Students Without An Engineering Undergraduate Degree

Applicants not meeting the requirements for full admission to the MS-ABE program are sometimes granted provisional admission to make up academic deficiencies in order to meet the guidelines for an engineering degree as defined by ABET, which include 32 hours of engineering sciences and at least 16 hours of design courses (48 hours total). The general requirements for admission to provisional status are established by the Graduate School.

Applicants with BS degrees from non-engineering or non-accredited programs who possess an undergraduate GPA greater than 3.5 may be admitted to provisional status while completing credit. A minimum of 15 credit hours of remedial undergraduate engineering courses from the five categories listed below are required (some areas of study may require more, as agreed upon by the applicant and the major professor, and approved by ABE Graduate Program Committee). 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 decision to provisionally admit a student ultimately rests with the ABE Graduate Program 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 course plans of study are given below:

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 30900, CE 34000, or equivalent) – also called Hydraulics, Momentum Transfer
  5. Mechanics of Materials (NUCL 27300, or equivalent) – also called Strength of Materials

Biological Engineering:

  1. Thermodynamics (ABE 20200 or equivalent)
  2. Advanced Thermodynamics (ABE 30300 or equivalent) – also called Physical Chemistry
  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)

Remedial courses at the 10000, 20000 and 30000 level cannot be listed on the student’s graduate plan of study. Courses completed in addition to the above suggestions, which meet the 32 credit hours of engineering science and 16 credit hours of design (48 hours total), may be applied toward the requirements of completing the MS degree. 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.

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 48500 or ABE 55600) is strongly encouraged.

Full status is generally granted when the minimum of 15 credit hours of remedial undergraduate engineering courses from the five categories listed above have been completed with a GPA of 3.0 or higher. Full status implies that the student continues to complete remedial courses to meet the ABET definition of a BS engineering degree, and courses required under the student’s MS degree plan of study.