ABM program gives students a jumpstart on grad school

The idea of graduate school may seem overwhelming to students after completing four years of college, but the Accelerated Bachelor’s to Master’s (ABM) program can provide a head start on an advanced degree.

All departments in the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering now offer the ABM, allowing undergraduate students to earn up to nine graduate-level credits toward a master’s degree — which typically requires 30-34 credits to graduate.

After completing their bachelor’s degree, ABM students can complete the remainder of their graduate program at Auburn or transfer the credits to another university. Students can also continue their graduate education 100% online.

“Earning a master’s degree is a great way for our engineering graduates to enhance their value in the workforce and open up a wide range of career possibilities,” said Mario Eden, dean of Auburn Engineering.  “The ABM program allows us to lighten the load of courses through graduate school and, hopefully, encourage more students to choose that path.”

To qualify for ABM, undergraduate students must have at least a 3.4 GPA and accumulated at least 45 credit hours. Most ABM students replace their technical electives with graduate-level courses beginning in their late sophomore or early junior year.

Curt Johnson, a research engineer at IS4S, is currently working on his Master of Engineering degree after participating in the ABM program as an undergraduate student in mechanical engineering.

“As I was coming up on junior year, I really started to look toward grad school and wanted to get ahead if possible… I was really interested in taking technical electives at the graduate level if that would let me learn more about the topics I was interested in,” Johnson said. “I would encourage (undergraduate students) to seek out the ABM track.”

Students interested in joining the ABM program should talk to their adviser. For more information, visit the graduate school’s ABM page.