MEM program maplegrove- St Cloud state University- SCSU

Hi Prospective applicants of MS in Engineering management,

I am doing my MS in Engineering Management (MEM) at St. Cloud State University (SCSU). I came here in January 2015 for the Spring Semester. I want to share my experience with you all as I am sure it will provide you much important information.
Last year, when I started looking for the best college that fits my requirements, I got a big list of colleges. Digging through them was a very tough process. I had to go through all the websites of the Universities and check for the facilities, tuition fee, cost of living; safety of the place etc., msinus helped me a lot in choosing Universities, So, I wanted to give back to the community.
My requirements for the University were simple. I needed a University with good standard of education, flexible course structure and be light on my pocket. Saint Cloud State University(SCSU) proved to be the right decision. SCSU is not discussed much on msinus, so I will try to give information about the university to students interested in it.

About SCSU:
SCSU is on a 100 acre campus on the banks of Mississippi river. It is the second largest university in Minnesota and established in 1869. It is close to Maple Grove and Minneapolis which have lot of employment opportunities. For students, the best thing about St Cloud is the public transportation system. The Metro bus facility is free for students and available throughout the clock for every 30 minutes.
MEM Department
Engineering Management Program at SCSU is one of the only 5 programs in US, which are certified by American Society of Engineering Management (ASEM).
The Program director Dr. Baliga and professor Dr. Shah are in board of directors of ASEM. The ASEM is currently having St. Cloud state MEM student chapter selected for working in ASEM such as research, publication of papers, international conference, etc. Professor Gary is another one of the best professor teaching us brilliantly.

After completing the program, the students are automatically eligible for getting Associate Engineering Manager (AEM) Certification.
Diversity is an added advantage here. My class has students from US, India, China, Nepal, Africa, Syria, Russia etc.

Location Matters- MEM Department

MEM department has moved to Maple Grove, Minneapolis in Fall 2012 from St. Cloud. Minneapolis is one of the biggest business center in USA and home of various fortune 500 companies. The sole purpose of this movement is to provide better employment opportunity as well as more internship opportunities to the student. Employment opportunities has improved drastically with this move. It has also become very helpful for securing full time jobs after the graduation as the Maple grove is right in the heart of the Minneapolis, so getting internships as well as full time jobs is very easy now.
St. Cloud and Maple grove has all the facilities like grocery stores, restaurants, pubs, etc. In St. Cloud this facility is located in the route of free Metro bus. This saves lot of money, and is economical compared to the other cities.
Students used to live nearby apartments of the TCGC (SCSU Twin Cities graduate center) in maple grove, New hope, Eden prairie, Hopkins etc. Living just in the Twin cities business area give them the opportunity to network with potential employers and also helpful in working during internships.
It is a very safe place, and people are very friendly. We generally go around in buses or in cars even at mid nights and we didn’t face any problems yet.

Course structure: Please check the St cloudstate MEM course schedule url.

The course structure for MEM is very flexible. Generally most of the people choose to do Capstone project instead of Thesis. So we need to complete 33 credits of course work.

There are 5 core courses (15 credits) which we need to register with the department to get the degree. 5 electives (15 credits) can be taken depending on the interests of the student from any department on campus. And then, do a Capstone Project (3 credits) to complete the Program.

Course can be completed in 3 semesters taking 12 credits per semester. It is possible to complete the course in 1 year, if we plan it properly. Dr. Baliga is the most knowledgeable person who has various contacts with the industry based in Minneapolis as well as in whole Minnesota. He advised the students with realistic approach and help them to get progress in their career goals.

Application deadlines:

MEM admits student in Fall and Spring semester. The application deadline for fall is on August 1st and for spring semester on December 1st (international student inside US).
For international student outside US the application deadline is on May 15th for fall and Sept 15th for Spring semester.
Admission is on rolling basis and it is advised to apply as early as possible for the expected semester.
For more details check on Stcloudstate admission deadlines url.


Admission to SCSU requires a separate evaluation of our Transcripts by WES. For some universities like JNTU, Osmania University etc., it is waived off but for others the transcripts needs to be evaluated and sent to the university during application submission.

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