Average time to complete a Mechanical Engineering Degree

[soliloquy]

Greetings! I'm asking here and about a half dozen other places. But, do we have any mechanical engineers in this group?

My son is in college and getting a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He has been able to manage As for the first year and we are very proud of him. He also attended during this summer to knock out more credits. He's a rising sophomore.

We had an academic advising session this morning, and I mentioned to her that his degree plan is very rigorous. I wanted to know the outcome of realistically completing this degree in four years. This morning I saw that the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) found that 50% of engineering students drop out or change their majors compared to 40% for other degrees. That's not my son's fate, but it's telling.  

The friendly academic advisor told us that STEM majors, particularly mechanical engineering majors, actually take, on average, 5-6 years to graduate, although it can be done within 4 years.

And apparently, there are times when some classes are unavailable in a particular semester, and it's challenging to plan ahead because classes are confirmed a couple of weeks before registration opens.

Anyone with a STEM degree has ideas on this? I'd rather him absorb knowledge and apply it over the course of 5 years rather than cram and not have really been able to process and absorb this information in 4.

Any thoughts?

[CatsDomino]

While my oldest son didn't go for mechanical engineering, he did get his BS in electrical engineering.  Not counting about 18 hours of gen eds he finished while in high school, it took him four and a half years to get his BS.  He did take a non-traditional route through our local community college, however, and did a 2+2 AE to BS program.  He played it smart and ended up with a great job at the company he interned for after his community college graduation.  That company paid for his BS while he worked for them as an engineering technician.  

I think with a field like engineering you have to take the time to really know what you're doing and taking longer than the average is no big deal.  I know my son had to take classes as they were offered during his final two years, even summers, because they were offered in a sequence which can slow progress if you skip them.  My oldest is 28 now with over five years of experience as an electrical engineer and recently moved on to another company.  He's doing very well for himself, and his dad and I are quite proud.   Good luck to your son!

[Alpha]

I think your friendly academic advisor is correct.

[ss20ts]

In general, most students don't finish in 4 years for a variety of reasons. For many 15-18 credits is just too much. Class rotation is a huge problem when a class is offered once every 2 years and it has prereqs. The federal government stats on grad rates are based on 6 years. There are many who graduate in years 5 and 6. Programs with a lot of labs tend to take longer just because the labs are 2-4 hours each versus 1 hour of lecture. Scheduling when you have a lot of labs is really challenging. I had that in culinary school and it was brutal. I was in school 12+ hours some days because of labs and the clean up. And when the lab is over, you're not done working. You still have the lab report to write. You still have to analyze the lab sometimes. Lots of time outside of the classroom for many students and they don't always realize this especially as freshman. I've done 19 credits in a semester and it was brutal. I had professors every week checking in with my the last half of the semester. I was absolutely exhausted by the end of the semester. I never did that again. LOL

[dfrecore]

I think 5 years is probably correct. The only other option is to see if the school will accept alternative credits for the GE (CLEP may be available, I'm guessing DSST and ACE won't be, but you never know), and then for him to get some of those out of the way so as to free up his schedule for his major.

So, if you tell us the school, we can tell you some options.

You might also want to list the courses he has already taken so we have as much info as possible.

[bjcheung77]

@soliloquy, some degrees do take longer than others because of those reasons you mentioned, example, classes aren't offered each semester. With more details, it will help us decipher a solution for you. Did your son take AP, IB, dual enrollment, or CLEPS during high school? Does your college accept ACE or alternative credit? Most schools have challenge exams, is he interested in getting his first year or two completed by exams? It is likely he will need the full four years or more if classes need to be split/spilled over to a 5th year, you can try to alleviate that by completing approved courses/exams beforehand.

[soliloquy]

Thank you to everyone who responded. I wanted to share that my son is on track to complete his Associate in Engineering (AE) this December. Tomorrow, he will petition for graduation. Afterward, he will be transferring to a university to pursue his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (BSME).

We did face some setbacks along the way due to two classes being unexpectedly canceled, both of which were necessary for his graduation requirements. The first instance was in Fall 2022, and while it was inconvenient, the course became available again in Spring 2023. However, a different class was canceled in Spring 2023 5 days before the start date, and the next offering wouldn't be until Spring 2024. We were informed that the reason for this situation is that my son took certain courses out of the designated sequence according to the degree plan. However, the specific sequence they mentioned was never provided to us. We had enrolled in the courses based on the guidance of his advisor at that time, who, unfortunately, is no longer there (or perhaps that is a good thing). In response, my son submitted a petition for a course substitution. Thankfully, the request was approved, allowing him to replace the canceled course with an alternative that still fulfilled the graduation criteria.

The journey has certainly been wild, but we're hopeful that the transition to the university will be smoother. My son wasn't able to use CLEP or DSST credits to bypass any courses. This is due to my son's chosen university's policy of not accepting these credits as part of the articulation agreement if they appear on the transcript. It was a gamble since we weren't sure if he'd get in. But, we expect to hear back from his "reach" school in the next four weeks for Spring 2023 admission. If that doesn't work out, he has plenty of other options.

[bjcheung77]

...you can try to alleviate that by completing approved courses/exams beforehand...

In response, my son submitted a petition for a course substitution. Thankfully, the request was approved, allowing him to replace the canceled course with an alternative that still fulfilled the graduation criteria.

Wow, that's so close to what I thought you would do, either through challenge exams, course substitution or transfer, etc. Great work in getting it all done to this point, there are always hiccups along the journey, be prepared and have alternative options...

[soliloquy]

He's a little bummed about adding an extra semester to get this degree. But, he would have been taking 21 credit hours for one of his semesters to graduate on time. We extended out through the fall to make the workload less hectic and preserve his GPA for scholarships.