<p>You have been offered some good options and advice from the posters. I am posting Eckerd College’s information on their 3-2 program. Merit scholarship in the past year was $16,000 per year with your GPA and an ACT score of 29 or higher.</p>
<p>THE DUAL-DEGREE ENGINEERING PROGRAM AT ECKERD COLLEGE</p>
<p>The Dual-Degree program is designed to permit a student to earn two college degrees in five years: one a liberal-arts degree from Eckerd College, the other an engineering degree from a cooperating university. The program can usually be completed in five years if the student is well-qualified upon entering Eckerd College as a freshman, and is willing and able to take five courses during one or more of his/her semesters at Eckerd College.</p>
<p>Program Benefits</p>
<p>CLASS SIZE - Most engineering schools are large, and ALL engineering students (electrical, mechanical, aeronautical, civil, etc.) take the pre-engineering core of math, physics, and chemistry in the first two years, before dividing into the smaller individual classes for their particular branch of engineering. The result is that the pre-engineering core courses tend to be offered in large sections, often with hundreds of students in each class. In the Dual-Degree option, these core courses are taken at a smaller school, in smaller classes. Since the more advanced and specialized engineering courses taken in the final two years at the engineering school will also likely be smaller, the Dual Degree student avoids the very large classes which may be an especially difficult experience in the first year of college.</p>
<p>LONG-TERM CAREER SUCCESS - The second (non-engineering) major for the Eckerd degree can greatly enhance the career potential of a young engineer. According to one survey, the average beginning engineer spends an average of only about five years in doing actual hands-on engineering before being promoted into a part-managerial or even fully managerial position. While the basic engineering skills are absolutely essential to success in the professional field, it is often leadership, communication, and management skills that determine how far one ultimately progresses in one’s career. Many corporate CEOs, presidents, and other top executives possess engineering backgrounds, but these are the ones who also have strong leadership and communication skills to accompany their engineering expertise. The liberal arts curriculum is generally recognized as being the ideal background for acquiring these skills.</p>
<p>FLEXIBILITY - The engineering curriculum at most large universities plunges the student immediately into one specialized branch of engineering. By pursuing the Dual-Degree program, a student can keep open a great many options. The first two years of “pre-engineering core” courses plus the required liberal arts courses taken at Eckerd permit the student to choose, as late as the beginning of the third college year, from among many career paths: from among many branches of engineering, physics, chemistry, marine science, pre-medical or pre-veterinary studies, mathematics, computer science, and more. Previous EC dual-degree students are now aerospace engineers, electrical engineers, computer scientists, physicists, physicians, economists, business owners and CEOs, and more.</p>
<p>The courses taken at Eckerd College during the first three years are typically:</p>
<p>Pre-engineering core:
Math: Calculus I, II, and III, Differential Equations
Physics: Fundamental Physics I and II and Modern Physics
Chemistry: General Chemistry I and II
Computing: Introduction to Computer Science</p>
<p>Eckerd All-College Requirements:
Western Heritage in Global Context I and II
Foreign Language (two semesters)
Academic Core Area (1 course from the arts, the humanities, and the behavioral sciences respectively)
Perspectives: (2 courses; Global and Environmental)
A Writing Portfolio</p>