(375m) Predicting Success in Undergraduate Chemical Engineering at the United States Military Academy

Standardized college entrance examinations, such as the SAT or ACT, are used as admissions criterion at many colleges and universities in the United States. Standardized entrance examination scores not only differentiate applicants, but several studies have shown that examination scores can predict future academic success. Our results suggest a positive correlation between College Entrance Examination Rank (CEER), a preadmissions tool created and used by the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, as a predictor for successful graduation and success on the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam (FEE). Thus, we propose that a similar pre-admission criterion such as CEER can be useful to other universities when considering engineering program applicants. At the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, all cadets are required to excel not only in academics, but also physically and militarily. Performance in each area is continually assessed and cadets are given an aggregated cadet performance score (academics accounts for 55%, military 30%, and physical 15%) each academic term. A cadet’s aggregated performance score can help determine future opportunities in the Army post-graduation, such as branch selection (e.g., infantry, aviation) and post selection (e.g., Fort Carson, Colorado or Fort Benning, Georgia). Failure to maintain minimum threshold standards in each of the three aforementioned areas can lead to separation from West Point. To predict future success in each area, West Point created the Whole Candidate Score to assess cadet candidates during the admission process, which includes an academic subcomponent called the CEER. The CEER includes not just SAT or ACT scores, but other metrics, such as high school academic rank. Cadets can select majors across 15 different departments including, chemical, civil and mechanical engineering as well as history and philosophy. We chose to focus our efforts on analyzing the performance of chemical engineers, a major requiring two additional courses compared to the rest of the student body and a heavy emphasis on complex engineering and mathematical content. Our study examines whether a pre-admission predictor of successful graduation could be applied to further predict success within an individual program. Further, we postulated whether this predictor could not only apply to successful graduation but to performance on the nationally administered Fundamentals of Engineering Exam (FEE).