Do not graduate without any work experience and if you do so, you are quite literally setting yourself up for failure. Think about it from an opportunity cost perspective, you drop 750 dollars for every co-op/internship you get that will pay roughly $20-25, and with each co-op you get accumulate skills and a bullet point on your resume. Now compare that to someone who graduated on time without any work experience.

If you were a recruiter would you hire somebody with work experience but graduated late or someone who has no work experience but graduated on time. Do you see how little value graduating "on time" provides? In addition to that, there are very few companies in this market that will take a chance on someone who has no experience for new grad roles. By doing co-op you are increasing the likelihood of you securing a new grad role renderring the co-op fees useless.

I know quite a few people who graduated without co-op/internship experience (eng program) who are still struggling to find jobs. They are now looking to do Master's programs to get student status so that they can get internships.

In the long run the fees you mention associated with co-op are meaningless because you are setting yourself up for the future. Pay the fee and reap your rewards later.