Requirements

Admission Requirements

To be admitted to the Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering program, there are multiple requirements you must meet. Visit the graduate school website to apply.

Undergraduate Degree

Entering students must have an engineering degree from an accredited university, preferably from an ABET/EAC accredited engineering program, or a degree in a closely aligned non-engineering (calculus based) major from an accredited program.

Those students admitted to the program without a BSME degree will be required to complete a set of leveling course selected to insure that the student has an acceptable engineering knowledge base (sufficient to pass the Fundamentals of Engineering exam). The goal of the UL Lafayette College of Engineering is to position all of its M.S. graduates to be capable of successfully obtaining their Professional Engineering License (PE).

GPA

To be considered, you must have either:

• An overall cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher; or
• A cumulative technical GPA calculated over the last 60 hours of your undergraduate curriculum of 2.85 or higher, which is calculated using technical courses of engineering and sciences.

English Language

TOEFL must be at least 79 or IELTS must be at least 6.5.

Exceptions

If you do not meet the requirements above, a faculty member from the Department of Mechanical Engineering will have to submit an admissions petition to the graduate coordinator. Once that is received, the department head and graduate coordinator will bring the petition forward for a graduate faculty vote. The petition must receive a majority vote to allow your acceptance to the graduate program.

Graduate Student Requirements

MSME degree candidates must maintain a minimum GPA of 3.0, after the first 12 units, to remain in the program. All MSME students are required to complete the two College of Engineering core courses and two Mechanical Engineering Core courses as outlined below.

Thesis Option Students pursuing the thesis option must complete 24 units of course work and 6 thesis research hours. Of the 24 units of course work, 12 are college and departmental core courses. The remaining 12 units shall consist of additional graduate courses from the MCHE department or approved graduate courses from science, mathematics or other engineering departments. Up to 3 units of the MSME coursework may be independent study courses. No more than 9 graduate credit hours may be below the 500 level, and of these, courses must be 4XXG courses. All graduate courses must be approved by both the committee chairperson and the department graduate coordinator.

Non-thesis Option Students pursuing the non-thesis option must complete 33 units of coursework and 3 units of non-thesis research. Of the 33 units of course work, 12 are college and departmental core courses. The remaining 21 units shall consist of additional graduate courses from the MCHE department or approved graduate courses from science, mathematics or other engineering departments. Up to 3 units of the MSME coursework may be independent study courses. No more than 12 graduate credit hours may be below the 500 level, and of these, courses must be 4XXG courses. All graduate courses must be approved by both the committee chairperson and the department graduate coordinator. Non-thesis students are also required to pass an oral exam.

Graduate Assistantships Graduate assistantships are available on a competitive basis. Students with a BSME who are accepted into the graduate program are automatically considered for departmental assistantships. Departmental assistantships may take the form of tuition waivers or a tuition waiver + stipend. Students receiving departmental assistantships are expected to work 10 – 20 hours per week for the department as graders or lab monitors. Graduate students supported by individual faculty members on research grants are expected to work on the funded project. Student entering the program without a BSME must complete three quarters of the leveling courses (listed below) before being considered for graduate assistantships. Students interested in specific research areas are encouraged to contact professors doing work in that area.

Leveling Courses Students admitted to the program without a BSME must complete the following leveling courses with a C or better. Any deviations from this list must be approved by the Mechanical Engineering Graduate Affairs Committee. Three quarters of this coursework must be completed before a student is eligible for a graduate assistantship.

Calculus I, Statics, Instrumentation Laboratory, Calculus II, Dynamics, Heat Transfer, Differential Equations, Mechanics of Solids, Machine Design I, Physics I - Mechanics, Engineering Fluids, Controls, Thermodynamics I

Learn more about the course requirements.