Cooperative Education
The Financial Statement
FINANCIAL AID, SCHOLARSHIPS, INSURANCE AND EXTRA CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
While students are co-oping, they are registered for 1 credit, which
maintains full-time student status. It is still important for your son
or daughter to discuss the co-op with a Financial Aid Advisor. When students
are cooping, they do not use up the 'grace' period on their loan so they
will not need to start paying student loans back. On the other hand, students
do not typically receive financial aid, grants, loans or scholarships,
while they are cooping If your son or daughter accepts the money without
notifying financial aid, he or she may be placed on Financial Aid probation.
Scholarships - Check with the source that is funding
the scholarship. They can typically suspend aid while students are cooping
and re-establish it when they are back taking classes full-time.
Financial Aid
Health and Auto Insurance - Because UWM recognizes your son or daughter as a full-time student, so do insurance agencies. The Co-op Office may need to send a letter to your insurance company to explain the situation. Please let the office know as soon as possible if you would like a letter sent.
Extracurricular Activities - Activities, such as athletics,
are something to take into consideration when planning a co-op rotation.
It is easiest to be enrolled in full-time classes during your son or daughter's
sports season and it is essential that they check with the Athletic Department
regarding NCAA guidelines and cooping.
It is your son or daughter's responsibility to check into the specifics in each area as to how they may affect them. If an agency requests a letter of explanation, please talk with the Co-op Office.
COMPENSATION
Co-op salaries are determined by employers in a number of ways. Two factors most commonly considered are the work experience and the academic classification of the student. A widely used method for calculating a fair salary is to pay the co-op a percentage of the amount of a graduate engineer in that discipline. It is interesting to note that during the last work term most employers find that a co-op student performs nearly at the level of their graduate engineers.
Providing a comprehensive benefit package to a co-op is not an employer requirement for participation in the program. However, many organizations do offer a variety of benefits including health insurance, holiday pay, vacation leave, and full or partial reimbursement of travel expenses.
Past starting wages for co-op students has been between $9 and $14 per hour.
UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION
As a special type of employee with the cooperating employer, and while working on a voluntary, accepted, prearranged, alternating work/school schedule for credits, the co-op student does NOT earn unemployment compensation under Wisconsin statutes. In addition, federal laws exclude "employment of the individual…in a full-time program taken for credit (at a higher educational institution)…if such service is an integral part of such program…" as service which earns unemployment compensation rights.
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