Honey has been researching universities recently and this made me think of my own experience, along with some other friends. I studied business in school and did not take any co-ops like I should have. Then I have a friend (actually a blog stalker) who did engineering and would have benefited greatly from the engineering co-op programs offered at Kettering University.

This is an amazing program that places freshmen in co-op positions and allows them to rotate between regular class and the work environment every three months. This way, students gain that useful practical experience while they are learning the concepts. This is a great way to put into practice all that you learn in school while it is still fresh in your mind.

I wish I had gotten something like this while I was in college because sometimes the skills I needed for the job were ones that I used in very early classes and were not fresh in my mind at the time I started working.

If you are worried about the solidity of the program you should know that US News and World Report has ranked Kettering University as “the #1 University in the nation for Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering” in its annual “America’s Best Colleges Guide for 2008”. This is certainly a ranking that means something so if you are in the market for an industrial engineering degree you just might want to check out Kettering.