2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Engineering students entering college by placing into pre-calculus courses face many challenges, including possibly extending their timeline to graduation, missing the opportunity of taking coursework with their incoming engineering cohort, and managing the stress of feeling behind of other incoming engineering students. Typically, engineering students who are not calc-ready are from at least one underrepresented background, and thus face additional barriers experienced by these groups. To help combat these challenges, we have developed a holistic mathematics bridge program to address these challenges and some of the underlying issues these students may face. This bridge program has had two cohorts, the 2023 cohort was 33 students with 66% of the students underrepresented in engineering and the 2024 cohort was 42 students with 93% of the students underrepresented in engineering.
Our main goals in designing this bridge program included fostering community and creating a sense of belonging in the college of engineering. To begin this relationship, a representative from the bridge program met with each student at their summer orientation when scheduling their fall classes. The bridge program itself began about ten days before the start of classes. This early start allowed us to host a welcome dinner that included students and their families. A typical day during the program included math instruction, lunch-and-learn sessions, engineering, and other community building activities.
The bridge program then continued throughout the students’ first year on campus. We provided math and chemistry support for their first semester. Second semester we provide math, chemistry, and static/physics support. Currently, students in their second year that are still completing this coursework can take part in this support. Starting this year, we are now providing social gatherings for both cohorts to maintain a supportive community for all bridge students.
While our initial sample size is small with these two cohorts of 77 students, we are excited to report the initial results of the program look promising. In the 2023 cohort, one-third of the students progressed into their major and many more are on track to progress into their major at the end of this semester. In the 2024 cohort, all students maintained or increased their math placement. Forty-three percent placed into calculus and 10 students were able to start in chemistry.