[Ensorceled]

I'm pretty sure you don't understand how co-op programs work at universities. You actually take the exact same courses as the "academic thinking" students, you just also alternate with work in a relevant industry.

Can you explain why you think taking courses and working flipping burgers or some other summer job is better than taking those same courses and being mentored by practicing engineers, programmers, scientists, poly-sci, <professional in your chosen field>?

[ma2rten]

I am assuming that those 18 month of work experience will be at the expense of coursework.

[schoosi]

No, you take the exact amount of courses as anyone else would. You can do a 5-year program with 3 co-ops or a 4-year program with 2. Of course, you also don't have summer breaks and there is less time off between the fall and spring semesters.

I'd also like to point out that if you argue college should be about creating academics, plenty of my friends went to my school and went on to become one. They simply used their co-ops to do research, either on campus, for another university, or for a company.

[adjkant]

This is not the case at pretty much every co-op school I know of, including my own. Usually the programs utilize summer breaks and take 5 years, though you can often do 2 co-ops in 4 years or the like.