Physics/Engineering Dual Degree

The Physics Department at Radford University and the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech offer a joint program in physics and engineering. This is a dual degree program in which the student will receive a B.S. in Physics from Radford University and a B.S. in Engineering from Virginia Tech. The approximate time required for a student to complete this program is five years.

For physics majors, this allows Radford to help foster careers in Aerospace and Ocean Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and others. For a complete list of Virginia Tech's Engineering disciplines, please consult their College of Engineering website.

Note: A very useful link is the Transfer Equivalency Database from the Virginia Tech Registrar's Transfer Guide page. You can use this database to find out exactly which courses from Radford (or other college) transfer to exactly which Tech classes, or vice versa. This will help you decide which Physics classes to take at Tech to finish up your physics major, or which math classes to take here and which ones you might wait to take while at Tech. The various engineering degrees are listed here.

Before transferring to Tech students enrolled in this cooperative program are required to take the following as minimum requirements:

• 20 hours of Physics (PHYS 221 and PHYS 222, along with 12 additional hours in Physics)
• 8 hours of Chemistry (CHEM 101 and CHEM 102)
• 12 hours of Calculus (MATH 151:152:251:252; Calculus I-IV), or
      9 hours of calculus (MATH 151:152:251) and 3 hours of Linear Algebra (MATH 260).
• 12 hours of elective courses

Below is a possible first-year curriculum at Radford University. Note that CHEM 101 and CHEM 102 could also be taken during the summer after this first year, or during the sophomore year at RU.

Students in this program will also need to take the "Engineering Fundamentals" courses (e.g. ENGE 1024 Engineering Exploration, ENGE 1114 Exploration of Engineering Design, etc.) before transferring to Tech. These courses are housed within Tech's Department of Engineering Education, or ENGE. The timing of these classes will be discussed with each student depending on their engineering field of interest. These classes are typically taken at a community college--not at Virginia Tech--the summer after freshman year at RU. Students who complete this dual degree program are typically at RU for 2 years, and then transfer to Tech for 3 years to complete the engineering degree. While at Tech, students may need to take 2 or more physics classes to complete their RU physics degree, depending on the classes they finished at RU. This is determined on a case-by-case basis with each student.

For more information about this dual degree path with RU and Virginia Tech please contact Dr. Rhett Herman, rherman@radford.edu, Professor of Physics and the RU coordinator of this program.