Accelerated Engineering Degrees for Future Innovators

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• These pro­grams can be more cost-effec­tive, sav­ing on tuition and oth­er asso­ci­at­ed costs due to the short­ened dura­tion of the program.
• The pace of accel­er­at­ed pro­grams is much faster, requir­ing a high lev­el of com­mit­ment and excel­lent time man­age­ment skills from students.
• The pro­grams often include prac­ti­cal learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties like intern­ships, which are cru­cial for gain­ing real-world expe­ri­ence and mak­ing indus­try con­nec­tions that can be ben­e­fi­cial after graduation.

Do you have a cre­ative spir­it and a desire to inno­vate? Do you need the tech­ni­cal exper­tise to pull off your dreams? An accel­er­at­ed engi­neer­ing degree is a fan­tas­tic solution!

Accel­er­at­ed engi­neer­ing degrees take less time than usu­al. These pro­grams often cost less than tra­di­tion­al degrees, too. Addi­tion­al­ly, demand for inven­tive engi­neers is on the rise in var­i­ous indus­tries. Com­plet­ing your degree soon­er means you can take advan­tage of indus­try demand soon­er as well.

Relat­ed:

• Best Online Engi­neer­ing Degree Bachelor’s Programs
• Top Bachelor’s in Nuclear Engineering
• Fastest Online Engi­neer­ing Degree Bachelor’s Programs
• Accel­er­at­ed Degree Pro­grams for Mil­i­tary Veterans

Understanding Accelerated Engineering Degrees

An accel­er­at­ed engi­neer­ing degree offers the same class­es as a tra­di­tion­al one but on a short­er timetable. For exam­ple, where tra­di­tion­al engi­neer­ing class­es are about 16 weeks long, accel­er­at­ed class­es might only meet for 5–8 weeks.

Since the same amount of mate­r­i­al is cov­ered in far less time, fast-track engi­neer­ing pro­grams are very intense. For­tu­nate­ly, accel­er­at­ed pro­grams typ­i­cal­ly offer increased flex­i­bil­i­ty (e.g., asyn­chro­nous online course­work) that helps mit­i­gate some of the work­load by com­plet­ing assign­ments as you have time.

Benefits of Accelerated Engineering Programs

As dis­cussed ear­li­er, engi­neer­ing degree ben­e­fits start with time effi­cien­cy; rather than tak­ing the tra­di­tion­al four-year route, you can spend as lit­tle as two years get­ting a bachelor’s degree.

Spend­ing less time in school means spend­ing less mon­ey. Tuition and fees are usu­al­ly low­er, and room and board expens­es are low­er, too, since you will grad­u­ate ahead of schedule.

The inten­sive learn­ing envi­ron­ment of this type of engi­neer­ing edu­ca­tion can also fos­ter strong rela­tion­ships with your peers. In a pres­sure-cook­er envi­ron­ment of accel­er­at­ed edu­ca­tion, you will come to rely on one anoth­er as study part­ners and col­leagues. The engi­neer­ing indus­try con­nec­tions you make dur­ing engi­neer­ing intern­ships and career fairs are invalu­able, too.

Who Should Consider an Accelerated Engineering Degree?

Inten­sive engi­neer­ing cours­es aren’t for every­one. Some soft skills and per­son­al char­ac­ter­is­tics you should pos­sess include the following:

• High­ly motivated
• Excel­lent time man­age­ment skills
• Able to meet mul­ti­ple dead­lines simultaneously
• High­ly organized
• Above-aver­age stu­dent with a high desire for achievement

STEM degrees also require you to have some essen­tial hard skills, includ­ing math­e­mat­i­cal rea­son­ing, engi­neer­ing design, and data analy­sis, to name a few.

These pro­grams aren’t just ide­al for U.S. stu­dents, either. If you’re an inter­na­tion­al stu­dent, you can reap the same ben­e­fits of an accel­er­at­ed degree, pro­vid­ed you are pro­fi­cient in Eng­lish and the cred­its you’ve earned out­side the U.S. are accepted.

