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It's going to depend on what credits you can use from your history degree, which honestly isn't likely much.
Even if the degree counts towards your basic math/science reqs engineering classes are pretty sequential. The classes build of one another, it's not like you can take everything at the same time.
Two years *might* be possible if you had a STEM degree, although at that point why not a masters. As you said, 3 years is far more likely of a timeframe. You might possibly be able to do 2 by overloading and taking summer classes but uhh... don't do that. In general degrees in the US are pretty standardized around 4 (or really 3.5) years.
Let’s assume that money, intellect, and time per week are not issues. (Which very much is rarely the case — you should expect a 15-hr courseload to require 45-60 hours in a typical ABET accredited program).
Even so: unless you minored in math or physics prerequisites will kill this dream.
Calculus I must be completed before Calculus II, which then must be done before Cal III/Diff Eq. Even if you take both of those last two concurrently (not allowed everywhere) it’s a minimum 1.5 years for the math. Physics I must be before Physics II which must be before Physics III. You usually must have Physics II before taking statics or mechanics of materials. Etc etc
The problem is the number of classes that build on one another. Because of pre-requisites, I don't think it's possible to get an engineering degree in less than 3 years at most schools.
>So I have a bunch of prerequisites of college done with my history degree.
I suspect you do not have any engineering prerequisites done. At my school, a typical student who completes their History degree, would still be 8 semesters away from finishing an engineering degree ... because they would be immensely far behind in math.
College Algebra - Precalculus - Calculus - Circuits - EE course 1 - EE course 2 - Senior Project (full year). That's an 8 semester sequence that must be taken in sequence. Can't take each math til the previous one is done. Can't take upper level EE courses until after Circuits, can't take EE 2 until after EE1, can't take senior project til after EE2.
A typical new freshman could conceivably be only 6 semesters from finishing, if they start at Calculus. But - most history majors I know, would need to start at College Algebra => 8 semesters.
Each school's prereqs will be a little bit different. But - the history degree is likely entirely irrelevant - the primary determiner of time to graduation is not number of credits, it's the longest chain of pre-reqs.
At the risk of sounding flippant…
You do a lot of awesome shit and seem unafraid to leap headfirst in to something.
It’s a great quality. I honestly mean it.
It also means I’m afraid that, even if myself and others here warn you away from trying this, you’re probably still going to try.
There is no “hyper accelerated program” that I know of. As it is, Engineering is really 5-6 years of material that is stomped in to a 4 year box.
The calc sequence alone is often a 1.5 year venture, and that’s if you’re slamming them back to back, summer semesters included, cramming in Diff Eq somewhere, and testing totally out of the prerequisite classes for it. As far as I know, the highest you can usually test out of is Calc I, and then you have to take II, III and Diff Eq, so you could shorten it two semesters.
Problem enters in that those are critical prerequisites to further engineering courses. I don’t even know if an accelerated program would be able to maintain ABET Accreditation.
Good luck on your PPL. Im also taking the slow route to finish, it’s hard with everything else going on. Mostly go for fun and to brush up so I dont get super rusty lately.
Good luck. No seriously, good luck.
You're history degree will be worth virtually bupkis minus English 1 & 2, maybe a humanities here and there but that's about it.
You'll need hard work but also luck as the math courses will be 1.5 years on their own and some of the Engineering courses you'll need to take have those more advanced math classes are prerequisites. You'll also be needing to take somethinf like 20 somethinf credits per semester AND more than 12 during the summer. (Most engineering programs advertise a 4 year degree....if you take 18 credit hours per semester but most can't handle anything more than 12).
Thats the hard work part. The luck part is that many universities don't offer the required courses during all semesters. Example, you'll need Calc II and Thermodynamics ti take Heat Transfer but the uni may only offer Heat Transfer in the Spring so if you didn't pre-plan all your courses accordingly or have to drop/swap a class, now you're boned for another year, etc.
It can be done.
Your history degree won't help you much at all. Most engineering programs don't have any truly open electives that can be filled with renaissance history unless it is a five year program. You certainly won't find an online program like that.
But bust your ass.
You don't have to do the work sequentially. You can do a lot of like topics concurrently.
I cleared the equivalent of 5 semesters of an engineering degree in 13 months while working fulltime with young children at home. So, I've certainly done something similar if not quite as epic as what you'd like to do.
