My son will be coming in 1 or 2 classes short of being a sophomore and would like to try to get the chemical masters degree in that 4th extra year. I think he can start earning credit towards that his second year. He will be CHEMe major. Any info is much appreciated again. ROLL TIDE!
My son is doing that type of program at OU. He is in 2nd year and will graduate in 4 with a Master’s. It may depend a bit on what credits he brought in and requirements at Bama.
@Torveaux How many and which AP credits did your son bring into OU?
@rockhoundmom Which AP credits will your son be bringing in?
Remember that many of the E courses are sequenced, so the 4th year may not be an “extra year”.
The program you are interested in is called University Scholars which allows students to take graduate level courses that dual count for grad and undergrad credit during their undergraduate degree and then allow the students to complete their master’s in 1 additional year. The info for the ChemE University Scholars program is here http://che.eng.ua.edu/undergraduate/scholars-program/.
You would have to determine if based on the credits he is coming in with, if he can compress the first 4 years of the program into 3. My son came in with 35 credits and is going to be able to complete a minor, but will still take 8 semesters to complete his undergrad degree.
Our son is going in with a significant number of AP credits and we figured out that he should be able to fit in the University Scholars BS/MS program in 4 years, should he so choose. Just look at the flowcharts available on the engineering website.
My S2 was ChemE at Bama. He came in with 45 AP credits, but he was premed so his goals were different and he had to complete the premed prereqs.
I think that if he had attempted the BS/MS route, he would have:
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taken some summer classes at the local CC before entering his frosh year at Bama. Maybe a Calc class and Gen Chem class or Physics (depending on what AP classes have been taken.)
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taken more summer classes between frosh and soph years …depending on what is still outstanding…maybe Ochem and Calc III or DifEQ and physics.
The goal would be to get as much of those lower division math and science classes out of the way to clear space to take those grad classes and to be able to do the “summer req’t” during the school year instead.
Once we hear what this student has for AP credits, we’ll be able to better advise. One of two classes short of soph standing could mean coming in with 24 credits, more or less.
@rockhoundmom Are you sure that you’re calculating his likely AP credits correctly?
FYI, you cannot apply to the University Scholars program until you have 90 credits. I am not sure how this works for ChemE majors, but it is definitely an option for those who are coming to UA with alot of AP/Clep credits already.
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you cannot apply to the University Scholars program until you have 90 credits
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All the more reason to take some summer CC classes next two summers…to get to that 90 credit mark.
Also, see if there are any CLEP tests that could be taken to get more credits.
I’m hoping the OP comes back and tells us what AP classes her son has taken and which ones he’s taking senior year. I wondering if he may end up with more than “almost” soph standing.
mom2collegekids. He had 55 credits. Spanish was 19 alone. I do not remember all. He got 5s in Chem, physics, calc. He only got a 3 in English and world history.
He will not be coming in with any AP credit, it will be all IB. HLs will be…
Chemistry(chem 101 and chem 102 8hrs)
Math(math 115 and math 125 7hrs)
Physics(ph 105 and ph 106 8hrs)
English(en 101 and en 102 6hrs)
Psychology(psy 101 3hrs)
If necessary, he would be able to CLEP biology, Spanish and French. Should be able to get level 1 and 2 for Spanish and French as he will have 4 years of each. Would he be able to use those credits though?
Thank you. I appreciate all the replies!
He’ll come in with 32 credits, which is sophomore standing, however, that lower Math won’t help him.
If he can CLEP bio, that would help.
Is there no IB credit for a history? IF he could CLEP a history that would help.
CLEP a language, if possible, in case the credits on his transcript will help him quicker reach the 90 credits needed to get to begin University Scholars.
The language courses will also fill humanities requirements and 2 consecutive language courses will fulfill the sequence requirement in engineering, so definitely CLEP the language he is stronger in.
^^
Oh good. I didn’t know about the FL credits fulfilling the sequence req’t. Good to know.
So, then…definitely do CLEP for the FL.
I would suggest that next summer, he take Ochem and Calc II…or maybe OChem I and II…If that seems too overwhelming, then one of those and any Core that may still be needed.
To be able to get to the 90 credit mark early enough to take the grad-level classes, he’s got to make room in his 8 Bama semesters…and that can only be done by IB, AP, CLEP and summer courses.
He also has to make room in his 8 semesters for that “summer reqt” so that he doesn’t have to pay OOS fees for that summer.
Print out the ChemE flowchart and cross-out the credits he will have, and notate any that can be taken during the next two summers…getting them done BEFORE they’re needed for sequence.
Ok, Tiger Mamas, we are all trying to be very helpful, but I’m gonna weigh in here if I may! I really question how someone who isn’t even in college yet is making this decision. The plan for this student allows for probably zero time for anything other than pretty rigorous, year-round, coursework…and what’s the rush, anyway?..your student should be ENJOYING his time at UA…don’t overload him with a path that is chartered before he even gets on campus and has a handle on things.
