The Dual Degree (3-2 Plan) Approach to Educating Minority Engineers

Dual degree programs or 3-2 plans as they are sometimes called have been in existence since the 1930' s. Only a few such plans, however, seemed to be productive. Since so many blacks attend the traditional Black liberal arts colleges, and since these colleges fulfill many of the needs of Black youth so effectively, it behooves the engineering educator to look to the Black liberal arts colleges as a source of well prepared prospective engineering students. In 1968 both the Atlanta University Center and Georgia Tech committed significant manpower to coordinating and improving their dual degree program. This paper describes the Georgia Tech approach to developing dual degree programs including both the progress and the promise of this approach to engineering education and particularly towards increasing the number of minority engineering graduates.