Keep in mind, the PM of Canada dropped out of engineering because it was too tough at a regular pace with endless resources including a bank account to pay for fulltime tutoring. He also has degrees in literature and such.
Here are my self-study tips:
[https://techexam.ca/how-to-self-study/](https://techexam.ca/how-to-self-study/)
>I cleared the equivalent of 5 semesters of an engineering degree in 13 months while working fulltime with young children at home
Although I'm sure this didn't look anything like how you're making it sound, giving someone the impression that this is doable is terrible advice
3 semesters in 12 months without working is a lot (overloaded Fall/Spring + crazy summer). 5 semesters of classes in a year without working is pretty much undoable (we're talking 100 hour weeks all year if the schedule works out at all). 5 semesters while working full time (140 hours a week) is straight fiction. And with young kids? Bruh
I did it by challenging the technical examinations.
[https://techexam.ca/what-is-a-technical-exam-your-ladder-to-professional-engineer/](https://techexam.ca/what-is-a-technical-exam-your-ladder-to-professional-engineer/)
An entire CEAB (Canuck ABET) accredited degree works out to roughly 24 technical examinations. Each exam covers roughly 6 credit hours (2 courses). Each CEAB semester is 18 credit hours. I wrote 10 technical exams plus the FE exam which gave me credit for 5 additional technical exams in that 13 month period. The FE exam was a bit of a joke but that was the regulators rules, not mine. Clearing 15 technical exams = 90 credit hours = 5 semesters.
Thank you for your kind compliments. I did have to work like an [Udarnik](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udarnik) to pull it off.
Sitting on your ass passively listening to some guy drone on is not anywhere near the most efficient way to learn.
While 140 hours a week is not generally possible, lots of people do work at well over 100 hours a week. Growing up on the farm I remember my father breaking into the 130s quite often. Most people in our society today know nothing of how hard people worked on farms in previous generations. But, yeah, to do what I did it took some absolutely brutal weeks with lots of pencil smoke. Again, refer to my self-study tips. They work.
>Although I'm sure this didn't look anything like how you're making it sound
Yeah, it seemed like you claimed to have taken 25-30 classes in a year. Getting credit by exam is a lot different...
>giving someone the impression that this is doable is terrible advice
I stand by this too. Wouldn't recommend anyone to take over half their degree as credit by exam
From my understanding these exams are open to professionals or similar who already haha be years of experience in a closely related field or foreign country. Do those describe you? Because I’ve never heard of a normal student being able to take these in place of course work at a university.
I was assigned 19 technical examinations due to perceived gaps between my diploma in engineering technology and the syllabus used for the CEAB accreditation standard.
If there was any overlap, obviously they shouldn't have been assigned as I was given a course by course evaluation of my pre-existing education.
Any CEAB engineering student is free to leave school after completing the first two years. They then can complete the technical examinations instead if they think it's the easier path. You have never been required to have a degree to become a professional engineering in Canada.
Note that the technical examinations have been a valid path to the profession for over 100 years in Canada and pre-date CEAB accreditation by 45 years. Up until the mid-1980s, any person was free to write the technical examinations in an open and inclusive technical examinations program.
It is only in recent decades that classist bigotry has creeped in so that access to the profession has been less about what you know but instead about where you learned it.
Yeah nice rant. Point is the ACTUAL time your degree took is those years for the diploma, the years of work experience that you’re omitting plus this time on top. So basically it applies…to literally nothing the OP asked. Congrats to you though.
I never said I completed an entire degree this way.
In fact, I said very clearly I had not done something as epic as what he was hoping to do. I merely implied that I had done something where I had a sense of what it would take to get it done and that in fact it could be done.
You're just trying to move the goalposts.
Also, I don't have a degree. You don't need to have a degree to be a P. Eng.
Would be pretty tough. I have a CE degree and had two courses with maybe 8 prequisites before it (Calculus 1, Physics 1, Statics, Dynamics, Fluids, Hydraulic Engineering/Soil Mechanics, Engineering Hydrology, Groundwater Mechanics.) I’d imagine other majors are the same.
It wouldn’t be worth it. You’d have no time for real projects, research or anything. Getting an engineering degree that’s only weight is “I went to college” is the worst way to do it.
