The College of Engineering at South Dakota State University is second among the nation’s best in terms of growing its undergraduate program.
According to Prism Magazine, the flagship publication of the American Society for Engineering Education, SDSU ranks second in growth in the number of engineering bachelor’s degrees awarded with an 82-percent growth rate from 2005 to 2008. To qualify, schools needed at least 75 graduates in 2005 and 215 schools met the criteria.
The magazine conducted its first study in 2000 and has done one every two years. From 2000 to 2008, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering increased 16, 29 and 51 percent, respectively, across the country.
The national rise in engineering degrees is no more evident than at SDSU, where the college has seen significant enrollment increase during each of the last six years, according to Lewis Brown, dean of the College of Engineering. Brown said that since 2003, College of Engineering enrollment grew by nearly 30 percent compared to 15.5 percent for the rest of the SDSU campus.
“This growth is a tribute to many factors,” Brown said. “Our new and improved facilities and growth in scholarships have greatly enhanced our recruitment efforts.
“We are very grateful for the private support of our friends who have made that possible,” Brown added. “The ASEE numbers confirm that SDSU is an exciting and rewarding place to study engineering. The results show our strategic plan for student recruitment and retention is working.”
Assistant Dean Rich Reid said the data is particularly impressive considering that during 2000-2006 South Dakota showed a 6.1 percent decline in high school enrollment, while other states on the top-10 list had increases of 13.7 to 15.2 percent during the same time period.
“Even though we have declining high school enrollments more high school students are staying in the state and are coming to SDSU to study engineering,” Reid said. “We are thankful for the support of alumni, donors, the SDSU Foundation, and business and industry partners who have a vital role in supporting our programs and students.
“The significant growth in our research, new engineering buildings, K-12 outreach programs, increased scholarships, the work of our admission’s office and personal contact with students has created an environment where success happens,” Reid added.
SDSU’s growth rate, based on going from 89 undergraduate degrees in 2005 to 162 in 2008, is topped only by California State University of Northridge at 96 percent.
Jim Morgan, president and CEO of Daktronics, said, “This report is further testimonial to the great job the administration and faculty have been doing, along with the financial support for facilities and scholarships from the SDSU Foundation, to continue to build and improve the profile of SDSU’s engineering program.
“The underlying statistics show that not only has the SDSU engineering program grown, it has improved qualitatively in many ways,” added Morgan, who earned his bachelor’s degree in engineering from SDSU in 1969 and master’s degree in 1971. “This is impressive progress.”
At the same time, SDSU reports the number of students applying to its engineering program with ACT scores higher than 30 (top four percent in the nation) has more than tripled from 20 in 2005 to 61 in 2010.
“The best and brightest students are coming to the College of Engineering,” cited Reid, who pointed out that students with ACT scores greater than 30 means they have outscored 96 percent of students in the nation.
“Earlier this decade we had about 20 students in the 30 ACT range applying to our engineering program,” he said. “With 61 having ACT scores of 30 this year, along with an incoming class of about 400 freshmen, we know a high percentage of this class will be some of the best young minds in our state.”
The American Society for Engineering Education is a non-profit association of more than 12,000 engineering faculty members, U.S. colleges of engineering, engineering technology corporations, and other organization dedicated to promoting excellence in engineering and engineering technology education.
Engineering schools with fastest-growing undergraduate degrees awarded:
School Growth Rate 2008 2005
Cal State-Northridge 96% 190 97
South Dakota State 82% 162 89
Cal State-Long Beach 70% 350 206
University of Texas 59% 295 186
California-Riverside57% 182 116
City College of CUNY 54% 249 162
SUNY-Binghamton 49% 218 146
University of Connecticut 44% 272 189
Syracuse University 43% 173 121
George Mason 42% 317 224
About South Dakota State University
Founded in 1881, South Dakota State University is the state’s Morrill Act land-grant institution as well as its largest, most comprehensive school of higher education. SDSU confers degrees from seven different colleges representing more than 200 majors, minors and options. The institution also offers 23 master’s degree programs and 12 Ph.D. programs.
The work of the university is carried out on a residential campus in Brookings, at sites in Sioux Falls, Pierre and Rapid City, and through Cooperative Extension offices and Agricultural Experiment Station research sites across the state.
