Some students also used their co-op terms to explore different career paths, such as product design and data science. John Salaveria, an avid illustrator and fashion blogger, leveraged his software engineering experience with his design interests to join a “community of [product] designers with passions similar to [his] own.”

65% of students are graduating debt-free.

Thanks to co-op, most students were able to finance their university education. It’s important to note that there were students from each family income bracket who graduated debt-free. Among those who graduated in debt, 85% of them had less than $30,000 of debt.

By the last co-op term, salaries tripled in comparison to the first.

Compensation for each co-op term

Students can only hope that this trend continues and that their salary triples again in 5 years. Who knows? (…it probably won’t happen)

Obviously, students have more experience in their later terms, making them eligible for higher paying jobs. However, other factors help explain this increase, mainly higher living costs. Employers compensate for higher living costs with housing stipends. For example, San Francisco housing typically costs $1,500-$2,500 USD a month, which is enough to cover a full 4 months in Waterloo.

Good grades do not imply higher job pay

Green: 1st co-op, Orange: 6th co-op. Correlation coefficient: 0.23, -0.05.

There was no correlation found between grades and co-op salary. This finding is applicable to all co-op jobs. Instead, there are more important factors that affect job pay such as side projects, extracurricular activities, and previous relevant experience.