Friend’s son toured another university’s engineering program and was told no one usually graduates in less than 5 1/2 years. (I asked and apparently this is not due to co-op.) When I toured UA with S19 a couple of months ago, I did not get the impression that UA engineering students were taking that long to graduate. Can anyone chime in with their thoughts/experiences?
I don’t know if anything has changed but my son graduated from UA in 2014 and had no problem graduating in 4 years. He was in aerospace engineering and came in with over 30 AP credits. Even without those he would have been fine. He had no problems getting the classes he needed when he needed them.
My son just graduated in December and he took 9 semesters of classes, but it was his own fault. He had to retake a couple early classes (such as statics) that he didn’t achieve a C- in and that impacted his ability to begin taking the higher level classes when he should have…but even that only resulted in 1 extra semester of classes.
He also never had an issue getting a class he needed, but as a civ-e major sometimes didn’t always get the classes he wanted since it does have a smaller group of majors and only offers many classes once per year, but just getting a class that meets requirements isn’t difficult.
He also did a co-op, so was in Tuscaloosa for a total of 5 1/2 years, but in addition to the civ-e major had minors in architectural engineering, structural engineering, and Spanish when he graduated,
My son had no trouble graduating in four years in engineering. He could’ve graduated in three or 3 1/2 years
@sabres1 @jrcsmom @mom2collegekids Thank you all for confirming my impressions from the tour. Interesting that the colleges my friend’s son talked to were completely unapologetic of how long their engineering students take to graduate. Another check in the “pro” column for UA! As if it even needed more!
The University certainly helps position the students for success. Our DS certainly could have graduated in 3 1/2 years as with a number of the posters above, but chose to make the most of opportunities that the school offers. He was fortunate enough to receive a NMF Scholarship and to be accepted into the CBH Program, which allows for even more enrichment experiences. Engineering certainly isn’t for the faint of heart (if it was easy, everyone could do it, right?) and we encouraged our DS to not rush the college experience (he came in with 59 credits, which allowed him to take a little easier course load credit-hour wise) which certainly went a far way in helping him keep an almost 4.0 GPA intact. Internships/co-op’s are certainly the “thing” that your student needs to make sure they secure, our DS will be completing a 2nd Internship with NextEra Energy this Summer with an offer on the table for employment when he completes his time at school. Overall, this school certainly has turned out to be the best option by far from the ones he could have chosen & I’m sure 99% of the parents on this board would agree with as far as their children are concerned.If your student does choose Alabama, I’m sure they’ll proper from their decision like ours have. Best of luck!
@mountainmomof3
Theres probably a reason you did not mention the school name in the original post, but I am curious what school would advertise that the typical student takes 5.5 years for a bachelor level engineering degree. Was it a student tour guide that made the statement?
Roll Tide!
DD is graduating at UA in civil and architectural engineering double major, on time. She did take 2 eng classes last summer, but was a 4 year Million Dollar Band member and had some softer fall terms on # of hours or avoiding scheduling the challenging courses for her during that term. She came in with english and history covered by AP. Decided to start with Honors Calc I to have all the math sequence at UA (after having the AP calc AB class as a junior w/o her school offering more for senior year, so she took statistics senior year which did help her a bit with college statistics course - and earned the HS award for top of the statistic class). She took one on line summer course for a humanity. The humanity and the other 2 summer courses could have been fit in during fall/spring terms. We are in-state and she also had AL Pre-paid college tuition which paid for the summer hours, and she had a campus engineering job for her last 1.5 years of school. She had the Presidential and Engineering Scholarships. Also had Band stipends (marching and concert).
Nephew who attended Iowa State for ChE worked a lot and also bought into the mentality of taking longer to graduate. He also worked outside jobs for spending $$ and had a social life which all could have been curtailed. He was originally going ROTC, but found during summer field training that Air Force was not going to work out for him. He took 5 years to graduate. When he graduated, ChE jobs were not super plentiful, so he worked a while in retail and bunked in with older sister’s place until his professional career got underway.
If an OOS student has scholarship at UA, can plan to ‘finish in four’.
There are a lot of high stat engineering students at UA, and there is studying together. DD’s senior project was with two other students. Deliverables turned in today and presentation on Monday.
@DavidPuddy sent you a message with info
My CS son graduated from UA in 3-1/2 years, but he came in with quite a few AP credits. My EE UA son is graduating in 4 this May. This last semester he really only had to take two classes, the second half of his senior capstone class and another EE class. Because the senior design class is two semesters and I believe only offered in Fall and Spring, he could not really have graduated earlier unless he planned better and took those classes his junior year (if all the prereqs were done.) My oldest graduated with his ME from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities in 4 years. That school “guaranteed” a four year graduation unless the student didn’t do his/her part. Madison, our state school, is known to have many “super seniors” in engineering. The school says its because their students do co-ops but from listening to friends it sounds like its more because classes are not available as needed. Check this out when looking at schools because no one wants to pay for another year at today’s costs. We are very happy the two universities that our kids went to enabled them to graduate within 4 years.
Statistically, the average UA student has less than a coin flip chance of graduating in 4-years from Alabama (44%). Just something to be aware of.
@WildestDream I do wonder if that is skewed by the wide range of students. And I do believe that is possibly skewed by internships/co-ops? Would love to be able to see the grad rates for the top 25%. S19 is at the tippy-top of that group. a possible NMSF and should come in with over 40 credits. Hopefully that works in his favor wherever he ends up. 
But you are right, always good to look at all of the stats!
I am a chem. E major with double minors in Spanish and Mathematics. I am graduating in 8 semesters, so it shouldn’t be impossible!