Choosing the Right Program

When choos­ing an accel­er­at­ed engi­neer­ing degree, it’s para­mount you con­sid­er the fol­low­ing factors:

• Accred­i­ta­tion: Look for a pro­gram accred­it­ed by the Accred­i­ta­tion Board for Engi­neer­ing and Tech­nol­o­gy (ABET), which is the gold stan­dard of accred­i­ta­tion in this field.
• Rep­u­ta­tion: Pri­or­i­tize schools with respect­ed engi­neer­ing pro­grams. Hav­ing a degree from a top pro­gram can help you stand out from the crowd.
• Fac­ul­ty exper­tise: Ensure the pro­grams on your short­list have fac­ul­ty mem­bers with exper­tise in the type of engi­neer­ing that inter­ests you the most.
• Career con­nec­tions: Choose a pro­gram with indus­try part­ner­ships that help you get intern­ships and net­work with indus­try professionals.
• Stu­dent and alum­ni suc­cess: Inves­ti­gate each program’s grad­u­a­tion rate, reten­tion rate, and career place­ment rate. Also, alum­ni suc­cess should be exam­ined as evi­dence of sol­id train­ing for a long-term engi­neer­ing career.

Top Accelerated Engineering Programs

The fol­low­ing are among the fastest engi­neer­ing pro­grams cur­rent­ly avail­able in the Unit­ed States:

• Uni­ver­si­ty of Maine — BS in Sur­vey­ing Engi­neer­ing Technology
• Old Domin­ion Uni­ver­si­ty — Options in Civ­il Engi­neer­ing Tech­nol­o­gy, Com­put­er Engi­neer­ing Tech­nol­o­gy, and Elec­tri­cal Engi­neer­ing Technology
• Tar­leton State Uni­ver­si­ty — BS in Man­u­fac­tur­ing Engi­neer­ing Technology
• Amer­i­can Pub­lic Uni­ver­si­ty — Online Bach­e­lor in Elec­tri­cal Engineering
• Thomas Edi­son State Uni­ver­si­ty — Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Nuclear Ener­gy Engi­neer­ing Technology

Application Process

The appli­ca­tion process for an accel­er­at­ed BSc in Engi­neer­ing or anoth­er accel­er­at­ed engi­neer­ing pro­gram varies from one school to the next. How­ev­er, you can do a few things to ensure your appli­ca­tion is competitive.

Step 1: Exceed the Minimum Education Requirements

Many accel­er­at­ed bachelor’s engi­neer­ing pro­grams require you to have a 3.0 high school GPA or high­er. Often, you must also have a strong aca­d­e­m­ic record in STEM class­es. Max­i­mize your chances of admis­sion by tak­ing as many high-lev­el STEM cours­es in high school as you can. Also strive to main­tain a GPA above 3.0 and for an even bet­ter shot at admis­sion, try to keep your GPA above 3.5.

Step 2: Do Well on Required Exams

Some engi­neer­ing pro­grams require you to have sat­is­fac­to­ry SAT or ACT scores. The Col­lege Board notes that 1050 is the aver­age SAT score, and that 1350 puts you in the top 10 per­cent. The aver­age ACT score is just under 20, but a score of 23 would be more competitive. 

Step 3: Complete the Application Process

Each school has its own engi­neer­ing degree appli­ca­tion process and required doc­u­men­ta­tion. By and large, though, you’ll need to sub­mit the fol­low­ing materials:

• An appli­ca­tion for admis­sion and any rel­e­vant appli­ca­tion fee
• Offi­cial high school tran­scripts (and offi­cial col­lege tran­scripts if you have earned col­lege credit)
• Offi­cial SAT or ACT scores
• Let­ters of rec­om­men­da­tion, usu­al­ly from 2–3 references
• A per­son­al state­ment or essay expound­ing on your aca­d­e­m­ic and career goals

Coursework and Curriculum Overview

Once admit­ted to an accel­er­at­ed engi­neer­ing pro­gram, you’ll com­plete sev­er­al cat­e­gories of course­work, as out­lined below:

The expe­ri­ences you have in a fast-track engi­neer­ing pro­gram will be a mix of the­o­ret­i­cal and prac­ti­cal learn­ing. On the one hand, class­es like Intro­duc­tion to Engi­neer­ing are more the­o­ret­i­cal and intro­duce you to essen­tial the­o­ries and tech­niques of engi­neer­ing. In advanced engi­neer­ing course­work, prac­ti­cal learn­ing com­po­nents, like intern­ships, are common. 

