The University of Akron College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering offers three new academic programs to top students, allowing them to receive both undergraduate and graduate degrees within five years.
- The first of these year-round programs enables admitted students to earn, in three years, a bachelor’s degree in natural sciences with a concentration in polymer chemistry. Students follow with two years of graduate study in the College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering and upon completion of the program they will receive a master’s degree in polymer science. Application to the program is open to outstanding chemistry majors admitted by the Honors College. Qualified candidates, following interviews with faculty advisers from represented departments, will be notified if their admission requests are accepted or declined. Accepted students will receive a tuition waiver from the honors program and a stipend from the polymer college.
Beginning in their sophomore years, students in the program will conduct research guided by the college’s renowned faculty and within the university’s world-class polymer research facility. Students must have a 3.7 GPA in all undergraduate science and math classes at the end of the first semester of their third year in order advance to the two-year graduate study program. For details, visit the Department of Polymer Science. - A second program enables admitted students to earn a bachelor of science in applied mathematics and a master’s degree in polymer engineering. Accepted students will be expected to complete core course requirements and most electives for their bachelor’s degree in the first three years of the program. During their third year of undergraduate study, students must formally apply to the graduate program. Students accepted to the graduate program are expected to complete their remaining undergraduate degree electives and 24 credits of graduate coursework and six credits of thesis research in the last two years of the program. They are required to also register for at least nine graduate credits in each semester of the last two program years, during which time students are eligible to apply for a graduate assistantship. Students at the beginning of their fourth program year are eligible to receive a graduate stipend and tuition waiver of gradate courses. For program details, visit the Department of Polymer Engineering.
- The third program enables students to receive a bachelor of arts in physics/chemical physics at the College of Wooster and master’s degree in polymer engineering at UA. The College of Wooster will award the undergraduate degree to students after they complete the fourth year of coursework at UA. In their fourth and fifth years, students will receive a tuition waiver for graduate courses taken at UA. They also will be eligible to receive stipends in their fifth year, when they are registered for at least nine graduate credits. This program is designed for outstanding physics and chemistry majors who want to earn their bachelor’s and master’s degrees by completing 162 to 170 coursework credit hours and thesis research. Admission to this program is limited. Once accepted, students must earn and maintain a 3.0 or greater GPA. The UA Graduate School uses a special admissions category and admissions committee members from the UA Department of Polymer Engineering evaluate applications of potential BA/MS students during their third year in the program. For program details, visit the Department of Polymer Engineering.
“Exceptional students selected for these programs will be among motivated peers. They will be mentored by the college’s renowned faculty in a program with an international reputation that attracts top-level recruiters,” says Dr. Stephen Cheng, dean of the UA College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering.
For more information about the polymer science program, contact Dr. Claire Tessier at tessier@uakron.edu or at 330-972-5304 or Dr. Li Jia at ljia@uakron.edu or at 330-972-7511. For more information about the polymer engineering programs, contact Dr. Sadhan C. Jana at janas@uakron.edu or at 330-972-8293.
Media Contact: Denise Henry, 330-972-6477