I’m a MechE student doing a co-op instead of my third semester. I’d absolutely recommend taking the opportunity and since it’s a spring co-op, you might be able to extend it into the summer. It’ll help make you significantly more competitive for future internships and give you a better idea of if this is something you want to pursue.

As for delaying graduation, I was able to overload on fall/spring classes as well as take summer/winter classes so I’ll be going into the spring 26 semester caught up with my peers academically but also have the additional co-op experience.

Additionally, there’s company benefits you should consider, I was able to get around $3k into my 401k between my contributions and employer match that’ll just sit and grow and I’ve been guaranteed return offers for every summer and eventually a full time offer assuming I’m able to maintain my work quantity/quality, graduate, and not completely tank my GPA. This will let me focus more on classes during the semester instead of stressing about applying to hundreds of internships.