College Distinction provides exceptional current Arkansas Tech students an opportunity to challenge themselves academically and gain recognition for their outstanding work in the college classroom. Students with at least sixty hours of college credit and thirty hours of course work at Arkansas Tech with a minimum 3.5 GPA are invited to participate in the program. Students who accept the invitation to pursue College Distinction will have the opportunity to take two courses designated as distinction courses. The first is an enrichment course. This course provides an extra educational experience related to the student’s field of study and could include, among other experiences, study abroad, internship, service learning, or mentor-guided research. The second is an enhanced capstone course. This course demonstrates a student’s ability to work at an exceptional level in a given field and is enhanced by an advanced or accelerated curriculum.

Students’ successful completion of the course requirements and a graduating GPA of 3.5 or better will allow for graduation “with distinction.” This will be noted on student transcripts and diplomas.

Each department will identify distinction courses for each major.

Once the mechanical engineering student has completed a College of Distinction Letter of Intention in Mechanical Engineering, the student, his or her advisor and the ME department director will meet to designate two classes to fulfill College of Distinction course requirements: an enrichment course and an enhanced capstone course. Typically the enrichment course will be MCEG 3000 Engineering Internship/Research Experience. This zero credit hour course may be taken at any time after the student qualifies for the program and meets the course pre-requisites. The required capstone course MCEG 4492 Mechanical Design Project II, will be modified by the professor to contain special assignments for college distinction to fulfill the enhanced capstone requirement. Other courses may fulfill the enrichment and capstone requirements with the permission of the Department Director. Courses meeting college distinction requirements will be designated on the student’s degree audit.