First of all, ChemE is a challenging degree, not for the faint-hearted. If the passion is not there (on the student’s part), it will be a slog. My son looked very briefly into the UA Scholars program for Aero…and he balked. His rational was that if he was going to do a Masters, it was going to be on an employer’s dime and time, and not on his/scholarship, nor at the expense of all of the other (very pleasurable) things he has shoe-horned into his life at UA. Also, he wanted to take his senior classes at the level at which they are meant to be taught, and not take graduate-level classes with students he was unfamiliar with, just to fulfill requirements for a Masters.
By the time junior year hits, most branches of engineering have a cohort of undergraduate students, who do the courses together in a sequence: meaning, the collaboration and cooperation that goes on between these same students in the same graduating year, who know each others’ strengths very well, and work together closely as a team, for the last two years of courses at UA, cannot be underestimated, IMO. This is not to say that graduate students are unhelpful - I’m not saying that at all - just that you as a younger student would be taking graduate-level courses with students you will not be familiar with. There may be a certain level of maturity and street cred required to do well, if that makes sense.
I realise that Aero is different to ChemE major, but both require very high levels of applied math - as @mom says, that lower math credit will not help the OP’s student - so make sure your student eats math for breakfast in order to succeed in engineering, especially at this accelerated rate of knots you propose. You do not want to crash and burn…or what is the chemical equivalent of that…sublimate? ;).
Moreover, the ChemE major is chock-full of courses (like Aero) that allows very little deviation in the scheduling. One thing I can suggest is going into the course lists for each semester and actually see when they are taught (especially the grad classes), because not all courses will be taught when you want (or need) to take them to keep you on this ambitious 4-yr track you propose. You can go back into prior years’ semesters to get an idea of this on mybama.
UA more than most schools allows you plenty of opportunity to pursue things very ambitiously. I don’t want to offend anyone. My caution flag went up when I was reading through this thread, tho…and I hope you can appreciate my cautionary point of view. Good luck with your decisions!
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While I agree with the above, I know from the OP’s other posts, that money is a big concern. Even if the student doesn’t have time to get his complete masters (or even any grad classes), he will want to “open his schedule” so that he can take the summer req’t. during the school year.
I agree that it’s not wise to load up a schedule so that a student has no time for any “rest and relaxation” which is needed to avoid “burn-out”. That’s why I was suggesting that IF the student is set on trying to get the masters as well, he’d need to CLEP out some classes (that he’s already prepared for), and take some classes over the summer. Summer school classes are usually only 6 weeks long, so a student still will get a “break” of a few weeks.
As I noted above, my son started with a couple more credits and is still going to use all 8 semesters for undergrad, although is also adding a Spanish minor. We’d STRONGLY looked into the University Scholars program, but for completion in a 5 year time frame. I don’t think my son could have managed to squeeze the civ-e program into 4 years, but many of the credits he brought in were core requirements and not science, so he still had lots of prereqs before he started his engineering courses.
But then my son struggled with a few classes, I think he’ll always have nightmares about statics and now just a few years later can’t wait to be finished with classes and definitely doesn’t want to stay another year (although really he will be there another year because of his co-op, but not another year of classes). So, I agree that the best advice is to take at least a semester or two of classes and then figure out the right path.
If the rationale for trying to complete the program in 4 years is financial, then it’s a very good point that many employers will reimburse at least a portion of grad school expenses if not in their entirety.
But it’s still a good idea to do the CLEP for one language or the other.
I initially thought the same like OP maybe it might work, but after I did an excel “whatif” based on my DD AP credits and discovered that the pre-reqs the next class had and the “spring” or “fall” only makes it not quite possible to complete in 4 years. I also agree with other posts that I want my DD to enjoy her undergraduate years. Besides she can always do the traditional MSc ChemE research route and have tuition waived.
I would strongly recommend STEM to MBA instead (it might work to fit within 4 years with sufficient AP credits) especially for those planning to go to the workforce after graduation.
Lol. I am the opposite of a tiger mom. First, I am a dad. More importantly, my kid is driving 100 percent of this. Personally, I think to get a Master’s degree should require 5 years of practical experience After earning the bachelor’s. I thought he should maybe use the extra credits to double in something that interests him. Besides for this particular kid, the joy of college is matching wits and experience with other smart kids. They play intramural sports, play board games, horse around just like the other kids. Except many of us would not understand the jokes. And, the sometimes make fun of the jocks.
The idea to try for master in four year was DS’s and I thank you for the great advice! Alabama is at the top of his list because he loved the community feel and it would be a shame not to enjoy that community because of too much work.