SBC Launches Accelerated Path to UVA’s Master of Engineering
Sweet Briar College (SBC) and the University of Virginia (UVA) School of Engineering and Applied Science have signed an agreement establishing a collaborative program called UVAccelerate, which facilitates early entry for SBC students into Master of Engineering degree programs at UVA. Through this partnership, qualified Sweet Briar students can apply for graduate admission to UVA during their junior year and begin taking graduate-level courses during their senior year, thereby accelerating the completion of their Master of Engineering degree. Check out the announcement details here.
Rankings for Virginia Tech Engineering Online Rises in 2024 U.S. News & World Report
Ranked No. 17 for overall best online graduate engineering programs by the U.S. News & World Report, the Virginia Tech College of Engineering rose eight spots in 2024, and also saw increased rankings in two of its online master’s programs.
The rankings, which are updated each year, evaluate over 110 universities nationwide using a set of widely accepted indicators of excellence. Highly ranked programs have strong traditional academic foundations based on the excellence of entering students, graduation rates, and instructor credentials. They also excel at educating distance learners while offering robust career and financial support. In 2024, Virginia Tech Engineering Online ranked:
- No. 17 for Best Online Graduate Engineering Programs
- No. 8 for Best Online Master of Industrial Engineering Programs
- No. 11 for Best Online Master of Electrical Engineering Programs
Virginia Tech has offered distance learning with online labs and lectures that are recorded and archived so students can access lecture material at their convenience for the past 40 years. These remote learning opportunities come from the college’s own program offerings as well as those of its partners in Cardinal Education, a consortium of six universities that emphasizes flexible and rigorous learning in online graduate study programs. Read more here.
Useful Stats: Trends in graduate students and postdocs by field of study
Graduate student enrollment and postdoctoral appointments have shifted in fields of study over the past decades, with many fields exploding in graduate enrollment and postdoctoral appointments. Computer and information sciences graduate students jumped from just 4% of all science enrollments in 1975 to nearly a quarter of the total by 2021, while engineering postdocs in biological, biomedical, and biosystems engineering jumped 5,671%– increasing from 3% in 1975 to 19% of all engineering postdocs by 2021. Read more here.
Science & engineering graduate students and postdoctorates by state, 2016-2020 – Virginia Leads the Way
After declines in 2016 and 2017, the number of graduate students and postdoctoral appointees at the nation’s institutions of higher education increased nationally from 2018 to 2020, according to National Science Foundation (NSF) data from its Graduate Students and Post doctorates in Science and Engineering (GSS) survey. However, this SSTI analysis shows considerable variation among the states over the five-year period from 2016 to 2020. Read
Public perceptions of science & technology and higher education explored in recent reports
Two recent studies explored public perceptions of science and technology and higher education in the United States. The first study from the NSF National Science Board explores public perceptions and awareness of science and technology among American adults, and a separate report from New America analyzes attitudes on higher education, with a particular interest in the transition to online instruction in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more
NSF: Science and Engineering State Profiles
Updated data for Science and Engineering State Profiles are now available. This product provides state-level rankings and totals of science and engineering data for the 50 states, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico Read more