Students Without an Engineering Undergraduate Degree - Agricultural & Biological Engineering - Purdue University

Students Without An Engineering Undergraduate Degree

Applicants with BS degrees from non-engineering or non-accredited programs are normally admitted to the MS program rather than the MSABE. They may become eligible for the MSABE by taking courses to meet the guidelines for an engineering degree as defined by ABET. A minimum of 15 credit hours of remedial undergraduate engineering courses from the five categories listed below are required. Credit for these remedial courses may be applied from equivalent courses from the applicant’s BS degree, subject to approval by the major professor and the ABE Graduate Program Committee. The selection of courses from the five categories is left to the student and subject to the approval of the student’s major professor and advisory committee.

The equivalent of 2 semesters of engineering physics and 4 semesters of mathematics (through differential equations) are prerequisites for the engineering courses and must be considered part of the remedial coursework if the applicant's background does not include them. Two suggested remedial (20000 and 30000 level) course plans of study are given below. Remedial courses at the 10000, 20000 and 30000 level cannot be listed on the student’s graduate plan of study, and need to be taken in addition to all courses required for the graduate plan of study.

 

Agricultural Engineering:

1.      Engineering Statics (ME 27000 or equivalent)

2.      Engineering Dynamics (ME 27400 or equivalent)

3.      Thermodynamics (ABE 21000, ME 20000, or equivalent)

4.      Fluid Mechanics (ME 30800, CE 34000, or equivalent) – also called Hydraulics, Momentum Transfer

5.      Mechanics of Materials (NUCL 27300, or equivalent) – also called Strength of Materials or Geotechnical Engineering 1 (CE 34300, or equivalent)

Biological Engineering:

1.      Thermodynamics (ABE 20200 or equivalent)

2.      Physical Chemistry/Advanced Thermodynamics (ABE 30300 or equivalent)

3.      Fluid Mechanics (ABE 30700 or equivalent) – also called Hydraulics, Momentum Transfer

4.      Heat and Mass Transfer (ABE 30800 or equivalent)

5.      Kinetics and Reaction Engineering (ABE 37000 or equivalent)

Depending upon the applicant’s background and work experience, completion of at least one 400 or 500-level engineering design course is required, and a senior capstone engineering design class (ABE 48400 and ABE 48600 or ABE 55700 and ABE 55800) is strongly encouraged.

A maximum of 6 hours of 40000-level (at a grade “B” or higher) and any 50000-level engineering science or design courses may be listed on the student’s MS degree plan of study if approved by the student’s major professor and ABE Graduate Program Committee.

Completion of these courses does not guarantee eligibility for the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, which depends on the state engineering licensing agency requirements for candidates without an ABET-accredited engineering degree.