The 3-2 Engineering Program at Carleton
Mason Hall of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology.
About
Carleton offers a 3-2 program (combined plan) in which a student spends three years at Carleton, and two years at an engineering school receiving dual degrees, a B.A. from Carleton and a B.S. in engineering from an engineering institution. Carleton students can choose to spend the latter two years at Columbia University (New York) or Washington University (St. Louis). The student is expected to complete a modified major including the integrative exercise, as well as all the other Carleton graduation requirements. However, Carleton's total credit requirement and senior residency requirement are waived. It is also possible to do a 4-2 program in which a student spend four years at Carleton and two years at the other institute.
Environmental Engineering
Environmental engineering belongs to the Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering at Columbia University; whereas it is within the Department of Energy, Environmental, and Chemical Engineering at Washington University. As the names suggested, different focuses are given in these two schools. At Washington University, the degrees awarded will be B.S. in chemical engineering instead of environmental engineering, and students are expected to take more chemistry courses prior to entering Wash U. On the other hand, although Columbia also requires chemistry courses for their EEE majors, they ask for geology courses as well. Check out their websites to determine which one is a better fit for your interest.
Preparation
The two schools have fairly similar course prerequisites in general although not entirely the same for specific majors. Since students are expected to finish all Carleton graduation requirements as well, it is important to start planning your course schedule as early as possible. Carleton's Advising Handbook provides sample course schedule, and it urges students to talk to Professor Nelson Christensen, who is the program coordinator here, at the Department of Physics and Astronomy as soon as possible. Click on Columbia or Washington University to see their course requirements.
Admission
Guaranteed admission into The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science’s undergraduate Combined Plan Program is offered to applicants who have met the following requirements.
- Have been enrolled at Carleton for at least the past 2 years.
- Receive an overall GPA and a pre-engineering GPA of 3.0 or higher.
- Receive 3 favorable recommendations: from your Combined Plan liaison (Nelson Christensen) and both your science and math instructors (one each) at Carleton.
- Have successfully completed the course load required by Carleton and Columbia, which includes:
- the science and math prerequisite courses listed in the Pre-Combined Plan Curriculum Guide and
- the major and distribution requirements prescribed by Carleton
For additional information please visit Columbia and Washington University's combined plan websites.