Hi,
I’m a Navy Nuke MM who just discharged from active duty. Interested in an engineering degree. I do shift work in Upstate NY and pretty much ruled out on-campus classes. We follow a Week 1, Week 2 schedule, 12 hour shifts, and I’m pretty sure this is incompatible with a typical engineering curriculum requiring labs, senior design projects, etc. Before the military, I was a mechanical engineering student at 112 credits. I’m hoping to transfer these to be evaluated for credit (or not). If I remember correctly, the only factor that matters in an engineering curriculum is ABET accreditation. Looking for the schools to apply to; I’m interested in Stony Brook for their BSEE because of in-state tuition. Googling ABET accredited schools, specifically for the ones that have earned it for Online, there is a short list of current schools that have earned accreditation (Sorry, I can’t post links). Is this still relevant? Many years ago, around 2011 or so, I recall the only one whose online curriculum was ABET accredited for Mechanical, Civil, and electrical engineering was the University of North Dakota, and it seems they’re not on this list anymore.
I would think the virtual frontier for college courses would have been revamped because of COVID, but I guess it’s still limited to an extent. What do you think my best options are?
Do appreciate the help. Thanks for answering!
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That is a lot of credits. Can you finish up at the college you have 112 credits at? Do you have any military education benefits you can use to pay for finishing your degree? Prior GPA at college?
Arizona State offers online engineering and has an extensive website for veterans assistance
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Thanks for the reply. Yes it is, but deceiving. Technically have 3-4 more semesters left. Some credits were fillers from GenEd, Elective or AP transferred credits (a LONG time ago) that did not fulfill course-specific credits for my major of Mechanical Engineering. Assuming I resume where I left off, I’m left at the mid-to-upper senior classes that have limited seating availability. I went to the City College of New York where typically, those classes at the bottom of that syllabus (the 400-500 tier classes) usually have 1 to 2 scheduled courses per semester, with one professor teaching. I also contacted my school’s VA office and they are completely shifting back to on-campus courses and also told me I have to speak to admissions, re-apply, prove my case to the director of the department, and hope to gain a seat back. Would’ve been nice to finish it there, but based on my location and seeing as none of this will be remote anymore, I guess it’s not happening.
I still have access to my Navy’s OMPF site and got a hold of my transcript. I was at a 3.1 GPA, 112 completed credits. For my enlistment I bought-in to the Montgomery GI Bill and am eligible to elect the Post-9/11 bill instead.
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Thank you very much for your service; it is greatly appreciated.
Having ABET accreditation remains very important for engineers. Although there are 31 online-only programs in the U.S. that are accredited, none of them are for mechanical engineering.
Going through the online-only listings, these appear to be your best bets, although none are exactly what you are looking for:
- Stony Brook University (i.e. SUNY-Stony Brook) for electrical engineering.
- ECPI University for Mechanical Engineering Technology
- Arizona State: offers electrical engineering, engineering management, information technology, and software engineering
Wishing you the best of luck.
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