Co-ops: Launching a Career Before Graduation

(This story has been corrected to clarify the disadvantages faced by co-op program participants in the ninth paragraph.)

Cooperative learning programs, also known as co-ops, allow undergraduate students the opportunity to try their hand at working full-time in the real world while pursuing their college degree. It's a taste of adulthood that many soon-to-be college graduates credit with sheltering them from the economic storm and helping them land full-time jobs for after graduation. "Students with co-op experience have a leg up on the competition because they have the one thing you can't get in a classroom—practical work experience," says Ian P. Sladen, assistant dean of undergraduate programs at Drexel University's LeBow College of Business (LeBow Undergraduate Business Profile) in Philadelphia.