Pre-Engineering

Department Benefits

Class Size

The average class size in engineering courses at MSUM are about 25 students. Comparable courses at most engineering schools are 50-75 or more. The first two years of coursework required of an engineering major is taken in sequence, with each course building on the last. This strong system of sequential courses leaves instructors with the need to give each student intense personal attention to guide him/her over possible difficulties. MSUM believes that it's pre-engineering program offers an exceptionally strong system of personal guidance to its students by virtue of the relatively small pre-engineering classes at the University.

Faculty

All of the engineering faculty hold Ph.D's in engineering and are Registered Professional Engineers or working toward registration. Unlike many other universities, professors at MSUM are hired and evaluated specifically for their excellence as instructors. Although they keep abreast of current engineering research, they are not pressured to conduct research in order to gain professional status and salary increase. They may therefore devote more time and energy to teaching and to working with students than their counterparts at other universities might be able to do so.

Facilities

Hagen Hall houses state-of-the-art engineering labs comparable to those available to first and second year students at other universities. At MSUM, however, students do not have to compete with upper level, undergraduate, and graduate students for lab time. Therefore access to labratory facilities are believed to be a considerable advantage for MSUM's pre-engineers.