Mechanical Engineering Major

Special note to ME majors following 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.

Please see the latest approved Mechanical Engineering checksheet on the Registrar's website 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/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.

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.

The curriculum requirements for the three Mechanical Engineering majors (ME, AUTE, RBMT) are the same until the junior 2^nd semester. At that point, ME students have room to start taking technical electives or continue to take Pathways (humanities) electives.  The ME major gives the most flexibility in course selection, with 15 credits of technical electives instead of the limited number of major electives in the AUTE or RBMT majors.

We recommend that students pursue the major in which the curriculum most closely matches what the student wants to do for a career after they graduate. If you are not sure if you want to pursue an automotive career, but still wish to take automotive courses, you can take the required AUTE major courses as tech electives which will count towards your ME major.  ME students can take RBMT courses for which they meet the prerequisites.

Yes, you can. However, you may need to delay graduation in order to fit in all of the requirements for both degrees. A double degree (a separate diploma for both degrees) requires that a student complete 30 credits beyond the primary major (159 credits total) .  If you are short on credits but have fulfilled requirements for both majors, you will receive a diploma for your primary major and a certificate for your second major. Students starting at VT after Spring 2024 cannot double-count required courses from one BSME major as technical electives in a second BSME major.

If you are interested in double majoring, you should set up a meeting with your ME Advisor to discuss your course plan.

The ME major works well with the UGG accelerated graduate program. If you wait until your senior year to take your technical electives and have been accepted into the UGG program, all 12 credits of technical electives can be double counted towards your graduate degree provided that they meet the program restrictions (up to 6 credits can be 4000-level courses, and the other 6 credits would need to be 5000-level courses).  Be sure to consult the ME Graduate Advisor with questions.