The brightest, most talented engineers are devoting themselves to tackling immense global challenges. As a First-Year Engineering (FYE) student, you get to join them!
The National Academy of Engineering identified 14 “Grand Challenges for Engineering in the 21st Century”—opportunities to increase humanity’s sustainability, health, security and joy of living. Themes include making solar energy economical, enhancing virtual reality, reverse-engineering the brain, securing cyberspace, providing access to clean water and more!
These ambitious goals demand that engineers roll up their sleeves and get to work, which is why we put those aspirations front and center during your first year as an engineering student. We have designed the FYE program to help you discover your passion. We want you to get your hands dirty and make stuff that might someday lead to a breakthrough.
Why wait until you’re taking upper-level classes to figure out what interests you? Through real engineering classes taught by top faculty and exposure to engineering’s most significant challenges, the FYE program gets you into the game from day one.
When you apply, you can select a pre-major or remain undeclared during the first year while you explore your options. Undeclared engineering students will declare their majors in the spring semester when they register for their sophomore year courses.
The curriculum sheets for all majors show the same UK core courses like CIS/WRD, CHE 105, PHY 231 and calculus. Some majors will also require chemistry lab CHE 111, physics lab PHY 241 or CS 215, which you can take during your first year.
Yes. Many colleges of engineering have seen a positive correlation between FYE programs and academic retention and instituted their own programs. Among schools in the SEC, Alabama, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt all have FYE programs.
Yes. Participation in the FYE program is mandatory for all nine undergraduate engineering degrees.
Yes. Students will designate an interest area when applying for admission and scholarships tied to a particular interest area may be provided. However, you are not committed to declaring that major. If you declare a different major, you may not receive that scholarship in subsequent years.
Yes, many of the second-year courses are common across majors and some courses from one major may count as electives in another major. The advisors in the College of Engineering will help determine whether you will need to take extra courses.
Yes. In fact, FYE students need to bring a laptop to every class meeting. Review the system requirements. All software used in FYE courses is provided at no additional cost through the UK Download site.
We have a specially designed course that integrates you into the College of Engineering and into your major courses quickly. If you have already selected a major, you can take the combined EGR 215 in your first semester. It covers the professional skills, design methods and problem-solving strategies used by all types of engineers and computer scientists. If you have already taken a programming course such as CS 115, then you do not need to take EGR 102. The combination of FYE courses you select can be taken concurrently.
