Accelerated B.S./M.S. Program

Qualified UMBC undergraduate students can apply for admission into a suitable Master’s program as early as the first semester of their junior year. In Mechanical Engineering, the BS/MS option is mainly reserved for exceptional UMBC undergraduates and have decided to continue on to pursue an advanced degree at UMBC.  Graduate research experience is ideal preparation for professional practice in Mechanical Engineering.

Once accepted into the BS/MS programs, UMBC students are allowed to re-use some credits earned prior to undergraduate degree conferral to satisfy their graduate degree course requirements. The number of credits that can be `double counted’ is determined by GPA at the time of BS degree conferral (typically 9-12 credits if your GPA is greater than 3.50 or 6 credits if your GPA is greater than 3.25). The key advantage of the BS/MS degree program at UMBC is that it often speeds up the process of earning a MS degree by one or two semesters while slightly reducing total tuition cost.

Admission Requirements:

  1. Letter of recommendation from one and preferably two or more M.E. Faculty members
  2. GPA greater than 3.0 at time of application and thereafter. In practice, most BS/MS students in Mechanical Engineering come from the top quartile of their undergraduate class.
  3. Application no later than 6 months prior to BS degree conferral.

Application Process:

  • Identify and meet with interested faculty member who would be your recommender.
  • Apply to M.E. Department as early as possible for pre-admission into M.E. BS/MS program using Accelerated Program Application found in the Admissions section of the Graduate School Admission webpage
  • Apply to UMBC Graduate School before last undergraduate semester using online graduate application form.  Note: BS/MS students are not required to submit TOEFL or GRE scores and can receive an application fee waiver.

Course Requirements:

The course requirements for the BS-MENG and MS-MENG degrees earned in the BS/MS program are exactly the same as those for regular BS and MS degrees EXCEPT that qualified students are allowed (but not required) to use some credits used to satisfy the BS requirements for a second time to satisfy the MS degree.

For each graduate level course in which they wish to enroll during their undergraduate, students must complete the Approval for Undergraduates to Take Courses for Graduate Credit form found in the Enrollment Change section of the Graduate School student forms webpage.
Once students are admitted to Graduate School and are enrolled, they must transfer approved graduate credits taken as an undergraduate (with a grade of “B” or better) into the graduate program, by completing a Transfer of Credits form, found in the Enrollment Change section of the Graduate School student forms webpage.  Note that only the credits are transferred, not the grade received.