To Pre-req or Co-req: An Assessment of Why Chemical Engineering Students Elect to Take a Course as a Prerequisite or as a Corequisite

In our chemical engineering curricula, students may enroll in introductory thermodynamics as a prerequisite to or as a corequisite with material and energy balances (MEB). We sought to determine why students enrolled in these courses in a given sequence whether it impacts performance. Students’ enrollment decisions were mostly based on logistics such as curriculum guides and scheduling issues. Students who enrolled in thermodynamics before MEB may have outperformed students who took them together.