Pre-Engineering Coursework

The Pre-Engineering program provides Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science courses for engineering students. This program allows students take required, elective, or pre-requisite courses economically in small class environment.

Employment in the STEM fields is burgeoning; between May 2009 and May 2015, over 800,000 net STEM jobs were added to the U.S. economy. In all of these STEM fields, mathematics plays a critical role. Applied mathematics is an interdisciplinary field involving the application of mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, chemistry, computer science, finance, and industry. Applied mathematics is a combination of mathematical science and specialized knowledge in a secondary area. In short, applied mathematics is using mathematics to solve problems in other disciplines, from physics and chemistry to finance. Employment in areas from engineering to financial analysis all involve applied mathematics. Applied mathematics is a burgeoning, interdisciplinary field with enormous expected and current employment opportunities. It is one of the fast growing fields today and there is a high demand for applied mathematicians with very attractive salaries and benefits.

In addition to the Pre-Engineering program, Southwest Minnesota State University offers a Bachelor of Science in Applied Computational Mathematics. The major is ideally suited for students planning on entering various engineering fields, from computer engineering to mechanical engineering. This major is ideally suited for students interested in various types of engineering, but desiring the small college experience. With this major students also obtain a minor in their particular applied field of interest: Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Environmental Science, Exercise Science, Physics, or Finance. As a result students are well prepared for jobs in various engineering industries or for graduate work in engineering or applied mathematics. Students are also prepared for jobs in the area of financial mathematics.

The Applied Computational Mathematics curriculum was created to facilitate students interested in various types engineering or financial mathematics achieving their goals while still benefiting from the small liberal arts education provided at SMSU. The major provides students the sound knowledge in applied mathematics as well as a secondary discipline, presumably in the area to which the students wishes to apply their mathematical knowledge. Students completing this major may continue with graduate studies in numerous areas in order to enhance their knowledge.