Mechanical Engineering Degree - thoughts?

Looking for an entirely online, RA, Mechanical Engineering degree that is cost effective to boot...

Any thoughts?

 

The only RA and ABET program that comes close that I know of is http://www.conted.und.edu/ddp/dedp/ .

Courses are online except for the labs, which run in a condensed format of 1-2 weeks in the summer.

 

Ideally, entirely online due to work constraints and costs associated with the traveling... (and I believe UND's tuition is ~$800/crhr for non residents, and since Canada isn't even considered a state...)

 

Well, it seems you have no choice; for Bachelor that is the only school. If you are seeking for a Master degree in Mechanical Engineering, which you have lot of schools to choose from.

 

Sometimes when people's choices are quite limited they are a bit more willing to consider other alternatives. For example there's one program in Australia that might suit your needs.

University of Southern Queensland
http://www.usq.edu.au/handbook/2008/eng/BENG.html

 

The only RA distance learning undergraduate engineering program I know of is SUNY BSEE, and then only the last two years:

http://le.suny.edu/bee/

several programs have come and gone over the years but this one seems to be moving forward. It is not dollar friendly and not ABET but will most likely become so given the schools involved.

You might have to dig a little but local schools in your area might offer some type of hybrid or extended program similar to the University of Alabama:

http://academicoutreach.ua.edu/page.cfm?page=degrees&sub_page=3&degree_no=1

If a non RA degree will work then you have:

http://www.cnuas.edu/Programs/DegreePrograms/Engineering/BsEngineering.asp

I've considered this option ( I have a bunch of old engineering credits) but the utility is limited.

Best of luck,

 

However, for those living in Manitoba or Saskatchewan the tuition rate is slightly less at USD546.79 per credit hour. Though hardly inexpensive but ABET accredited if that is a concern.

"The fourth column (WUE/MHEC/Contiguous) should be used if you claim residency in one of the following states or provinces: AK, AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, KS, MI, MO, MT, NE, NV, NM, OR, SD, UT, WA, WY, Manitoba, Saskatchewan." - UND, retrieved from http://www.conted.und.edu/ddp/dedp/tuition_fees.html, 28 October 2008.

 

I wonder how they came up with that list. I don't see anything that ties them together like distance or common regional accrediting agency.

 

I think it might have to do with student financial aid agreements though that conclusion is based solely on a search of Google for the terms WUE and MHEC. As for the inclusion of Manitoba, Saskatchewan that might be strictly geographical.

 

As stated earlier in this thread, California National University offers a completely online Bachelor's of Science in Engineering, with a concentration in Mechanical Engineering.

But CNU is not RA (it is accredited by DETC), and their engineering programs are not accredited by ABET. So their degrees may not be universally accepted as "real" engineering degrees.

Virtually all RA Mechanical Engineering programs are also accredited by ABET. And ABET has strict laboratory requirements, which can't be easily addressed by DL programs.

As also noted above, the closest thing to online ABET engineering programs are those at the University of North Dakota. But these require brief (1-2 weeks) summer residencies to fulfill the lab requirements.

 

WUE = Western Undergraduate Exchange. Allows residents of certain Western states to enroll at selected out-of-state schools in other Western states for reduced or in-state tuition rates (instead of the regular out-of-state rate).

MHEX = Midwestern Higher Education Compact. Same deal, but for certain Midwestern States. North Dakota is a member of both WUE and MHEX.

Contiguous = apparently means Manitoba and Saskatchewan, which are continguous to North Dakota. Since ND participates in WUE and MHEX, it wouldn't be surprising if they made a similar arrangement with the two adjacent Canadian provinces.

 

Thanks for the info.

 

A lot of SK students go to various Universities (UND, U of Minot, etc. for their degrees ), I would imagine Manitobans do as well and as such they included those two Canadian provinces.

..does bother me though that for an online program they would charge $110/crhr more if you're out of state - why not just have one easy fee that would attract students from all over the US & Canada?

Also, if you live near Dothan, Alabama, there is a distance BSME program: http://me.eng.ua.edu/undergraduate_programs/distance.asp

 

As with the UND programs, lectures are provided by DL, but residencies are necessary for labs. So the program is not offered entirely by distance; you have to visit Dothan 4 or 5 times per semester, for intensive one-day lab sessions. The total residency requirement seems similar to that of UND, which condenses the lab requirements into a single intensive 1 or 2 week visit each summer.

 

RIT (http://www.rit.edu/) had an online engineering program a few years ago when I was searching for the same thing. You still had to do like a week or so at a time on campus for the labs though. As you might expect, it was also very pricey, but the options for RA/ABET accredited engineering programs are still very limited I suspect. I never found one without at least a residency requirement for the labs. The labs are a very important aspect of any engineering program, so I suspect this is not likely to change in the near future.

Danny