Internships and Industry Experience

Intern­ships allow you to apply what you’ve learned in the real world, there­by con­nect­ing the the­o­ret­i­cal knowl­edge you learn in class with prac­ti­cal appli­ca­tions in engi­neer­ing settings.

Typ­i­cal­ly, col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties have a well-estab­lished net­work of intern­ship oppor­tu­ni­ties. How­ev­er, you might be able to select your own intern­ship place­ment, espe­cial­ly if you’re com­plet­ing an online degree. To secure an intern­ship, you need to:

• Research intern­ship oppor­tu­ni­ties in your area of inter­est and nar­row your list to a hand­ful of top choices.
• Pre­pare your resume and cov­er let­ter, both of which should be spe­cif­ic to the intern­ships you’re apply­ing to.
• Prac­tice com­mon engi­neer­ing intern­ship ques­tions in prepa­ra­tion for an inter­view, such as: 
  • What engi­neer­ing field inter­ests you the most?
  • Explain a chal­leng­ing engi­neer­ing prob­lem you’ve solved.
  • Why do you want to intern with our company?
• Fol­low up after the inter­view by thank­ing the inter­view­er for their time.

Challenges and Considerations

The biggest chal­lenge in an accel­er­at­ed engi­neer­ing pro­gram is time man­age­ment. The pace of work is fast, and your stud­ies will be intense. You must be orga­nized and man­age your time well to ensure you don’t fall behind.

It’s also para­mount to focus on stress man­age­ment. Strive to achieve a good work-life bal­ance; you can’t study all the time, so use part of your day to relax and unwind. You’ll be bet­ter for it!

Like­wise, you can use strate­gies for suc­cess in accel­er­at­ed pro­grams, such as:

• Eat right, avoid alco­hol and drugs, and exercise
• Have a ded­i­cat­ed study space and a con­sis­tent study schedule
• Use avail­able study resources, such as tutor­ing, online prac­tice exams, and study groups

Career Opportunities After Graduation

Many engi­neer­ing career oppor­tu­ni­ties are avail­able after grad­u­a­tion, espe­cial­ly if you’re a top stu­dent. You might work as a civ­il engi­neer, mechan­i­cal engi­neer, or elec­tri­cal engi­neer. You might also con­sid­er work­ing in chem­i­cal or petro­le­um engi­neer­ing, aero­space engi­neer­ing, or bio­med­ical engineering.

Ulti­mate­ly, the path your career takes depends in large part on your engi­neer­ing spe­cial­iza­tion. Like­wise, your lev­el of edu­ca­tion impacts the pro­gres­sion of your career. While many excel­lent engi­neer­ing jobs are avail­able with a bachelor’s degree, more job oppor­tu­ni­ties (and bet­ter-pay­ing ones) are avail­able if you have a master’s degree.

Future Trends in Engineering Education

The future of engi­neer­ing edu­ca­tion is already here. Accel­er­at­ed online pro­grams have inno­vat­ed the way that engi­neer­ing is taught and learned, allow­ing you to com­plete a qual­i­ty degree in a much short­er time.

Tech­nol­o­gy has played a sig­nif­i­cant role in chang­ing engi­neer­ing edu­ca­tion. With rich, inter­ac­tive online learn­ing envi­ron­ments, you can get vir­tu­al­ly the same lev­el of inter­ac­tion with your pro­fes­sors and oth­er stu­dents as on-cam­pus students.

Of course, indus­try demands have also helped shape the cur­rent mod­el of engi­neer­ing edu­ca­tion. With such high demand for qual­i­fied engi­neers in so many indus­tries, the need to train stu­dents faster has result­ed in a greater num­ber of accel­er­at­ed programs.