Information for Prospective Undergraduate Students

Academic Life

Coursework

Undergraduate students have the several required courses, but also have the flexibility to customize their studies by selecting courses from a wide variety of areas.

In addition to these regular offerings, our faculty also routinely offer specialized courses, providing students with learning opportunities in cutting-edge areas and state-of-the-art expertise.

Design

Our unique design program, Design4Practice, includes four courses which starts with the freshman’s introduction to engineering (EGR 186) and is concluded with the Capstone courses (ME 476C/486C) in the senior year. This design program provides hands-on opportunities to students to work with real clients and well-known companies.

Research

There are many opportunities for undergraduate students to get involved with research at NAU. You can discover more about our research by reviewing abstracts, faculty research labs and groups, and faculty member. If you are interested in undergraduate research, we recommend contacting faculty directly.

Honors College

If you’re academically driven and want to be challenged, then the Honors College may be for you. In the Honors College, you will be part of a close-knit community of peers who—along with Honors faculty—will challenge you through exciting research, unique projects, and out-of-class opportunities that connect you with what you care about. The Honors College is an enrichment program open to students of all majors.

Life in Flagstaff

Flagstaff offers an ideal, scenic environment for living and learning. With a four-season climate, amazing landscapes, and ample sunshine, you’ll discover outdoor adventures unlike anywhere else in the United States.

At 7000 feet elevation and in the midst of the largest ponderosa pine forest in the world, Flagstaff has drawn positive attention from a number of publications:

• Travel and Leisure magazine named Flagstaff among the top 10 Best College Towns in America.
• com called it one of the nation’s happiest cities.
• Outside Magazine ranked Flagstaff as the 7th best town in the nation.
• com named the city one of 20 College Towns We Love to Visit, citing Flagstaff’s nearly 700 acres of park land and 50 miles of trails.

Flagstaff offers a wide array of nearby recreation opportunities, including:

• Winter recreation: Snowboard or ski at Arizona Snowbowl, Northern Arizona’s ski resort located just 15 miles from downtown Flagstaff, or cross-country ski at the Nordic Village.
• Hike, run, or bike: Enjoy the 50 miles of hiking, mountain biking trails, and running tracks that are part of Flagstaff’s Urban Trail System, or sunbathe on Sedona’s red rocks and swim in Oak Creek, less than an hour’s drive to the south in Sedona.
• National Parks and Monuments: Flagstaff is surrounded by National Parks and Monuments, including being only one-and-a-half hours away from Grand Canyon National Park and minutes away from Walnut Canyon National Monument.
• Active campus life: You’ll find that there’s always something happening on the NAU campus, from athletic events, to theatrical plays, to musical performances, and everything in between.
• Vibrant community: Community events are constantly on offer in Flagstaff, including community theater, like Theatrikos and the Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival, and downtown events like the Flagstaff Community Farmers Market, First Friday Art Walk, Movies on the Square, and Heritage Square concerts.
• Nearby: Flagstaff is a destination in to itself, but also located nearby other places of interest, like being within a two-hour drive to Phoenix, Arizona and a three-and-a-half hour drive to Las Vegas, Nevada.

Application and Admission

See our step-by-step guide to the application process and feel free to contact and admissions officer with any questions.

Admission into the mechanical engineering undergraduate program is competitive and there are no specific grades or exam scores that guarantee admission. The entire admissions process is based on a complete application that contains all necessary information.

Financial Aid and Scholarships

There are a variety of financial aid and scholarship opportunities at NAU. For any questions, do not hesitate to contact Financial.Aid@nau.edu.

Career Opportunities

Our graduates have gone on to work for companies such as W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc., Lokheed Martin, Honeywell, Intel, Raytheon, Lowell Observatory, USGS, APS.  In addition, many of our graduates choose to continue their education at prestigious universities, including NAU (see our accelerated program), UC Berkeley, Carnegie Melon, Cornell University, and others.

Student Life

Take advantage of these clubs and organizations to expand your knowledge on engineering and have a little fun.

• Northern Arizona University American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
• The Sustainable Energy Solutions (SES) Group– provides society with energy experts and new technologies, as well as to help shape energy decision-making
• The NAU Chapter of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)
• Global Engineering Outreach– supports community-driven development programs worldwide by collaborating with local partners to design and implement sustainable engineering projects
• The Society of Women Engineers (SWE)at Northern Arizona University

Transfer Students

The application, admissions, and enrollment process is slightly different for transfer students.  We provide special advisement support specifically for transfer students and for international transfer students.