Accelerate Your Career
ChBE and the Institute for Systems Research (ISR) are pleased to offer a five-year bachelor of science/master of science in systems engineering (MSSE) program. The program offers interested ChBE undergraduate students a strong foundation in process systems engineering (PSE) concepts. It also will open new employment opportunities for ChBE students in the Washington, D.C. area.
Program Description
To complete the B.S./MSSE program in five years, CHBE undergraduate students should take two core ENSE graduate courses in their senior year (ENSE 621 and ENSE 622) and one graduate-level elective that counts toward both the ABET-accredited B.S. degree and the MSSE degree. Note: the ENSE courses also count as CHBE electives. In the following year, students will take the remaining courses required to complete the MSSE degree, as well as their research and thesis.
Application and Evaluation Process
Application to the combined ChBE B.S./MSSE degree program is a two-step process:
- Application and admittance into the undergraduate program; and
- Application and admittance into the MSSE graduate program. Acceptance to the first step of ChBE B.S./MSSE program (in the student's sixth semester) does not guarantee acceptance to the graduate portion of the program (in the student’s eighth semester).
Undergraduate Component
ChBE students who are interested in this program must apply to the undergraduate component of the program by March 1 of their sixth semester.
Applying students must submit a combined bachelor’s/master’s degree form, which can be downloaded from the Clark School of Engineering's Office of Undergraduate Advising web site at eng.umd.edu/advising/forms, under "Request to Take Graduate Courses." This form identifies the three (3) graduate courses that are counted for both undergraduate/graduate degrees. It should be submitted to 1131 Martin Hall at least one day before the first meeting of the student’s first 600+ class. See the B.S./MSSE Sample Program page for more information.
Applying students must also provide (in a single PDF document):
- Three (3) letters of recommendation, preferably from faculty in the ChBE department;
- a copy of their transcripts; and
- a brief cover letter indicating their potential area(s) of research.
A minimum GPA of 3.0 is required to be considered for this program. Applications will be reviewed by the ChBE Undergraduate Studies Committee. Students accepted into the program by this committee will also be reviewed by the ISR Education Program Committee prior to final acceptance into the program.
Students accepted into the undergraduate program will be advised to pursue research during their seventh semester and their senior year on a topic suitable for MSSE thesis research.
Graduate Component
In the second step, ChBE students accepted into the undergraduate program must apply to the ISR MSSE graduate program by March 1 of their eighth semester and follow the admissions procedures of all other MSSE program applicants (Note: GRE scores are not required for UMD College Park applicants). For complete information, visit the MSSE program's Admission page.
Advising procedures for students in the combined CHBE BS/MSSE Program
Fall, Senior Year:
1) Students must see their CHBE advisor and submit their schedule of classes as they normally do.
2) ENSE 621 must be chosen as their one technical elective that year (this assumes they are following the sample program for this degree option).
3) The students also must fill out a ChBE Policy Exemption form.
*Note: he student's BS/MSSE advisor can write the letter in Step 3 of this process provided the student's ChBE advisor is notified and agrees.
4) The student must meet with the MSSE Program Director after completing these steps for any further advising.
All of the Fall processes must be repeated with:
1) ENSE 622 replacing ENSE 621
2) An MSSE and CHBE-approved 600-level technical elective also must be taken. Note that a required MSSE course may be used as a CHBE technical elective (pending the exemption approval process) provided the student takes a replacement MSSE technical elective in her/his fifth year of the combined program. The two policy exemption requests can be combined into a single application.
Fall, MSSE program year:
1) The students must fill out the Combined Bachelor's/Master's Degrees Form to obtain 9 hours of MSSE credit for the double-counted classes. This form is to be returned to 1131 Martin Hall.
Questions?
Please see our MSSE FAQ for more informaiton.
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