Admission rate: 77%

Average cost: $9,340 in-state undergraduate tuition; $11,340 for out-of-state students for fall and spring semesters

Number of undergraduates: 70 in the School of Polymer Science and Engineering for fall 2022

Graduation rate: 65%

Job assistance programs: The school frequently hosts various industries for recruiting events specific to its students, and its alumni network frequently sends graduates back to campus to recruit for their companies.

Worth noting

• The Polymer Science & Engineering program is housed within the Thames Polymer Science Research Center on the Hattiesburg campus of the University of Southern Mississippi. Coatings remains a large part of the program, with dedicated coursework, scholarships, and job placement in the coatings industry. The school sponsors the Waterborne Symposium, the pre-eminent educational/technical forum in the United States directed to the science and technology of surface coatings.
• Students participate in laboratory rotations during their sophomore year, gaining a broad perspective of the nature of research and design. As in other engineering programs, students participate in a senior design project; however, all undergraduate students are expected to participate in faculty-led research groups during their time in school, with many beginning to gain experience in a research-and-design environment as early as their freshman year.  Students conduct sponsored, real-world research projects under the direction of a faculty mentor and typically a graduate student or postdoctoral mentor, as well. Projects are sponsored through grants and awards from entities such as the National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, and various industrial partners.
• The school conducts educational outreach activities that include discussions of the public perception of plastics. These efforts involve activities with grade school and high school students that incorporate the benefits and multiple uses of polymer-based materials in today’s society, not just as plastics. “Explaining the barriers and challenges to plastics recycling and discussion of the circular economy are topics that interest many students, even those with little interest in careers in science and engineering,” Calhoun noted. Many of these activities are conducted by the school’s student club.