Summer Engineering Enrichment Program Results Exceed Expectations

Abstract

A long term ten week residence summer engineering enrichment program for incoming first year engineering majors with ACT Math scores of 17-25 (equivalent SAT Math scores of 470-620; 35%-80%) is exceeding retention/graduation in engineering expectations, especially time to graduate. Relatively unique program aspects are the ten week residence length, 8 semester hours of College credit [College Algebra (3), Trigonometry (3), University Success (2)], zero cost for the student, and 100% underrepresented minorities (not required). The first two cohorts produced twelve (20% or 12/61) 4 year engineering graduates which quadrupled the historical 4 year graduation rate of less than 5%. The five year engineering, STEM and university graduation rates for the first cohort (2009) were 29%, 42%, and 50% respectively. The 2009 and 2010 cohorts produced 19 engineering graduates to date with an average time to graduate of 4.18 years, a reduction of a year in the historical rate. Part of this larger than expected decrease in time to graduate is most likely due to the periodic offering of some upper division required courses in one or two departments due to small student numbers. Additionally, 15/19 (79%) graduates had ACT Math scores of 20-25 and 4/19 (21%) had ACT Math scores of 17-19 with similar numbers in each group (32 and 29 respectively). The program is increasing retention in engineering and increasing graduation rates.