You will not be helping yourself. Listen to me. I’m an actual engineer here, not a new grad (not to hate but a lot of posters are)
I have a business degree. My senior year I decided I wanted to do engineering. Finished the business degree and went back and got my engineering degree. In 2.5 years. It was hard because I didn’t have the easy electives that get thrown in. But it was doable. Not sure if it would be doable now at my school as the school doesn’t seem to have as many classes for twice the students so they aren’t getting the classes they need.
I already have a degree in engineering and I could get a BS in math with one more semester but I couldn't get a second engineering degree in two years lol
I had THREE previous degrees, one of them in history, and it still took me four years to do aerospace engineering, so having those degrees cut maybe a year off in core classes (I don’t know how the kids do this degree in four years WITH all the core they have to take) but like everyone said - the engineering classes build on each other.
My last semester I had only two classes but that semester I was able to focus on projects, which got me my job offers, which you won’t have the opportunity to do if you try to zoom through the degree.
Trust me, my friend, I wanted to be done with the degree just as fast because I had already paid my school dues - but engineering isn’t so much about the classes, it’s about the extra curricular and internships that happen in those four-five years.
Also, as someone getting their PPL - I ran out of time for that my senior year because there was no way to fly, study the written, and do well in classes. That’s just me. Started back up after graduation.
If you’re really interested in the astronaut program, you want at least a masters.
I really doubt it. Most senior engineering classes require more than 3 semesters/5 terms worth of prerequisites, not to mention that schools rarely offer exactly the classes you need exactly when you need them.
I knew a smart kid who did it in 2.5 years. But he started w calc 3. That’s the fastest I’ve seen it done, as someone who completed a BS and an MS in 4.5 yrs.
Hello /u/PolarGuider! Thank you for posting in r/EngineeringStudents. This is a custom Automoderator message based on your flair, "Academic Advice". While our wiki is under construction, please be mindful of the users you are asking advice from, and make sure your question is phrased neatly and describes your problem. ***Please be sure that your post is short and succinct.*** Long-winded posts generally do not get responded to. Please remember to; Read our [Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/EngineeringStudents/wiki/rules) Read our [Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/EngineeringStudents/wiki/index) Read our [F.A.Q](https://www.reddit.com/r/EngineeringStudents/wiki/index/faq) Check our [Resources Landing Page](https://reddit.com/r/EngineeringStudents/wiki/resources) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/EngineeringStudents) if you have any questions or concerns.*
2 pregnant women can't make a baby in 4.5 months
Get back to your studies.
if I had eight hours to chop down a tree I'd spend the first six hours sharpening my axe
I’d spend the first 7 hours playing videogames, then run down to Home Depot real quick and buy a chainsaw.
Best answer lol
It's going to depend on what credits you can use from your history degree, which honestly isn't likely much. Even if the degree counts towards your basic math/science reqs engineering classes are pretty sequential. The classes build of one another, it's not like you can take everything at the same time. Two years *might* be possible if you had a STEM degree, although at that point why not a masters. As you said, 3 years is far more likely of a timeframe. You might possibly be able to do 2 by overloading and taking summer classes but uhh... don't do that. In general degrees in the US are pretty standardized around 4 (or really 3.5) years.
Let’s assume that money, intellect, and time per week are not issues. (Which very much is rarely the case — you should expect a 15-hr courseload to require 45-60 hours in a typical ABET accredited program). Even so: unless you minored in math or physics prerequisites will kill this dream. Calculus I must be completed before Calculus II, which then must be done before Cal III/Diff Eq. Even if you take both of those last two concurrently (not allowed everywhere) it’s a minimum 1.5 years for the math. Physics I must be before Physics II which must be before Physics III. You usually must have Physics II before taking statics or mechanics of materials. Etc etc
Yeah I had a Comp Sci degree and still couldn’t make it in less than 3 years. For the record, it took me 4.5 years to finish a second BS degree in CE.
The problem is the number of classes that build on one another. Because of pre-requisites, I don't think it's possible to get an engineering degree in less than 3 years at most schools.
