Co-operative resources

Students will be contacted by the Graduate Program Coordinator in October of their first semester with information on how to apply for the co-op option and how to attend the mandatory co-op workshop series.

The general application documents that must be submitted to be considered for the co-op program are:

1. A program/plan change form with original signatures 
2. A short paragraph indicating interest in the co-op program 
3. Proof of co-op workshop series completion 

Please note: Co-op impacts program progression by adding one or two term(s) to the program length.  

Co-op students are able to arrange their own co-op jobs or they can look for jobs through Waterloo Works. The University of Waterloo runs one of the largest co-op programs in the world and Waterloo students are in high demand with leading employers in the technology and financial sectors, both in Canada and in the USA.

Students are not required to complete a co-op that is related to their research project, but they should have a job that relates to their Computational Mathematics studies in order to write an adequate work report. 

Please note: Computational Mathematics Master's students are only allowed to work one co-op job; however, this job may last either four or eight months (one or two terms). 

Work report 

While completing their co-op, students should begin to think about the content they will be including in their work report. The work report should:

• Discuss the underlying problem they worked on, the approach taken, and the progress made to solve the problem
• Relate their work term to the academic program 
• Have an analytic component (e.g. contain constructive criticism, a conclusion and recommendations) 
• Contain a topic that relates to the employer, line of work undertaken by the organization or business practices employed on site 

The report does not need to:

• Contain details deemed confidential by the employer
• Discuss original research
• Relate to a new technical discovery

Computational Mathematics currently follows the undergraduate structure for work reports. 

Milestone completion form

Once students have completed their work term and work report, they will need to fill out a milestone completion form. This form will be sent to students by the Graduate Program Coordinator along with detailed instructions for its completion. 

The Milestone completion form will need to be signed by: 

• The student's first work report reader, their research supervisor 
• The student's second work report reader, their employer^*
• The Graduate Officer

 ^{*Please note: Your employer will also need to fill out an Employer Evaluation of Math Work Report (PDF)}

Computational Mathematics Master's co-op students commonly work in positions such as: 

• Data scientists and data analysts
• Machine learning developers and engineers
• Investment, trading, and business analysts
• Software developers

Co-op students have opportunities to work in a wide variety of industries. Some of the industry sectors where Computational Mathematics students have found co-op positions include:

• Banking and finance
• Insurance and investment
• Technology and software
• Research and development
• Manufacturing
• Government

See below for a sample of companies who have previously employed Computational Mathematics Master's co-op students: