The proposed program will enable outstanding senior undergraduate students in Electrical Engineering to satisfy degree requirements leading to a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering while completing their undergraduate studies. The program is designed to encourage our most gifted students to complete a masters degree at UTA and is intended to offer these gifted students, who are highly sought after by other institutions, incentives in money and time-saved to remain and complete an advanced degree at UTA. We also hope that this program will help build a relationship with these students that will increase the likelihood that they will remain and pursue doctoral degrees.

Undergraduate Electrical Engineering students will apply when they are within 30 hours of completing their bachelors degrees. They must have completed at least 30 hours at UTA, achieving a GPA of at least 3.5 in those courses, and have an overall GPA of 3.5 or better in all college courses. Additionally, they must have completed at least 20 hours of specified undergraduate foundation courses that are listed below with a minimum GPA of 3.6 in these courses.

Foundation Courses Required for Admission into the Fast Track program:
EE 2446 CIRCUITS II
EE 3444 ELECTRONICS II
EE 3302 POWER SYSTEMS FUNDAMENTALS
EE 3317 LINEAR SYSTEMS
EE 3341 DIGITAL CIRCUIT DESIGN
EE 3308 ELECTROMAGNETICS II
These foundation courses are those that the Electrical Engineering faculty believes are necessary and have predictive value regarding success in advanced coursework prior to making application. Once admitted, students will be allowed to take select graduate courses that may be used to satisfy both bachelors and masters degree requirements.

When senior-level students are within 15 hours of completing their undergraduate degree requirements, they may take up to 9 hours of graduate level coursework designated by the Electrical Engineering Program to satisfy both undergraduate and graduate degree requirements. This will be the maximum amount of credit that can be used as joint credit. In the limiting case, a student completing the maximum allowable hours (9) while in undergraduate status would have to take only 15 additional hours in organized courses to meet minimum requirements for graduation in a 24 hour thesis degree program, 21 additional hours in organized courses in a thesis substitute degree program, or 27 additional hours for a non-thesis degree program.

Students pursuing the Fast Track master’s degree will be allowed to replace the fol- lowing required undergraduate courses with the corresponding graduate courses. Thus the graduate EE 5302 can replace EE 3330, EE 5320 can replace EE 4314, and EE 5361 can replace EE 4330. The following elective courses may be also replaced. EE 5310 can replace EE4320, EE 5340 or EE 5381 can replace EE 4329, EE 5360 can replace EE 4331, and EE 5377 can replace EE 4334. Since EE 3330 is a prerequisite to EE 4330 and both of these are allowed as fast track substitution with the corresponding graduate course, students meeting all requirements except the “within 15 hours of completion of bachelor’s” requirement will be allowed to enroll in EE 5302 as a part of the Fast Track program.

General Rules of Fast Track Program

1. All applicants must complete at least 20 hours of prerequisite foundation coursework as specified by the Electrical Engineering Program and earn a minimum GPA of 3.6 in these courses.
2. Unconditional admission requirements: must be within 30 hours of graduation with a BS degree from UTA
   1. must have completed at least 30 hours at UTA with a minimum GPA of 3.5
   2. must have an overall GPA of at least 3.5 for all college courses
3. Accepted Fast Track students will take a selected set of graduate courses that will meet the educational requirements of both graduate and undergraduate degrees. A total of up to 9 hours of graduate coursework will be allowed for both degrees.
Only specified EE graduate courses have been included in the approved set of courses.
4. Fast Track students must maintain a minimum GPA of 3.5 in undergraduate courses to remain in and graduate from the graduate program. They must earn grades of B or better in all Fast Track-approved graduate courses that will be used to satisfy undergraduate and graduate degree requirements.
5. A student must pass at least two graduate courses with grades of B or better before the student graduates with the bachelor’s degree to be eligible to remain in the Fast Track program.
6. If, at any time, a student fails to satisfy these requirements, the student will be removed from the Fast Track program. Any graduate credits earned will be applied only to the undergraduate degree, and none of the other benefits of membership in the Fast Track program will apply.