Overcoming declining enrollments in petroleum engineering

It is noted that petroleum engineering departments across the country have experienced whiplash in their enrollments in the past decade, going from 10800 undergraduates to 1419 in the span of five years. The industry and student enrollments are cyclic and will continue to be so. It is suggested that this feature is perhaps symptomatic of other engineering disciplines. If so, the experience of the Mississippi State University Petroleum Engineering Department in recruiting and retaining students in a severe downturn will be beneficial to others. The department´s approach to declining enrollment has been an aggressive recruiting campaign followed by a concerted effort of retention after the student joins the program