Open Option

Open Option students may not have the same level of access to engineering department courses as are available to students already rostered in that major department/program.  The Open Option Advisor assists students in developing full-time semester course schedules; some substitution or rotation of courses may be necessary to provide the student with a complete schedule. For example, the engineering projects courses may be taken either in the fall or spring semester.  The actual course schedule may vary depending upon the student having Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, or prior college credit.

The Flexible First-Year Curriculum provides assurance that all credits can be used to meet the requirements of all College of Engineering and Applied Science undergraduate degree programs. However, because this curriculum only specifies 26-31 credit hours, students desiring to graduate in four years may need to take additional credits to satisfactorily complete 32 credit hours in their first two semesters (or complete these additional credit hours in future spring/summer/fall terms).  All baccalaureate programs in the college require 128 applicable credit hours for graduation (except the 120 credit hour Computer Science BA). See the Four-Year Graduation Guarantee.

If the student has other courses required for a special program, such as the Engineering Honors Program, President's Leadership Class, or Reserve Officers Training Program, these courses may be inserted in the curriculum in place of the humanities/social science courses. The substitution of these courses does not assure the student that these courses will meet degree requirements; this will be determined by the student’s major department/program once a specific engineering degree program has been selected.