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Re: 3-2 physics and engineering programs



We have a fairly strong 3-2 program here at Providence College (Rhode
Island). I think the major draw for students is the idea of getting an
engineering degree at a standard engineering school (our affiliates are
Columbia Univ. and Washington U) while still obtaining a fairly broad
liberal arts education through courses they take here at PC.

The students take physics (general, modern, thermo, mechanics,
electronics), chemistry, and math (calc 1,2,3 diff eqn, math of science,
FORTRAN) with us and then take the engineering courses at Columbia. If a
student decides to stay with us for the fourth year, we offer a degree in
applied physics.

We would definitely take this path again. I provides enough students for
our first 3 years to justify the low numbers in the fourth.

I would advise long conversations with the intended affiliate schools to
make sure you are offering the proper prerequisite courses.

Bob at PC

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

On 9/24/2004 at 11:43 AM John SOHL wrote:

Hi All:

We are considering the possibility of starting a 3-2
physics-engineering program.

For background information: Weber State University (Ogden, Utah) has a
vocational technical program (essentially a 4-year technician degree)
but no engineering college. The two nearby research I institutions are
each located about 40 to 50 miles away and both have extensive
engineering programs. There is also a large private university (BYU, ~70
miles away) with a solid engineering school. Here at Weber, we currently
have three versions of the physics major: regular, applied and
teaching.

My questions for the members of PHYS-L:

1. Are there any national standards or guidelines for 3-2 programs by
organizations such as IEEE, APS, AIP or AAPT?

2. Have you recently started such a program and if so how did you
approach the engineering schools that you are working with?

3. For the 3-2 program(s) that you might be familiar with, are there
any particular things that worked or didn't work well that you would
like to change?

4. Has the program been of any value to your department? If you were to
start over, would you do it again?

5. Are there any "model" programs that we should consider as a template
to base our program on?

Thanks!

John

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
John E. Sohl, Ph.D., Professor of Physics
Weber State University, 2508 University Circle
Ogden, UT 84408-2508
voice: (801) 626-7907, fax: (801) 626-7445
e-mail: jsohl@weber.edu
web: http://physics.weber.edu/sohl/