Our traditional Mechanical Engineering major allows the most flexibility for a student to pursue their personal interests within engineering. Twelve credits of technical electives and a wide variety of team-based senior design projects allow students to either focus on a specific area of interest or explore different areas within mechanical engineering.
Students graduating in the Mechanical Engineering major earn an ABET-accredited Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. Please see our Accreditation Statement, Program Educational Objectives, and Student Outcomes.
Special note to ME majors graduating in 2023-2024: ME4124 (CAD of Fluid/Thermal Systems) will not be taught during Fall 2023 (or Spring 2024). Students should take one additional List #1 Technical Elective, which will substitute for ME4124. Please contact your academic advisor if you have questions.
Please see the latest approved Mechanical Engineering checksheet on the Registrar's website to see the most up-to-date list of acceptable electives and Technical Electives by Area of Interest.
Notes on technical electives:
ME students must participate in a year-long senior design project. Senior design teams are assigned during the first week of classes of the student’s senior year.
Plans for students taking off a semester for paid engineering work experience, study abroad, or other personal reasons:
Plan for students needing a lighter courseload due to ROTC/Corps of Cadet responsibilities or other reasons:
Plans for students behind in the first year courses who were not math-ready or did not follow the suggested courses in the graduation checksheets:
Information on finding equivalent transfer courses and transferring these credits back to VT can be found on the College of Engineering's website. Students wishing to take courses through a VCCS school should see the VCCS Course Equivalency Guides, the VCCS Physics Equivalencies, and the VCCS combined timetable showing course offerings at all VCCS schools.
The curriculum requirements for the three Mechanical Engineering majors (ME, AUTE, RBMT) are the same until the junior 2 nd semester. At that point, ME students have room to start taking technical electives or continue to take Pathways (humanities) electives. The ME major gives the most flexibility in course selection, with 12 credits of technical electives instead of only 3 credits of major electives in the AUTE or RBMT majors.
We recommend that students pursue the major in which the curriculum most closely matches what the student wants to do for a career after they graduate. If you are not sure if you want to pursue an automotive career, but still wish to take automotive courses, you can take the required AUTE major courses as tech electives which will count towards your ME major. The RBMT major required both CS1044 and/or ECE3254 for their required major courses, but ME students may take RBMT courses for which they meet the prerequisites.
Yes, you can. However, you may need to delay graduation in order to fit in all of the requirements for the two degrees. You will need to participate in a senior design project that meets requirements for both majors which means your options may be limited.
A student must complete 30 credits beyond the primary major (159 credits total) to receive a second diploma. If you are short on credits, you will receive a diploma for your primary major and a certificate for your second major. Students starting at VT after Spring 2024 cannot double-count required courses from one BSME major as technical electives in a second BSME major.
If you are interested in double majoring, you should set up a meeting with your ME Advisor to discuss your course plan.
The ME major works well with the UGG accelerated graduate program. If you wait until your senior year to take your technical electives and have been accepted into the UGG program, all 12 credits of technical electives can be double counted towards your graduate degree provided that they meet the program restrictions (up to 6 credits can be 4000-level courses, and the other 6 credits would need be 5000-level courses). Be sure to consult the ME Graduate Advisor with questions.
