The BS-MS program is a combined undergraduate-graduate program leading to the simultaneous award of the BS and MS degrees. This program is designed for five years of full-time study. It provides students with a unique opportunity to combine advanced undergraduate and graduate studies in mechanical engineering with practical, real-world, product-oriented experience in the engineering of mechanical systems. Students in the BS-MS program cover the same scope and level of subjects as those in the regular MS program, and the successful student will have equivalent qualifications and opportunities for advanced graduate study programs. Completion of the fourth year of the five year curriculum will give the student enough credit and breadth of subject matter to satisfy university requirements for the BS degree should individual circumstances arise that preclude a student from continuing the fifth year.

It has become clear in recent years that industry needs people who have not only a sound education in mathematics, basic sciences, and engineering science, but who also have knowledge and experience in the solution of real world, product-driven problems. This means that students need to learn communication skills suited to the engineering workplace. They also need to experience team design projects that produce real products to satisfy real requirements. These increasing demands upon the undergraduate engineering curriculum, both for greater depth of knowledge in an expanding technical field, and for practical, product-oriented experiences, could not be satisfied within the parameters of a traditional four year undergraduate curriculum. The five-year BS-MS program was created to satisfy the industry need by coordinating the curriculum in the fourth undergraduate year with that in an additional fifth graduate year coupled with industrial internship experiences.