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Northeastern University’s Co-op Program: How It Works and What International Students Should Know

Published Updated 5 min read

Cooperative education (“co-op”) is the defining feature of Northeastern University in Boston: undergraduates alternate semesters of study with full-time, months-long jobs, usually paid, at one of more than 4,000 employer partners. This guide explains how Northeastern’s co-op works, what students do on co-op, what the outcomes are, and the rules international (F-1) students need to know, based on Northeastern’s official pages as of November 2026.

An example: a design co-op that reached Fenway Park

In May 2025, Northeastern Global News profiled Lauren Violette, a third-year experience design student in the College of Arts, Media and Design (CAMD), who was on co-op as a creative services designer at the Boston Beer Company. Violette created visuals for places that sell Boston Beer brands such as Sam Adams, Dogfish Head and Twisted Tea, including bars, grocery stores and stadium signage at Fenway Park, and also redesigned the logo for Women in Beer, made logos for a local brewery and prepared bus and truck wraps. “A lot of times graphic designers don’t get to see their physical work,” Violette said (Northeastern Global News, May 7, 2025).

Violette’s path shows how co-op fits with the rest of a Northeastern education. Violette first enrolled to study photojournalism, became creative director of The Avenue, a student-run fashion magazine, and worked with Scout, Northeastern’s student-run design firm, before switching to experience design. Violette’s first co-op was at DEKA Research and Development, designing for dialysis and mobility products; the second was at Boston Beer.

How Northeastern’s co-op works

  • Length and timing: co-ops are full-time and usually last about six months, on a January–June or July–December cycle. The first co-op typically begins in the spring of the second year (Northeastern Career Design, Engage in Co-op; Co-op Undergraduate Student Handbook).
  • Four or five years: students can complete up to two co-ops in a four-year program or up to three in a five-year program. In the College of Engineering, for example, the B.S. in four years includes two co-op periods and the B.S. in five years includes three (Northeastern College of Engineering). Some programs differ; CAMD’s School of Architecture, for example, has two co-ops over five years.
  • Eligibility: generally three completed academic terms as a full-time degree-seeking student, a passing grade in the co-op preparatory course and a minimum GPA (2.0 in the university handbook; individual colleges may set their own requirements).
  • Finding a co-op: co-op is competitive. Students work with academic advisors and co-op coordinators to apply for positions, and Northeastern advises undergraduates to build their résumés during their first year and summers (Northeastern, Co-op).
  • Pay: co-ops typically pay, with an average of more than $20 an hour; research, service, arts and nonprofit co-ops often pay less.
Illustration: student design work displayed at a stadium

Outcomes

Northeastern reports that (Northeastern, Co-op; Northeastern Global News, May 11, 2025):

  • 97% of graduates are employed or in graduate school within nine months of graduating.
  • 58% receive a job offer from a previous co-op employer.
  • graduates’ starting salaries are 33% higher than the national average.

These are the university’s own figures. When comparing schools, look at how each school defines “employed” and what share of graduates responded to its survey.

Trade-offs to consider

  • Time and cost: the five-year option allows a third co-op but adds a year of tuition and living costs, which co-op wages may only partly offset. The four-year option limits you to two co-ops.
  • Fit: co-op works best for students who want applied work experience in their field. Students headed for research careers or graduate school may also look at research co-ops, which often pay less, or other experiential learning such as research and student-run organizations.
  • Competition: a co-op is not guaranteed; you apply and interview like any job seeker.

Co-op rules for international students

F-1 students can do co-op, but they need work authorization in the form of Curricular Practical Training (CPT):

  • One academic year first: F-1 students must have maintained lawful status for one full academic year before CPT. Northeastern’s 2026–27 co-op handbook says this is met by two required full-time academic terms of at least 12 credits each, with no more than one online course per term (Co-op Undergraduate Student Handbook 2026–2027).
  • CPT approval before you start: F-1 students must request and receive CPT approval from Northeastern’s Office of Global Services (OGS) before the co-op begins. OGS may take up to 15 business days to review a request and issues an updated I-20 with the CPT authorization.
  • Remote co-ops: an F-1 student on a remote co-op during a required term must also take on-campus courses that run the full term.
  • Effect on OPT: under federal rules, students who use 12 months or more of full-time CPT are not eligible for post-completion OPT; part-time CPT and less than 12 months of full-time CPT do not affect OPT (8 CFR 214.2(f)(10)(i)). Two six-month full-time co-ops add up to about 12 months, so plan your co-op schedule with OGS if you want to keep OPT after graduation.
  • Global co-ops: Northeastern also offers co-ops abroad; international students should check with OGS how time outside the U.S. affects their F-1 status (OGS, Study Abroad, Research Abroad, and Global Co-op).

Northeastern at a glance

  • Rankings: No. 42 in the 2027 U.S. News Best National Universities ranking (No. 46 in the 2026 edition) and No. 385 in the 2027 QS World University Rankings. See our US colleges ranking.
  • Admissions: for fall 2025, Northeastern received 98,425 first-year applications and admitted 5,133 (about 5.2%). The middle 50% of SAT scores was 710–760 in reading and writing and 730–780 in math.
  • Enrollment: 32,553 students in fall 2025, including 17,432 undergraduates. 11,530 were international, 2,426 of them undergraduates.
  • Cost and retention: tuition for 2025–26 was $64,990, plus $1,172 in required fees; the first-year retention rate was 97%.

Admissions, enrollment, cost and retention figures are from IPEDS, as shown on our Northeastern University school page.

References

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