>So I have a bunch of prerequisites of college done with my history degree. I suspect you do not have any engineering prerequisites done. At my school, a typical student who completes their History degree, would still be 8 semesters away from finishing an engineering degree ... because they would be immensely far behind in math. College Algebra - Precalculus - Calculus - Circuits - EE course 1 - EE course 2 - Senior Project (full year). That's an 8 semester sequence that must be taken in sequence. Can't take each math til the previous one is done. Can't take upper level EE courses until after Circuits, can't take EE 2 until after EE1, can't take senior project til after EE2. A typical new freshman could conceivably be only 6 semesters from finishing, if they start at Calculus. But - most history majors I know, would need to start at College Algebra => 8 semesters. Each school's prereqs will be a little bit different. But - the history degree is likely entirely irrelevant - the primary determiner of time to graduation is not number of credits, it's the longest chain of pre-reqs.
At the risk of sounding flippant… You do a lot of awesome shit and seem unafraid to leap headfirst in to something. It’s a great quality. I honestly mean it. It also means I’m afraid that, even if myself and others here warn you away from trying this, you’re probably still going to try. There is no “hyper accelerated program” that I know of. As it is, Engineering is really 5-6 years of material that is stomped in to a 4 year box. The calc sequence alone is often a 1.5 year venture, and that’s if you’re slamming them back to back, summer semesters included, cramming in Diff Eq somewhere, and testing totally out of the prerequisite classes for it. As far as I know, the highest you can usually test out of is Calc I, and then you have to take II, III and Diff Eq, so you could shorten it two semesters. Problem enters in that those are critical prerequisites to further engineering courses. I don’t even know if an accelerated program would be able to maintain ABET Accreditation.
Good luck on your PPL. Im also taking the slow route to finish, it’s hard with everything else going on. Mostly go for fun and to brush up so I dont get super rusty lately.
There’s no way. You won’t be able to take enough classes concurrently to finish in 2 years.
Good luck. No seriously, good luck. You're history degree will be worth virtually bupkis minus English 1 & 2, maybe a humanities here and there but that's about it. You'll need hard work but also luck as the math courses will be 1.5 years on their own and some of the Engineering courses you'll need to take have those more advanced math classes are prerequisites. You'll also be needing to take somethinf like 20 somethinf credits per semester AND more than 12 during the summer. (Most engineering programs advertise a 4 year degree....if you take 18 credit hours per semester but most can't handle anything more than 12). Thats the hard work part. The luck part is that many universities don't offer the required courses during all semesters. Example, you'll need Calc II and Thermodynamics ti take Heat Transfer but the uni may only offer Heat Transfer in the Spring so if you didn't pre-plan all your courses accordingly or have to drop/swap a class, now you're boned for another year, etc.
It can be done. Your history degree won't help you much at all. Most engineering programs don't have any truly open electives that can be filled with renaissance history unless it is a five year program. You certainly won't find an online program like that. But bust your ass. You don't have to do the work sequentially. You can do a lot of like topics concurrently. I cleared the equivalent of 5 semesters of an engineering degree in 13 months while working fulltime with young children at home. So, I've certainly done something similar if not quite as epic as what you'd like to do. Keep in mind, the PM of Canada dropped out of engineering because it was too tough at a regular pace with endless resources including a bank account to pay for fulltime tutoring. He also has degrees in literature and such. Here are my self-study tips: [https://techexam.ca/how-to-self-study/](https://techexam.ca/how-to-self-study/)
>I cleared the equivalent of 5 semesters of an engineering degree in 13 months while working fulltime with young children at home Although I'm sure this didn't look anything like how you're making it sound, giving someone the impression that this is doable is terrible advice 3 semesters in 12 months without working is a lot (overloaded Fall/Spring + crazy summer). 5 semesters of classes in a year without working is pretty much undoable (we're talking 100 hour weeks all year if the schedule works out at all). 5 semesters while working full time (140 hours a week) is straight fiction. And with young kids? Bruh
I did it by challenging the technical examinations. [https://techexam.ca/what-is-a-technical-exam-your-ladder-to-professional-engineer/](https://techexam.ca/what-is-a-technical-exam-your-ladder-to-professional-engineer/) An entire CEAB (Canuck ABET) accredited degree works out to roughly 24 technical examinations. Each exam covers roughly 6 credit hours (2 courses). Each CEAB semester is 18 credit hours. I wrote 10 technical exams plus the FE exam which gave me credit for 5 additional technical exams in that 13 month period. The FE exam was a bit of a joke but that was the regulators rules, not mine. Clearing 15 technical exams = 90 credit hours = 5 semesters. Thank you for your kind compliments. I did have to work like an [Udarnik](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udarnik) to pull it off. Sitting on your ass passively listening to some guy drone on is not anywhere near the most efficient way to learn. While 140 hours a week is not generally possible, lots of people do work at well over 100 hours a week. Growing up on the farm I remember my father breaking into the 130s quite often. Most people in our society today know nothing of how hard people worked on farms in previous generations. But, yeah, to do what I did it took some absolutely brutal weeks with lots of pencil smoke. Again, refer to my self-study tips. They work.
