"no coop supervisors I talked to really expect U of W coop students to be very useful (at least not that useful with only 4 months worth of work term!"
Hmm, having been a Waterloo co-op (97-01), we did some very useful things in those four months.
I rebuilt the backend content management & outbound marketing system for a major Canadian brokerage in 3 of those 4 months. I worked on a major features of a popular HTML editor in another term. One other term about 5 co-ops built a touch kiosk system (and software) for music stores that would burn custom CD's. I know a friend that worked on Wall Street building a market data feed for a major brokerage's fixed income system. This was in various locations - SF, Toronto, NYC.
I know of more than a few startups that were staffed at least half with Waterloo co-ops over the past couple of decades. Productivity would dip every 4 months but it was a remarkably effective way to get rotating technical talent in for cheap.
Everyone's experience differs of course, there are plenty of b.s. co-op jobs, but I would bet there are many companies still taking advantage of the talent/cost advantage.
Hmm, having been a Waterloo co-op (97-01), we did some very useful things in those four months.
I rebuilt the backend content management & outbound marketing system for a major Canadian brokerage in 3 of those 4 months. I worked on a major features of a popular HTML editor in another term. One other term about 5 co-ops built a touch kiosk system (and software) for music stores that would burn custom CD's. I know a friend that worked on Wall Street building a market data feed for a major brokerage's fixed income system. This was in various locations - SF, Toronto, NYC.
I know of more than a few startups that were staffed at least half with Waterloo co-ops over the past couple of decades. Productivity would dip every 4 months but it was a remarkably effective way to get rotating technical talent in for cheap.
Everyone's experience differs of course, there are plenty of b.s. co-op jobs, but I would bet there are many companies still taking advantage of the talent/cost advantage.