The Concurrent 5-Year Bachelor's/Master's Degree Program
Updated May 9, 2013
The Mechanical Engineering department offers a concurrent five-year Bachelor’s/Master’s program for Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Mechanics majors.
WHY EARN A MASTER'S DEGREE IN FIVE YEARS?
This is an excellent program for individuals who would like to earn a graduate degree quickly. The degree will increase a student's chances for higher quality employment than would a Bachelor's Degree.
TUITION BREAK
After a Johns Hopkins student completes eight semesters and earns a Bachelor's Degree, the Whiting School of Engineering will pay 50% of the student's tuition every semester while he or she is a graduate student.
ELIGIBILITY and APPLICATION PROCESS
Please note that this program is available only to undergraduates in the Mechanical Engineering or Engineering Mechanics majors of the Johns Hopkins University.
The application must be submitted during the student's junior year. There are two deadlines to submit applications to the BS/MSE program:
- January 7 - admissions decisions occur approximately January 20
- June 15 - admissions decisions occur approximately July 5
This will allow admitted students to schedule graduate courses immediately in the Spring or Fall semesters, without having to wait an extra semester to begin.
APPLICATION PACKAGE: PROCESS and DELIVERY
To apply for admission, the student must submit a paper graduate application which is available at the links below. In addition, the student will need to present a statement of purpose that describes their career plans and rationale for advanced study at JHU. An original or a copy of your transcript is also necessary. GRE scores are not required, but three letters of recommendation are needed.
Submit your completed application package to either Mike Bernard, the Academic Program Administrator in Latrobe 230 or Kevin Adams, the Academic Program Assistant in Latrobe 223. If neither Kevin or Mike are available, please have the application package placed in Mike's mailbox in Latrobe 223.
You may submit the completed application, which is the application, statement of purpose, and the transcript (original or copy) before the letters of recommendation are delivered. If you are submitting your application package close to the submission deadline, you may e-mail a scanned copy to Mike Bernard at mike.bernard@jhu.edu before delivering your hard copy.
LETTERS of RECOMMENDATION: PROCESS and DELIVERY
Three letters of recommendation are required for the application; two of the letters should be from Mechanical Engineering faculty. The third letter can be from anyone else who would be able to vouch for your credentials and potential. This person could be a professor, but could be someone else.
Please give the recommendation cover sheet to your recommenders and ask them to complete it and write a separate recommendation letter and place both in one sealed envelope.
Though the recommendation letter cover form states to deliver the forms to Shriver Hall, please instead have the form delivered to either Mike Bernard, the in Latrobe 230 or Kevin Adams in Latrobe 223. If neither Kevin or Mike are available, please have the letter placed in Mike's mailbox in Latrobe 223.
Recommenders can e-mail their letters to
Mike Bernard at mike.bernard@jhu.edu instead of hard copy delivery, though we still need the recommendation cover sheet with that e-mailed letter.
UPON RECEIPT OF THE COMPLETE APPLICATION...
The Graduate Recruiting Committee, made up of four faculty members, one each from the robotics, fluids, solids, and biomechanics areas will review the applications. As results are determined, students will be notified by e-mail.
Upon acceptance into the program, students will be asked to develop an outline of their proposed academic programs with their advisors.
ADVISORS
Students may continue to work with their current undergraduate advisor for the masters degree or may seek another masters advisor. Reasons for seeking another advisor could include the desire to concentrate coursework in a specific research area other than those of the current advisor, or to seek an advisor to research and write a masters essay.
WHITING SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING'S DEGREE POLICIES
- General Requirements for all degrees, though some departmental policies may be more stringent. See below for the department's degree requirements
- Responsible Conduct of Research - a required training course for all conducting research for a master's essay or doctoral dissertation
DEGREE REQUIREMENTS
The requirements for a Master of Science in Engineering - Mechanical Engineering are as follows:
Satisfactory completion of eight one-semester advanced courses approved by your advisor:
- No more than two courses may be chosen from the Part-Time Programs.
- No more than four courses may be at the intermediate/advanced undergraduate (xxx.300 – xxx.499) level. [Computer Science (CS) uses the 400-level designation (600.4xx) for courses at the beginning graduate level, and therefore a maximum of two 400-level CS courses may be used to fulfill the graduate-level course requirements for PhD and MSE students, and those two courses will not count against the four-course limit for intermediate/advanced-undergraduate courses. This may result in listing up to six courses at the 400 level, though the 400-level CS courses are actually graduate-level courses.]
- At least two courses should be in applied mathematics, numerical analysis, or computational methods. (This requirement can be waived in writing by your advisor, if sufficient prior preparation in these areas can be demonstrated).
- These courses cannot include Independent Study, MSE Graduate Research, Graduate Research, or Special Studies.
- Note: A course is satisfactorily completed if a grade of A, B, C, or P is obtained. No more than one C grade can be counted toward the requirements and a D or F or second C grade will result in the student being placed on probation. A second D or F or a third C grade results in termination from the program.
Plus either:
- Two additional one-semester graduate courses (xxx.600–xxx.799) approved by your advisor (for BS/MSE and MSE students only, one can be 530.600 MSE Graduate Student Research), or...
- ...an M.S.E. Thesis acceptable to your advisor and one other reader. According to the Graduate Board’s Procedures for Administration of Approved Policies for the Award of Advanced Degrees, “Thesis readers are selected and appointed by the chair or appropriate faculty of the sponsoring department or committee. Any duly appointed member of a department or committee holding the rank of assistant professor or higher (excluding lecturers) is eligible for selection as a referee without prior approval. The Graduate Board Office must approve readers from outside the University, or from any non-Ph.D. sponsoring department, laboratory or institute within the University.”
DOUBLE-COUNTING of COURSES
The Mechanical Engineering department double-counts courses using the policy set by the Whiting School of Engineering:
Coursework applied to a bachelor's degree:
Students either in a WSE concurrent (bachelor's/master's) program or seeking a WSE master's degree after having earned a WSE or Krieger School of Arts and Sciences bachelor's degree may double-count two courses (400-level or higher) to both programs with the permission of the master's faculty advisor. WSE master's degree candidates may not double-count courses applied to a bachelor's degree earned at a different institution. Individual graduate programs reserve the right to enforce stricter policies.
Coursework not applied to a bachelor's degree:
For students who are either in a WSE concurrent bachelor's/master's degree program or have already earned a Whiting School of Engineering or Krieger School of Arts and Sciences bachelor's degree and are seeking a WSE master's degree, any graduate-level coursework (as defined by the WSE graduate program) not applied to the undergraduate degree may be applied to the graduate degree, regardless of when that course was taken (i.e., before or after the undergraduate degree has been conferred) with the permission of the master's faculty advisor.
APPLICATION and CURRICULUM