Program Overview
The Associate of Science in Engineering (A.S. Engineering) is designed to prepare students to transfer to a four-year institution and pursue a Bachelor of Science degree in an area of engineering.
Pathways in Engineering
Many of the program requirements for the A.S. Engineering are set from the start, but you will see some room to make elective choices. This degree supports many different possible engineering fields, and the best choices for a student who wants to major in Civil Engineering after transfer look very different from the choices for a student who wants to major in Chemical Engineering. A pathway through a degree provides a recommended set of choices that are more specific for setting up for a major after transfer.
This program supports the Transfer Virginia common curricula in Engineering, including pathways in general, civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering, among others. We have created a pathways guide with recommendations for elective choices and course sequencing. Download a guide and use it with the transfer resources below to develop a plan to complete your degree!
Students should carefully consider the requirements of their intended four-year institution and work with an advisor to determine if the A.S. Engineering provides the most appropriate plan of study for their transfer goals.
Setting up for Success
Even within the major-specific pathways guides, you’ll still see spots to make choices, because the exact recommendations depend on not only what you want to major in, but where you want to transfer to. It helps to decide early on what your first choice four-year institution is for transfer, but it’s fine to still be considering options. Here are some steps you can take to help make the transfer process go smoothly:
- Look in the Transfer VA Resource Center to see if there is a guide that is an exact match for what you want to major in at your preferred transfer school.
- If there is no Transfer VA guide available, there may be information on that school’s website. Start from our Academic Advising transfer guides page to see a list of links to the transfer information we’ve pulled together for each four-year institution in Virginia. Here is the link to our main transfer advising support page.
- Work with an advisor to determine your math placement. All Engineering majors require Calculus I (MTH 263). This course has a Precalculus prerequisite (completion of either MTH 161+162, or MTH 167). It may be possible to place directly into Calculus I based on your high school coursework.
- Our advisors can help you pull all the information together and work out a semester-by-semester plan using the pathways worksheets. They can also help you out if you want to major in something there’s no pre-existing pathway for, and can look over the requirements and help you make a custom plan.
Related Programs and Other Pathways
Some four-year institutions house their Computer Science programs within their school of Engineering. If you are interested in studying Computer Science, BRCC also offers an A.S. Computer Science program and you may need to compare the BRCC programs to your four-year school’s guide to see which is the better fit.
BRCC also offers many Associate of Applied Science (A.A.S) career and technical programs. An A.A.S. program is designed first with employment after graduation in mind, and is not a transfer-oriented award. However, some A.A.S. programs have transfer pathways agreements with specific institutions that are an alternative to traditional transfer. Our A.A.S. Engineering Technology program has transfer pathway agreements with Old Dominion University (ODU) in Civil Engineering Technology and Mechanical Engineering Technology. There is also a pathway from the A.A.S. Computer and Electronics Technology program to ODU’s .