely primarily on traditional internships, student-initiated job searches, or ad hoc career services support do not meet this standard.
To the best of my knowledge, here are the U.S. colleges that currently meet these criteria:
The first six are noteworthy because they provide the co-op experience I’ve described across many different majors:
University of Cincinnati ★
Northeastern University ★
Drexel University ★
Rochester Institute of Technology ★
Georgia Institute of Technology ★ (Students must “opt in” to co-op at this college, so it just barely squeaks onto this list.)
Cincinnati State Technical and Community College ★ (Remarkable for being a 2-year college—yet so high on this list.)
The following university provides the co-op experience in business and computer science, as well as across multiple engineering disciplines:
Kettering University ★
The following co-op colleges come close to meeting the standards listed above. Before enrolling in one of the colleges listed below, ask the co-op office which majors it serves, and how much hands-on human help is provided to students looking for co-op jobs:
University of Detroit Mercy
Purdue University
Wentworth Institute of Technology
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Clemson University
Widener University
University of Massachusetts Lowell
Penn State Schuylkill
University of Pittsburgh
University of Dayton
Northwestern University McCormick School of Engineering
Stevens Institute of Technology
Auburn University
The following co-op college programs are strong, but tend to be only for students in engineering–oriented majors:
University of Toledo College of Engineering
University of Akron
University of Louisville, J.B. Speed School of Engineering
Cleveland State University, Fenn College of Engineering
IMPORTANT NOTE:
As an academic strategist, I strongly recommend students take three specific career assessments at age 15 or as soon as possible after that—so they’re applying only to colleges with programs most likely to prepare them for careers they’ll excel at and love. Enrolling in college and then choosing career is specifically not recommended. The free career quizzes offered at the high school are not recommended for this purpose. I explain this carefully and thoroughly in this 3-session online class.
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This page was updated on May 27, 2026. This page was handcrafted by a caring human expert. AI tools assisted with research and editing.