For a few students each year, Baker University’s pre-engineering program proves to be a vital yet difficult stepping stone in their educations by providing them with a liberal arts background before they pursue their future field.
After studying three years of math and physics at Baker, the pre-engineering program allows students to apply to the engineering program at the University of Kansas or Washington University for an additional two years of study. Graduates of what’s known as the 3-2 program typically earn a degree from Baker in math or physics in addition to their final engineering degree.
Of Baker’s six pre-professional programs, including forestry, pre-law and church leadership, the math and physics departments’ pre-engineering program turns over the most students consistently, Graduate and Records Coordinator Grace Vaughn said.
“Before 2000, I know there were a handful of forestry students, but now you’ll be more likely to find the engineering majors,” Vaughn said. “This doesn’t mean these other programs are inactive, though – we have no plans to halt any of them.”
Although only three students are enrolled in the undergraduate program, Vaughn was happy to report E.J. Adams and Will Atkins are doing well at Washington University, as are Logan Peck and Adam Podschun at KU.
Atkins, who began at Washington last August, felt that the liberal arts 3-2 program was very successful in preparing him for further study in the engineering field.
“I know that both the students and the faculty here like the perspective that the liberal arts programs gave us compared to other, more traditional engineering majors at Washington,” he said.
While at any time there may be up to 10 pre-engineering students on campus, many find the workload to be overwhelming and shift to a social sciences degree program, Vaughn said. The perspective Atkins said he gained was not easy to come by.
“I think that calling it a 3-2 program is misleading, at best,” explained Atkins. “I think I only had one semester of less than 18 hours.”
Atkins isn’t alone. Dropping a class during his freshman year at Baker is going to cost sophomore pre-engineering student Aaron Williams an additional semester before he transfers to finish his degree.
“It’s all the extra chemistry and math, compared with your friends, that force you to put in a lot more time at the library every day,” Williams said.
Former Math Department Chair Robert Fraga began the program between the 1995 and 1996 academic years. Associate Professor of Physics Ran Sivron now serves as the engineering program coordinator.
Williams said the math and physics faculty make a big difference in a student’s coursework development.
“Beginning your degree here is really good because you can have the liberal arts perspective, and you have Professor Sivron,” Williams said. “He’s great because he’s so direct and honest about what you need to accomplish before leaving.”
Professor of Mathematics Jean Johnson is very positive about the future of the program.
“The hope is that it will grow,” Johnson said. “Now that we have more faculty involved, we have a chance to recruit more students.”