<p>I'm just curious if it's possible to complete a 3/2 Engineering Program within 4 years by doing a 2/2.. I have a local community college and was wondering if it was possible to take extra classes over the summer to speed up the process.</p>
<p>I would say do a 2+2 anyway. Community colleges have now made GREAT strides in aligning their curriculum to the first two years of 4-year schools.</p>
<p>When I was coming out of high-school, many community colleges were on their individualized curriculum and there were many horror stories about courses not transferring. In other words back in the mid-80’s, if you wanted a B.S. degree, you pretty much HAD to attend a 4-year school off the bat. </p>
<p>Now, the CC’s got smart. They aligned their curriculum with universities and have a VERY cost efficient way to knock out that Calculus/Linear Algebra/Diff Eq sequence, Physics sequence and the general education courses. Here in Maryland, certain have CC’s have agreements with U-Maryland College Park to guarantee admission if the CC student has a 3.0 GPA. Plus the CC’s offer many summer courses so a hopeful engineering student can take Calculus III or Differential Equations during the summer instead of taking both of those courses in the same semester.</p>
<p>I would recommend the 2+2 route.</p>
<p>^Definitely.</p>
<p>I don’t really see the appeal of the 3/2 programs. So you can get 2 bachelors in 5 years…so what…if you went to the engineering school directly you could get a BS and MS in the same 5 years…MUCH more beneficial. Find a way to go directly to an engineering school from a CC, not through a 3/2 program.</p>
<p>okay thanks guys. very helpful</p>
<p>The CC 2+2 route is a good choice and will save you a lot of tuition money, however, make sure that the curriculum you take is properly articulated with the engineering program you seek to join. At some universities, the second year of the Engineering curriculum includes courses which are not found at a CC and therefore, students find themselves in a 2+3 situation.</p>
<p>You can’t assume that the CC classes will be at the same level of rigor as the classes at a University with a strong engineering program. Before going that route, carefully check if the material covered is the same at the CC and the University, to avoid the risk of being unprepared after you transfer. Or, just avoid taking classes that will be prerequisites to engineering classes - distribution classes, etc. would be fine. But I would think twice about taking physics 1 and 2 at CC and then physics 3 at a selective engineering school.</p>
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<p>CCs need to conform to the standards set by the state universities that they feed. Many of those selective engineering schools are state universities which require the CCs to conform to the standards in order to list the CCs’ courses in their course articulation agreements. Of course, there is more possibility of courses not matching up with out of state or private universities.</p>
<p>In any case, a CC student intending to transfer as a junior in engineering needs to take the frosh/soph level math and physics (and any other needed frosh/soph level courses) at CC before transfer – otherwise, s/he will likely need at least 3.5 years instead of 2 years to complete a bachelor’s degree after transfer (and the engineering school understandably is unlikely to admit such a transfer applicant).</p>
<p>I am looking at the CC system in Virginia primarily for financial reasons. So far am have hear good things about the process of transferring to engineering programs at in state universities.</p>
<p>[2013-2014</a> Transfer Guide](<a href=“http://www.tranguide.registrar.vt.edu/]2013-2014”>http://www.tranguide.registrar.vt.edu/) can give you an idea of which CCs in Virginia offer course coverage for needed courses at Virginia Tech.</p>
<p>Our D was enrolled at local CC before transferring to her dream U. She communicated regularly with the U about which courses they would give her transfer credit for (they did NOT give credit for the one course she took on-line). It was a very good thing to speak with the U, so she didn’t have surprises and disappointments upon transfer.</p>
<p>As was said, there may be a difference in material covered and difficulty between CC & U, so plan to spend time working with the prof and teaching assistant at the U. Also, if you make it clear to the CC what your plans are, they may be able to help you supplement so you are better prepared for a successful transfer.</p>
<p>My Mom used to teach math at a directional state U. She said that while there were official rules that CC classes would be considered to be equivalent to the courses at the 4-yr directional U, she found that the former CC students were typically much less well-prepared for the math classes at the U than the students who had taken the prerequisites at the U. Her assumption was that the local CC courses were not really equivalent to the related class at the U, and seemed to have covered less material or covered it less well.</p>
<p>But wouldn’t that have been at least a generation ago, when the CC students were probably not as strong, due to the four year schools being both less selective and less expensive (i.e. the four year schools went deeper into the pool of high school graduates, leaving the CCs with weaker students back then than now)?</p>
<p>It may be possible that a CC foundation course may not quite at the level of a good 4-year school, but I do not think that the gap is so great. Also, the impact on the remaining 2 years of an engineering major would depend on the specific major.</p>
<p>For Computer Science, the required math is reduced to Calculus I, Calculus II, Linear Algebra and Discrete Math Structures…and ALL can be taken at the CC level. The only other math course that a CS major would be (possibly) would be a Probability/Statistics course and THAT course would be the engineering version…not the one for Math/Stat majors. The initial programming courses would be the other “wildcards” in the transfer process, but some bigger/higher-ranked schools, like U-Maryland-College Park requires all transfers to take a Java assessment test before being allowed to bypass U-MD’s own initial programming courses.</p>
<p>The CC Math preparation will be OK for CS needs because the CS curriculum won’t use anything past basic knowledge of Calculus/Linear Algebra. Of course, if the student decides to take on a more mathematical slant of CS…like taking advanced courses in numerical analysis, numerical linear algebra, parallel programming, combinatorics or cryptology, then it is possible (small chance) that the CC math preparation may require that transfer student to work harder.</p>