Muhlenberg College has a cooperative dual degree program in engineering and applied science with the engineering school at Columbia University in New York City.  The program offers students the ability to earn both a BS degree from Muhlenberg College and a BS in engineering from Columbia University.

Typically, the student spends three years at Muhlenberg and two years at the engineering school, hence the term 3-2 program. Many students opt to spend the full four years at Muhlenberg followed by two years at the engineering school. This is the 4-2 program. Employers tend to look very favorably on students who graduate from these programs. Columbia's engineering school reports that, in recent years, the dual degree students have had better job opportunities, with higher starting salaries, than students who go directly through traditional engineering programs. Employers value the reasoning, critical thinking, problem solving, and communications skills which students acquire at the liberal arts college. These skills, combined with the outstanding technical preparation from the engineering courses, make for an attractive job candidate.
Columbia University offers engineering programs in the following areas:

 The prerequisite courses taken at Muhlenberg for the all dual degree concentrations at Columbia University are as follows:

Additional courses may be required, specific to a particular program.  Detailed information can be found in The Pre-Combined Plan Curriculum Guide from Columbia University.  Interested students should consult with the College’s program liaison officer, Dr. Jane Flood, to determine the equivalent courses at Muhlenberg.

Students must complete all of Muhlenberg's general academic requirements before transferring to the engineering school.  Students in the 3-2 program transfer course credits from the engineering school back to the College to complete the major and the 34 course graduation requirement. The engineering schools do not specify any particular undergraduate major for admission to the program; however, some majors at Muhlenberg are more appropriate than others, depending on the specific engineering field the student wishes to pursue.  Students interested in Mechanical, Civil, or Electrical Engineering, or Materials Science should consider majoring in either Physics or Physical Science. Students interested in Chemical Engineering should consider a Chemistry major, while for Biomedical Engineering a Natural Science or Biology major is best.

Guaranteed admission to the program requires a 3.0 overall average and a 3.0 average in pre-engineering courses, plus positive letters of recommendation from the College liaison officer, a science professor and a mathematics professor.  Students must also have completed a minimum of two years full-time at Muhlenberg College.  Students who do not achieve these requirements may still be admitted, but admission is not automatic.