About the Basic Engineering Program

The Basic Engineering Program provides a high-quality, uniform first-year program of study for beginning engineering students in the College of Engineering at Tennessee Tech. Students are introduced to various fields of engineering and the concept of design. The program offers an initial major for entering students who have not decided on a specific engineering discipline.

The Basic Engineering curriculum covers the freshman year and includes:

1. fundamental subjects, such as calculus, chemistry, and English writing;
2. engineering skills, such as engineering graphics and computer programming;
3. an overview of the engineering profession, including laboratory activities and a team-based design project; and
4. two elective courses in the area of humanities and fine arts.

The freshman year curricula for Civil Engineering, Industrial Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering are identical to the Basic Engineering curriculum. The freshman year curriculum for Chemical Engineering does not require the engineering graphics course. The freshman year curriculum for Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering does not require the engineering graphics course and replaces the second semester of chemistry with the first semester of calculus-based physics and lab.

Basic Engineering students may change majors to any degree-granting department in the College of Engineering at any time during the first year.

Students who decide that they prefer a less theoretical major may choose Industrial Technology, a non-engineering major in the College of Engineering.

Basic Engineering students may not register for upper division engineering courses (3000 and 4000 level). The chairperson of the department in which the upper-division course is taught, with the approval of the Associate Dean Basic Engineering, Recruiting and Retention, may grant an exception for unusual circumstances.

Students entering the Basic Engineering Program are considered to have simultaneously entered the curriculum of any degree-granting program in the College of Engineering and may graduate by satisfying the requirements of the catalog then in effect.

Basic Engineering
Tennessee Tech University
P.O. Box 5003
Cookeville, TN 38505
Phone: (931) 372-3175 Fax: (931) 372-3679
Questions or Comment, please e-mail: BE@tntech.edu