Many universities in the US have what are called co-op programs, especially for engineering students. After finishing a complete first year, the student alternates between one semester on campus and one semester on-site as a full time employee with the participating company. They will usually also attend university classes in the summer to make sure it doesn’t take too long to graduate.<p>My understanding is that this is more common in the middle of the US rather than the coastal schools.<p>My sister did this for chemical engineering while at Purdue. Each semester on site was at a different chemical plant around the US, for a major international corporation. Graduated with zero debt and a long list of companies that wanted to recruit her given the extensive experience.<p>But anyway, the mechanics of it is that the university registers you for a “course” during your time away that allows you to maintain your full-time status as far as the federal government is concerned. That’s the issue - the way things work, it’s really bad to lose official full-time status.