2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

In previous research, overall success in the Mechanical Engineering Technology (MET) program at Penn State Behrend was assessed in relation to students’ success in introductory engineering graphics courses and their visualization abilities as measured by the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test. That work found a significant correlation between success in engineering graphics courses and success in the major. It also examined the relationships between the entrance to major (ETM) requirements of physics and calculus and student success, finding that success in the major had a significant correlation with success in physics courses and a statistically significant, but appreciably lower, correlation with calculus courses.

The initial study involved only 75 subjects; however, due to the lower correlation between student success and performance in calculus, further study is being pursued with a larger group of students. Data has been collected on ten years of graduates of the bachelor's degree MET program at Behrend to assess the relationship between overall student success and success in entrance to major Calculus courses. This paper will also look at the relationships between selected other major courses, including the engineering graphics courses, and overall success to analyze whether Calculus should be maintained as a major requirement, but considered for removal from the entrance to major requirements, and replaced with the engineering graphics courses, or other courses that better predict student success.