That being said, having AP credits really, really help!
My son had ZERO AP or CLEP credits when he entered UA. He has followed the mechanical engineering flowchart pretty closely and will graduate in five years as a result of his co-op, but only eight semesters of classes. Mind you, he came in extremely well prepared - he attended a rigorous private HS that did away with AP classes a decade ago, so while he didn’t have any credits, he had the prep. Still, he’s had to work very hard. He also had no wiggle room if he screwed up, but my point is, it can be done. A lot will depend on your student.
@WildestDream, is that 44% looking exclusively at engineering students or the entire university, because engineering generally self-selects and is attracting higher stats students, who are more likely to graduate in four years.
Also, I think we need to clarify if the OP is asking about four years or eight semesters. Two different things, especially in engineering.
@LucieTheLakie I am discussing 8 semesters of actual course work. S19 is intent on the co-op experience so we know time-wise it will be more than 5 years. I just wanted to confirm that other high performing UA students have been able to complete their engineering course work in 8 semesters. S19 is known at his HS for his amazing work ethic and has the math/science aptitude so if it is possible, he will get it done.
The professor at the unnamed school I referenced above was just completely unapologetic about their average 5+ years of course work. My friend’s son is a NMF with a 1580 SAT, etc. So to tell a hard working student that there is little hope makes me wonder what happens with kids with lower stats? I understand schools may struggle with poor graduation rates but I want a school that has policies/resources in place that show they are working on it.
When we visited UA, we felt like the school provides a lot of guidance and support to make a timely graduation possible for those students that are willing to put in the necessary work. The posts here seem to confirm that impression!
@mountainmomof3, if your son comes in with any AP/CLEP credits AND keeps to the prescribed flowchart for his major, it should take him a MAX of five years to graduate, i.e., he should graduate in May 2024 AT THE LATEST. Based on your description of him, I’d conjecture that he actually has a good shot of graduating in Dec. 2023 (or even earlier).
Many UA students are able to complete their BS Eng in 3 or 3.5 years (not counting a co-op) due to the unbelievably generous AP policies. The difference between UA and a lot of other schools (especially the top engineering programs) is that they admit quite generously to engineering, as opposed to making admissions to the engineering college (or in some cases a specific major) conditional upon meeting a certain threshold in foundation (aka “weeder”) classes.
My son has a good friend at Pitt who is taking an extra semester to complete his BSME. This student came in with AP credits, and it’s still going to take him more than four years to complete his degree. I get the impression this was by choice, to spread out the most challenging classes. I do think when it’s known to routinely take more than four years to finish an engineering degree (as it was at Penn State when my son was considering going there), students are more inclined to go that route. And it certainly happens at UA, but I think it’s more because somebody stumbled or changed majors than because UA makes it inherently difficult to “finish in four.”
The key is planning out your schedule ahead of time to make sure you don’t get out of sequence and to avoid stumbling early on by loading up on difficult classes right out of the gate. Skipping CALC I & II works for a lot of students, but it also trips up some, putting scholarships in jeopardy. And some who come in with sophomore (and even higher) standing sometimes stumble when they start taking upper level classes freshman year, when there are so many other adjustments going on.
At UA, as a result of all the big scholarships and the fact that it is the State of Alabama’s flagship university, with a commitment to educating its own students, you’re going to encounter a huge range of students - from students who turned down Ivies and other elites, to kids who never had calculus in HS - even in engineering. That’s something I don’t think is as common in many higher-ranked schools. And it can be hard to know where you fall on the food chain until you start seeing grades.
Also, engineering just isn’t for everybody. You can be brilliant and just not “get” engineering, or it can turn out to be too “theoretical” even though it’s really an applied science. Still, it’s always easier to start in engineering and transfer out than it is to try to transfer in.
@LucieTheLakie thanks so much for your words of wisdom! We have mainly been looking at larger schools for S19 just in case engineering turns out to not be for him after all. Having a large school with a variety of other offerings is ideal in that case. You can be 99% sure at 17-18 you want to major in one field only to change course upon starting. However, among those schools, we do want to make sure the schools are doing everything possible to make timely graduation possible - whatever the field. So many issues to consider over the next year!
@mountainmomof3, maybe because my own kid started out not at all sold on engineering (originally intended to major in math at a small liberal arts college but wanted to study something that didn’t require graduate school, thus engineering at a big U!), or maybe because I’ve been the admin of a Bama engineering parent group on Facebook for going on four years now, but I feel like I’ve kind of seen it all at this point - the successes and the disappointments, the changing of majors and colleges within the university, and leaving the university altogether, for financial and other reasons.
Your son is asking all the right questions. My son knew he did’t want a “techie” school, or even a large university dominated by STEM students (even though he planned to study some STEM subject), so UA ended up sort of ticking off all the boxes for him, rather unexpectedly, and at the best price - which never hurts!
And, believe me, the ability to “finish in four” along with the co-op opportunities (which are essentially free), really helped make choosing UA an easy decision. Four years later, no regrets whatsoever.
H and I stuck to our original college majors (although I added a double major and finished in 8 semesters); both DDs finished in 4 with their original degree plans too.
DD2 did attend UA SITE (Student introduction to Engineering) which is a one week summer offering for rising HS juniors and seniors. They only have 3 sessions and do not advertise it as they always fill up. Offered for over 20 years at UA. This allowed DD to decide what field of engineering she liked the best. CS is also in the college of Eng at UA.
@SOSConcern, I am curious about the SITE program. Did your daughter find it worthwhile? Thanks for sharing that it fills up.