Dartmouth to Expand Financial Aid for Engineering Undergraduates

Dartmouth offers an uncommon path toward a career in engineering, with most undergraduates earning two degrees: the liberal arts-based bachelor of arts in engineering sciences and the bachelor of engineering (BE), an accredited, professional degree awarded by Thayer School of Engineering.

Securing another $25 million toward the $35 million goal will enable Thayer to offer more loan-free financial aid awards to undergraduates who want to complete the two degrees over five years.

"The hallmark of our program is that every student who graduates with a BE has also earned a bachelor of arts degree. That's highly unusual in higher education," says Douglas Van Citters '99 Th'03 Th'06, Thayer's interim dean. "This is how Dartmouth creates the leaders we're known for—engineers who understand the social, economic, and environmental impacts of their work, communicate effectively across cultures, and are ready to engage with the world from day one. For Dartmouth to lead, we must provide our students with a truly meaningful and integrated liberal arts education."

Dartmouth Engineering students work on building their designs in the Couch Project Lab. (Photo by Mark Washburn)

Thayer usually recommends students earn the two degrees over more than four years—completing the AB in their fourth year and then the BE in their fifth year—so they can explore a range of courses across the liberal arts and participate in multiple cocurricular activities.

However, while Dartmouth has made significant investment in undergraduate financial aid, Thayer currently cannot fully meet the demonstrated need of most fifth-year BE students.

As a result, engineering undergraduates who want to pursue both degrees but have limited financial resources face the choice of taking on student loan debt to finance their fifth year; giving up portions of the full Dartmouth experience and accepting the pressure of completing the two degrees in four years; or skipping the BE altogether.

The BE requires nine additional courses beyond those required for the AB major, and choosing the path of earning both the AB and BE in four years demands an exhausting academic workload, Van Citters says. These students typically take at least two STEM courses each term—courses that often require time-intensive, project-based lab work—to complete both degrees in a compressed timeframe. This presents challenges for students who want to participate in clubs, intramurals, or the arts, pursue a double major, study abroad, and enjoy other elements of the undergraduate experience that set Dartmouth apart, he says.

"For students who want to dive into engineering faster and deeper, this pace may be their comfort zone. But for students who want to also explore the humanities, the arts, and social sciences, pushing to complete the BE in four years takes away from the academic experience that they originally sought from Dartmouth," says Van Citters. "The additional time to complete the BE provides students with opportunities to take courses that support the non-engineering part of who they are, which in turn, makes them stronger engineers."

Impacts on Prospective and Newly Committed Engineers

Thayer faculty say the lack of financial aid for fifth-year BE students affects two other groups:

Prospective students—When high school students with an interest in engineering and their parents attend an information session at Thayer, the cost of a possible fifth year raises a red flag for many, says Van Citters, who met hundreds of prospective students over the past five years as Thayer's associate dean for undergraduate education.

"Students and their families want and need to know if there is guaranteed financial aid that covers tuition in the fifth year should they choose to pursue the BE," he says. "And right now, we can't promise that. I know we're losing some of these students to other schools because of it."

Students who discover their passion for engineering while at Dartmouth—One reason Thayer is a national leader in graduating engineers demographically similar to Dartmouth's entering class is that undergraduates from all majors are encouraged to sample engineering courses, such as the popular Design Thinking. Students who decide during their sophomore year that engineering is their calling will almost certainly need a fifth year to fulfill all degree requirements.

Professor Vicki May, the current associate dean for undergraduate education, co-authored a 2018 paper with then-Dean Joseph Helble detailing how Thayer had expanded its gender diversity far beyond the national average for engineering schools. Interviews with students, alumni, and faculty indicated that the curriculum's flexibility and emphasis on the liberal arts were important factors in attracting more women to Thayer.

"Most engineering schools have a very structured curriculum with few entry points," says May. At Thayer, it's common for first- and second-year students to sample an engineering course and decide to make engineering their profession. She adds, "However, many students who decide late that they want to study engineering tell us, 'I can't do the fifth year because my parents say four years are all we can afford.' They have to settle for the AB. Those students can still become licensed engineers, but it's often a longer road that requires many more years in the workforce."