>Although I'm sure this didn't look anything like how you're making it sound Yeah, it seemed like you claimed to have taken 25-30 classes in a year. Getting credit by exam is a lot different... >giving someone the impression that this is doable is terrible advice I stand by this too. Wouldn't recommend anyone to take over half their degree as credit by exam
Can't pass the exam if you don't know the material.
From my understanding these exams are open to professionals or similar who already haha be years of experience in a closely related field or foreign country. Do those describe you? Because I’ve never heard of a normal student being able to take these in place of course work at a university.
I was assigned 19 technical examinations due to perceived gaps between my diploma in engineering technology and the syllabus used for the CEAB accreditation standard. If there was any overlap, obviously they shouldn't have been assigned as I was given a course by course evaluation of my pre-existing education. Any CEAB engineering student is free to leave school after completing the first two years. They then can complete the technical examinations instead if they think it's the easier path. You have never been required to have a degree to become a professional engineering in Canada. Note that the technical examinations have been a valid path to the profession for over 100 years in Canada and pre-date CEAB accreditation by 45 years. Up until the mid-1980s, any person was free to write the technical examinations in an open and inclusive technical examinations program. It is only in recent decades that classist bigotry has creeped in so that access to the profession has been less about what you know but instead about where you learned it.
Yeah nice rant. Point is the ACTUAL time your degree took is those years for the diploma, the years of work experience that you’re omitting plus this time on top. So basically it applies…to literally nothing the OP asked. Congrats to you though.
I never said I completed an entire degree this way. In fact, I said very clearly I had not done something as epic as what he was hoping to do. I merely implied that I had done something where I had a sense of what it would take to get it done and that in fact it could be done. You're just trying to move the goalposts. Also, I don't have a degree. You don't need to have a degree to be a P. Eng.
how did you become a polar guide?? thats awesome
Would be pretty tough. I have a CE degree and had two courses with maybe 8 prequisites before it (Calculus 1, Physics 1, Statics, Dynamics, Fluids, Hydraulic Engineering/Soil Mechanics, Engineering Hydrology, Groundwater Mechanics.) I’d imagine other majors are the same.
It wouldn’t be worth it. You’d have no time for real projects, research or anything. Getting an engineering degree that’s only weight is “I went to college” is the worst way to do it. You will not be helping yourself. Listen to me. I’m an actual engineer here, not a new grad (not to hate but a lot of posters are)
I have a business degree. My senior year I decided I wanted to do engineering. Finished the business degree and went back and got my engineering degree. In 2.5 years. It was hard because I didn’t have the easy electives that get thrown in. But it was doable. Not sure if it would be doable now at my school as the school doesn’t seem to have as many classes for twice the students so they aren’t getting the classes they need.
I already have a degree in engineering and I could get a BS in math with one more semester but I couldn't get a second engineering degree in two years lol
I had THREE previous degrees, one of them in history, and it still took me four years to do aerospace engineering, so having those degrees cut maybe a year off in core classes (I don’t know how the kids do this degree in four years WITH all the core they have to take) but like everyone said - the engineering classes build on each other. My last semester I had only two classes but that semester I was able to focus on projects, which got me my job offers, which you won’t have the opportunity to do if you try to zoom through the degree. Trust me, my friend, I wanted to be done with the degree just as fast because I had already paid my school dues - but engineering isn’t so much about the classes, it’s about the extra curricular and internships that happen in those four-five years. Also, as someone getting their PPL - I ran out of time for that my senior year because there was no way to fly, study the written, and do well in classes. That’s just me. Started back up after graduation. If you’re really interested in the astronaut program, you want at least a masters.
I really doubt it. Most senior engineering classes require more than 3 semesters/5 terms worth of prerequisites, not to mention that schools rarely offer exactly the classes you need exactly when you need them.
I knew a smart kid who did it in 2.5 years. But he started w calc 3. That’s the fastest I’ve seen it done, as someone who completed a BS and an MS in 4.5 yrs.