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Prospective Students

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To campus visitors: The UG Admission office is a source for both School of Engineering flyers (that will give you background and information on the School), as well as details on a variety of basic engineering courses you may attend as part of your day's activities here. The Admissions office is located at 355 Galvez St, Montag Hall.

To prospective engineering students: On this page you will find ways to explore engineering topics as an enrolled student at Stanford, as well as find links to the School of Engineering departments and summer programs open to high school or other non-matriculated students.

Pre-Collegiate Stanford Experience and Summer Classes: Check this Summer opportunities website for summer programs that are offered to pre-college, college, and international students:

Engineering at Stanford: Did You Know?

Students interested in receiving a Bachelor’s degree in an engineering field at Stanford apply to Stanford University, not to the School of Engineering. Once accepted at Stanford, they may declare a major in any engineering program, usually during their sophomore year, without restriction. For more, see the Admissions page.

Undergraduate research: More than 200 engineering undergrads participate in research each summer, working with faculty and their research groups on advanced topics. Interested students usually apply to faculty during winter quarter and, if accepted, are fully funded to do research and stay on campus for the 10 weeks of summer quarter. For detail check the REU Possibilities section on the Opportunities for Students page.

Specified AP and other transfer credit work is allowed to fulfill requirements in School of Engineering (SoE) and other Stanford programs. For detail, see the AP Credit and SoE Transfers page, or go to the Stanford Bulletin.

Typical 4-year plans of study are available for each major. For lists of course options and requirements for each major program, go to the Major Page of the program you want to view. To search or browse through all Stanford courses, go to Explore Courses.

Student groups (social, pre-professional, academic, arts, athletic, community service, ethnic/cultural, etc.) at Stanford number in the hundreds, including many related to engineering (Aviators, Robotics, Solar Car Project, Women Engineers, Energy Club, Latino Engineers, etc).

Exploring Engineering

Once you are accepted to Stanford University, there are a variety of ways to explore different topics within the School of Engineering that can help you decide on a major and/or minor program:

1-Unit Survey Courses

CHEMENG 10: The Chemical Engineering Profession
CS 546 or 547:  Seminar on Liberation Technologies or Human-Computer Interaction Seminar
EE 100: The Electrical Engineering Profession
MS&E 472: Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders

Introductory Seminars with an Engineering Focus

Stanford School of Engineering Introductory Seminars offer a popular and hands-on way to experience engineering ideas and projects during your frosh and/or soph year. These IntroSems are designed to explore a topic that often isn't otherwise part of the curriculum for a particular major, and do it with a faculty instructor in a small-class setting (maximum of 14-16 students). To get a further hint of the emphasis of the class, check the course description by entering the course number (e.g. BIOE32Q) on the Explore Courses site.

Engineering Fundamentals 

Engineering Fundamentals are technically rigorous introductory courses from a range of engineering disciplines. Almost every UG student in engineering must complete three of these courses, two of which are often specified by the major chosen. The Fundamentals options are listed below by topic.

BioE and/or ChemE:
ENGR 20. (S, 3 units) Overview of chemical engineering through discussion and engineering analysis of physical and chemical processes.
ENGR 50M. Intro to Materials Science, Biomaterials Emphasis (W, 4 units) relationship between atomic structure and macroscopic properties of man-made and natural materials; mechanical and thermodynamic behavior of surgical implants
ENGR 80. Intro to Bioengineering (S, 4 units) Overview of bioengineering focused on engineering analysis and design of biological systems

Civil/Environmental:
ENGR 90. Environmental Science and Technology (A, 3 units) Introduction to environmental quality and technology of understanding environmental issues
ENGR 14. Intro to Solid Mechanics (for structures and solids)

Economic/MS&E:
ENGR 62. Intro to Optimization (A, S, 4 Units) Formulation and analysis of linear optimization problems

Electronics:
ENGR 40M. Making Stuff: What is EE (A, S) A hands-on introduction to EE design

Energy:
ENGR 50E. Introduction to Materials Science - Energy Emphasis (A, 4 units)
Materials structure, bonding and atomic arrangements leading to their properties and applications

Materials:
ENGR 50. Intro to Materials Science, Nanotechnology Emphasis (S, 4 units) The structure, bonding, & atomic arrangements in materials leading to their properties & applications.

Mechanics:
ENGR 14. Introduction to Solid Mechanics (A, W, S; 4 units) Introduction to engineering analysis using the principles of engineering solid mechanics.
ENGR 15. Dynamics (A, S; 4 units) The application of Newton's Laws to solve static and dynamic problems, particle and rigid body dynamics, freebody diagrams, and writing equations of motion.

Programming:
CS 106A. Programming Methodology (A,W,S,Sum; 5 units) Introduction to the engineering of computer applications
CS 106B. Programming Abstractions (A,W,S,Sum; 5 units) Abstraction and its relation to programming. Uses the programming language C++

General Engineering:
ENGR 10. Intro to Engineering Analysis (S, Sum; 4 units) Integrated approach to the fundamental scientific principles that are the cornerstones of engineering analysis           ENGR 21. Engineering of Systems (Spr, 3 units) A high-level look at techniques for analyzing and designing complex, multidisciplinary engineering systems, such as aircraft, spacecraft, automobiles, power plants, cellphones, robots, biomedical devices, and many others

School of Engineering Undergraduate Majors

Stanford offers 16 defined undergraduate majors, plus the option to design your own (the Individually Designed Major in Engineering). See Departmental Links to get to the departmental website; for a program description and list of requirements, see  Major Programs.

  • Aeronautics and Astronautics
  • Bioengineering (BioE)
  • Chemical Engineering (CHEME)
  • Civil Engineering (CE)
  • Computer Science (CS)
  • Design (DES)
  • Electrical Engineering (EE)
  • Engineering - interdisciplinary programs resulting in an Engineering (ENGR) degree include:

   o Architectural Design
   o Atmosphere and Energy
   o Biomechanical Engineering
   o Biomedical Computation
   o Engineering Physics

  • Environmental Systems Engineering (ENVSE)
  • Individually Designed (IDMEN)
  • Management Science and Engineering (MGTSC)
  • Materials Science and Engineering (MATSC)
  • Mechanical Engineering (ME)

Undergraduate Minors

  • Aeronautics and Astronautics
  • Chemical Engineering
  • Civil Engineering
  • Computer Science
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Environmental Systems Engineering
  • Management Science and Engineering
  • Materials Science and Engineering
  • Mechanical Engineering

Undergraduate Honors

The School of Engineering Honors programs are explained in detail on the Honors page

  • Architectural Design
  • Atmosphere and Energy
  • Bioengineering
  • Biomechanical Engineering
  • Biomedical Computation
  • Chemical Engineering
  • Civil Engineering
  • Computer Science
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Engineering Physics
  • Material Science and Engineering
  • Mechanical Engineering

Summer Programs at Stanford

Summer at Stanford: Find summer courses/program for high school students and for students from other colleges who would like to take summer classes here, plus other offerings.