Well, I wouldn't say it's easier for me to get one because they know I need one. It's the point that Kettering is a highly-respected school and there are always tons of companies hiring co-ops from our school for that fact alone. Many of the companies that employ Kettering students end up employing more after seeing what type of core education and strenuous schedule we're put under. However, this company I'm now with is joining the Kettering co-op program for the first time with me being their "guinea pig" student, so to speak.
Now, that's not to say you don't go to a good school, nor that you're a bad student; it's just that I've been told this by most of the employers I've talked to. Many of the companies I've talked to have managers at their place who graduated from Kettering, too, so that's a huge plus for them to hire a Kettering co-op.
And one more thing is that I've also seen many a time more experienced students get turned down for a co-op in favor of an inexperienced incoming freshman. Why though? Because many of the companies I've talked to have told me that they would like to bring a student in to learn everything over four years and really develop that student into a fine-tuned engineer who pretty much knows every step in the manufacturing, building, and selling of their products. Almost every company I've talked to said they want to ship the co-op student to a manufacturing-type setting where the student will get a hands-on feel for everything the company engineers and actually puts into production. Then, after actually seeing what you've seen on the lines, the student will hypothetically understand how to better, more efficiently design parts. This, in turn, helps eliminate things that are difficult to build because the student eventually learns what processes and designs do and do not make for easy manufacturing. That's why they want somebody with little experience though, is because they can raise and shape the student into the mold their looking for to make that student a much more dynamic force in the workplace than any other college graduate that hadn't had a four-year co-op.
And, lastly, to answer your question: yes, Kettering has four terms in the school year, two of which are school and two of which are co-op. Depending if you're A-section or B-section, you take school first then co-op or vice versa. So, in other words, I don't know half of the freshman at Kettering simply because they're in their co-op term right now while I'm here at school. It's a sweet program, though much more vigorous than I had ever expected, but I'll make it.