Mechanical Engineering Curriculum
Our traditional Mechanical Engineering major allows flexibility for a student to pursue their personal interests within engineering. Fifteen credits of technical electives and a wide variety of team-based senior design projects allow students to either focus on a specific area of interest or explore different areas within mechanical engineering.
Program Outcomes:
Students graduating in the Mechanical Engineering major earn an ABET-accredited Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. Please see our Accreditation Statement, Program Educational Objectives, and Student Outcomes.
Note to ME majors who are following the 2023-24 or earlier date of entry graduation requirements: ME4124 (CAD of Fluid/Thermal Systems) will no longer be taught and instead will be replaced with an approved List #1 in-department (ME, ESM, or NSEG subject) technical elective. Please contact your academic advisor if you have questions.
Additional note to ME majors who are following the 2024-25 or earlier date of entry graduation requirements: ME3034 (ME Discourse, 1 cr) course content has been migrated to ME4015/4016, and ME3034 should be replaced with 1 credit of free elective if needed to reach minimum number of credits to graduate.
Please see the latest approved Mechanical Engineering graduation requirements in the Virginia Tech Undergraduate Catalog to see the most up-to-date list of acceptable electives and Technical Electives by Area of Interest.
Notes on technical electives:
- A total of 15 credits of technical electives are required for the Mechanical Engineering major; a minimum of 12 credits must be from List #1.
- Students are required to complete a minimum of 9 credits of List #1 technical electives taught under the ME, ESM (Engineering Science and Mechanics), and/or NSEG (Nuclear Science and Engineering) subjects. Students completing an approved minor (including Computer Science, Green Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Physics) can have this ME/ESM/NSEG subject technical elective requirement waived. Please consult an ME undergraduate advisor for more information.
- Most techncial electives are taught no more than once per year, so students should start looking at course offerings and prerequisite requirements during their junior year to start planning.
- It is not guaranteed that a given technical elective will be available during the student’s senior year, so it is also important to have back-up course selections in mind.
- Up to 6 credits of technical electives can be taken using the pass/fail grade mode IF the courses are offered with that grading option available. Some team-based courses, tech electives with high demand and low capacity, and courses that are required for the Automotive Engineering or Robotics and Mechatronics majors may not allow pass/fail grading. You can check to see if a course is offered P/F by looking for a drop/down box next to the grade mode when registering for a technical elective. ***Required courses and Pathways electives MUST be taken A/F.***
- Up to 3 credits of undergraduate research (ME4994) or independent study (ME4974) may be used as technical electives for the Mechanical Engineering major. A minimum 2.5 overall GPA and 2.0 in-major GPA are required to apply for these courses; students must also have completed ALL required sophomore couress to sign up for these courses. Sophomore-level undergraduate research and independent study (2994 and 2974) CANNOT be used for technical elective credit.
- Courses used as technical electives can also double-count towards a minor provided the course(s) are taken in the A/F grade mode.
All Virginia Tech students are required to satisfy a University-wide set of general education requirements. The requirements not automatically covered by the ME curriculum are:
- 6 credits Pathways Concept 2 (Critical Thinking in the Humanities)
- 6 credits Pathways Concept 3 (Reasoning in the Social Sciences)
- 3 credit Pathways Concept 6A (Critique & Practice in the Arts (NOT Critique & Practice in Design, which is covered by ENGE1215/1216) , and
- 3 credits Pathways Concept 7 (Critical Analysis of Identity and Equity in the US) - this requirement has been suspended and is being replaced by free elective credits until further notice
Note that all Pathways courses must be taken in the A/F grade mode to satisfy graduation requirements.
Students can view the elective options available in the Pathways Guides maintained by the Provost's Office. They can also view available options by filtering the Timetable of Classes by Pathways Concept number (top right).
Students who earned an AS degree through a Virginia Community College System (VCCS) school may not be required to take Pathways general education electives per the matriculation agreements - see the VT Transfer Guide for more information.
ME students must participate in a year-long senior design project. Senior design teams are assigned during the first week of classes of the student’s senior year.
Plans for students taking off a semester for paid engineering work experience, study abroad, or other personal reasons:
Plan for students needing a lighter courseload due to ROTC/Corps of Cadet responsibilities or other reasons:
Plans for students behind in the first year courses who were not math-ready or did not follow the suggested courses in the graduation checksheets:
Information on finding equivalent transfer courses and transferring these credits back to VT can be found on the College of Engineering's website. Students wishing to take courses through a VCCS school should see the VCCS Course Equivalency Guides, the VCCS Physics Equivalencies, and the VCCS combined timetable showing course offerings at all VCCS schools.