Engineering Physics

Q: I am chair at a community college that has a successful Engineering Science program that sends a lot of students to the local engineering school to finish the BS. However, the school is private and tuition is very high. I want to team with the state school that has no engineering degree to offer a BS in Engineering Physics thru their Physics department. We'll continue to do the first two years, they'll do the second two, with new engineering courses, so it's not really a 2 + 2 program. I don't want to hear about the merits of the Engineering Physics degree- that's been discussed ad nauseum. I want to know if anyone has ever heard of an Engineering degree with the first two years at a CC, and the second two at another nearby school that does not offer the first two years at all. It may not be your idea of the BEST way to get a degree (nor is it mine), but with tuition so high at our local private school I think a lot of students (often from poorer families and thus "under-represented" in engineering schools) are skipping engineering altogether and going into something else they can get in town at the state school. Local high school counselors support this, but have no numbers. This will be a way to attract good, but disadvantaged, students who are going into other fields.

A: -Core courses at the community college that cc and the state school have agreed upon as transferable, then the rest at the state school. Done in Texas, check out the transfer items at UT and Austin Comunity college online, there are tables of transferabel courses. Not quite a 2+2 more like a 1.5 +2.5 or so, much lower cost. (but all the physics, should be @ state school, perhaps some others) Common core classes agreeded upon state wide. -My wife, sister and myself followed this path in Washington State. We have BSEEs from UW and WSU. The community collages have an agreement with the state Universities that transfer classes directly and will evaluate the students with parity for GPA. Cost: Community Collage tuition is 1/2 what the state universities Don't have to move so save on housing Better Education: My physics, chemistry, math and beginning engineering

classes had about 15- 30 students with real teachers not research professors and grad students. We worked hard and developed a better understanding of basic concepts then our universities pears Since the community collage focus was mechanical engineering I have a broad background that has helped me once in industry. Time to Mature: Many students are not ready for a university after high school. The community collage gave many time to adjust. One of my fellow students nearly flunked out the first year because of distractions. He was able to recover and graduated with BSME and 3.9 GPA. Had he gone directly to a university he would have flunked out.