<p>Look more closely at the Haverford/CalTech and Georgetown/Columbia joint programs. These programs allow students to spend a few years at one school, and then some time at the other. (Usually, 3 years at one school, than two years at the other.)</p>
<p>I don’t see anything that’d prevent UChicago from doing this - have a student spend three years in Hyde Park, and then 2 years at Univ. of Illinois, and pick up a bachelors from UChicago, and a masters from Illinois. Seems like it’d be a good system, unless UChicago is planning on expanding its engineering offerings and keeping everything in house…</p>
<p>Very few, if any, students are going to graduate from U of C with a bachelors in physics or chemistry in 3 years.
edit: I do know of one student who did so actually</p>
<p>Then have some classes taken during the two years at Univ. of Illinois be cross-listed and count toward UChicago credit. Alternatively, have a 4+1 program (with only one year spent at Illinois). Whatever way the mechanics would work out, having a great liberal arts degree and a great engineering/comp sci degree would be of use.</p>
<p>Even if UChicago builds a full-fledged engineering program from the ground up, it’s not going to rival anything done at UIUC (one of the top 5 or so programs in the country) for decades.</p>
<p>If indeed it takes 3+2 years to get a liberal arts BA and engineering MS can a student or her family afford an extra year expense?</p>
<p>For some students wanting to do MS anyway it will be a good deal since it can shorten the time. For other students wanting only an engineering BA it may cost more.</p>
<p>My children, and almost all of their friends, were liberal arts majors at Chicago who graduated between 2009 and 2012 (not such great years for the American job market). At this point, all but a handful have meaningful careers, or are in focused PhD or professional-degree graduate programs. None are taking community college courses to do anything.</p>
<p>Sadly, many of the ones who had a hard time were those who wanted to be K-12 teachers, many with STEM minors; they were wrong-footed by severe budget cutbacks over the past few years that to a large extent froze out entry-level teachers. The people who wanted careers in the arts knew what they were getting into and found appropriate day jobs while creating ways to pursue their talents professionally.</p>
<p>3+2 programs are not BS+MS but a double BS.</p>
<p>Essentially people are doing a liberal arts curriculum in one school and also doing engineering in another school and it amounts to a double major where the engineering prereqs are being completed at one and then just taking engineering classes for the last two years.</p>
<p>3-2 engineering programs have been around for at least 50 years. Columbia SEAS has 3-2 with over 100 LAC’s and technically deficient universities like GU and Fordham. Generally, 3-2 engineering is for math, physics and chemistry majors. UIUC doesn’t have 3-2 with ANY institution. So why would UIUC start doing 3-2 all of a sudden? Purdue and GT are state u’s that have 3-2 with a limited number of small colleges.</p>
<p>Sure, U of C can add a molecular engineering minor and even major. However, it will not be competitive with other engineering programs like chemical and biomolecular engineering at Penn. [CBE</a> - Undergraduate Program](<a href=“Why Penn CBE?”>Why Penn CBE?). Thus, there needs to be at least a Chemical and Molecular Engineering department offering an ABET accredited major at Chicago. Still, three engineering programs are needed for anyone to take U. of C.'s foray into engineering seriously.</p>
<p>Texas PG, doesn’t the above program allow for a BA-MS in engineering in 5 years? Why couldn’t UChicago offer something similar, in conjunction with an even better engineering school (U. Illinois)?</p>
<p>That’s a new one of a kind program where grad school starts early:</p>
<p>“After being accepted, and after completing any prerequisite undergraduate engineering and science courses, you will take three graduate engineering courses at Penn while still enrolled at Haverford.”</p>
<p>UIUC is on the semester system and is two hours from Chicago. Try an early enrollment program with NU;)</p>
<p>Hah! Fair enough, with NU then, which isn’t as far away. Or, have an option for a BA/BS program with UIUC. Cost could of course be a factor, but other schools have BA/BS programs (such as the Georgetown-Columbia linkage). </p>
<p>Also, I’m surprised that, quite literally, UChicago has no ability to even take courses at other schools. Swarthmore, Haverford, Penn, etc. all have this option in Philadelphia, MIT-Harvard has this option, as does Emory-Georgia Tech.</p>
<p>Why doesn’t UChicago include some offerings in this regard?</p>
<p>Maybe Chicago can explore partnership with multiple universities. E.g., UIUC, UW at Madison, Purdue at west Lafayette are very good for chemical engineering and computer engineering as well as civil engineering, etc. Northwestern is good too at some domains.</p>
<p>Why isn’t the obvious partner IIT – a 15 minute shuttle ride away, or 6 Green Line stops? You could actually have some kind of joint program. And there would be an obvious benefit to the partner institution – some reason to do it.</p>
<p>All those LAC/Engineering school 3-2 programs – they mainly exist in theory, not in practice. A handful of kids sign up for them, and most bail out when the time comes to move to the engineering school.</p>
<p>^What happens to those that “bail out” is they find out that it is better to graduate with a bachelors in physics or chemistry in 4 years and then get an MS in engineering. They end up doing 4-2 engineering.</p>
<p>But it is better to partner with a university which is very strong on engineering across the board. IIT is not as strong as UIUC, UW, Purdue, NU, etc. on engineering.</p>
<p>Over their more than 100 years of history, Illinois Tech and U of Chicago have occasionally discussed partnerships, sort of like the NYU / Polytechnic Institute of New York one that has recently moved toward a complete merger. At the moment, there is no such discussion as far as I am aware.</p>