In the past 10 years, enrollment for undergraduate students in the University of Mississippi School of Engineering has increased by 132 percent.
According to statistics gathered at the beginning of this school year, the number of undergraduates enrolled in the program has increased by 732 students, jumping from 553 in 2003 to 1,285 in 2013.
According to Alex Cheng, dean of the School of Engineering, the biggest cause of the enrollment increase is due to people talking with others.
“Word of mouth seems to be the biggest contributor to our growth,” Cheng said. “They heard from other students who told them that they can receive an outstanding education here.”
Cheng also said that faculty and staff within the engineering school have not heavily advertised or done much recruiting over the past decade.
Due to the overall growth of undergraduate enrollment in the engineering school, the geology and geological engineering program has become the largest in the nation.
According to Gregg Davidson, department chair and professor of geology and geological engineering, more students are enrolling in the geological engineering program because their out-of-state tuition can be waived if no state school offers a geological engineering program.
The chemical and mechanical engineering programs have also seen a dramatic rise in numbers.
Last year, the majority of undergraduate students enrolled in the chemical engineering program had been offered jobs and had been accepted into graduate schools. Undergraduate enrollment for the mechanical engineering school has tripled over the past five years.
The engineering school prides itself on the close relationships between faculty and students. Associate professor of mechanical engineering and senior scientist in UM’s National Center for Physical Acoustics James Chambers credits the boost of new students to Dr. Arunachalam Rejendran.
“His constant interaction with students, getting faculty buy-in on changes to the department and his commitment to the alumni and rest of the ‘Rebel nation’ caught on and blossomed into an explosion of new students,” Chambers said.
“I started with 15 people in my class which has moved up to around 50 or 60 people in the past year,” said senior geological engineering major Chris Frascogna.
“Your senior year everything is really put together to become one subject focused on how you will apply everything you have learned into real world situations. The teaching staff have a good understanding of what exactly you will encounter working in this field.”
