Note: St. Mary’s College of Maryland does not offer an engineering degree or engineering courses.  However, the Physics Department does offer several ways to prepare for an engineering career.

Potential Careers

A physics major with a handful of additional courses qualifies a graduate for many engineering jobs with the US government. One third of St. Mary’s physics majors enter successful careers in engineering.

Courses

According to the Office of Personnel Management, a physics graduate seeking a government engineering position should also have taken five of the following seven courses:

• statics, dynamics
• strength of materials (stress-strain relationships)
• fluid mechanics, hydraulics
• thermodynamics
• electrical fields and circuits
• nature and properties of materials (relating particle and aggregate structure to properties
• any other comparable area of fundamental engineering science or physics, such as optics, heat transfer, soil mechanics, or electronics.

Some of these courses are already part of the SMCM physics major. Others are electives offered at SMCM. The remainder would have to be taken at another institution, e.g. over the summer.

Plan of Study

A physics major – particularly with an applied physics concentration – provides preparation for graduate programs in engineering.  Appropriate choice of electives at St. Mary’s, plus perhaps a small number of additional courses at another institution, will provide the best preparation.  This is the most popular route to an engineering career for our graduates.

Dual-Degree Engineering Program

St. Mary’s has a dual-degree program agreement with McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. This program allows students to spend 3 or 4 years at St. Mary’s earning their first degree (a bachelors), then transfer to Washington University to earn an engineering degree, either a bachelors (2 years) or a both a bachelors and a masters (3 years).

For details about admissions requirements or the courses required at SMCM, contact the SMCM Dual-Degree Program Advisor, Dr. Chuck Adler (cladler@maishirts.com). For information about financial aid, please follow this link. Washington University has opportunities for both need-based and merit-based financial aid.

Questions and Contact

If you have questions, please contact the department chair, Chuck Adler.