We are limited by the insurance of our field trip hosts. A camper must turn 16 by the Wednesday in the middle of the camp they apply for. We have multiple camps, so they may be eligible for a later camp if they aren't eligible for the first.

Steel toed boots, outdoor clothes, sun block, swim suit, water bottle, and any necessary medication such as a bee sting allergy kit if you are allergic.

The safety of our campers is of great importance. Students are not allowed to use cars during camp and their keys have to be handed in. All transportation needs during camp will be catered for by camp staff.

Our camp is inclusive to kids of all backgrounds. All we ask is that kids that attend the camp treat all with respect, counsleors and fellow campers. We do not want campers experience spoiled because of one campers actions.

Over 85% of explosives are used in mining; therefore, we recommend you major in mining engineering unless you already have a focused path. For example a member of our development board who heads a group in the major world explosives company recently told me that someone with 2 years experience in the mining industry before coming to them was what they would deem perfect.

No unfortunately not.  The minor title has engineering in it and therefore is limited to engineering physical science majors who have the necessary calculus, physics, chemistry and other engineering basic classes background.  The alternative is the explosives technology certificate which is designed for non engineers.

Both of these majors are good examples of major degrees that are suitable backgrounds for explosives engineering.  The basic blasting class (Exp Eng 5612), however, is a requirement for the Mining Engineering degree progam and preference is given to undergraduates and post graduates of the department of Mining & Nuclear Engineering. Second priority is given to declared minors from other departments.

No. A minor can only be conferred with a degree.  Not without, before or after.  These are univeristy rules enforced by the registrars office. In addition to get a minor you have to enroll for the minor and also fill out the paperwork for intent to graduate with the minor. In your final semester your degree report must also match the courses on your original minor application.  If you have substituted other explosives courses you must have a substitution form approved.

The pre-requisites for all of the explosives classes are given for each course in the undergraduate handbook available on the registrar’s web site. For any of the explosives options Exp Eng 5612 is a mandatory class and its principle pre-req is the Mine Safety class (Min Eng 2126). All undergraduate students should take this class before enrolling for an emphasis, certificate or minor. You are required to pass a background check before taking any of the explosives classes.

The background check is the standard state highway patrol check with name and social security number. The current cost is $11 ($12 if you use a credit card (as of March 2014)). You should go and see Mr. Stephen Casey at the mining department as he has the specific paperwork with the return address to us. Stephen can answer any further questions you might have about the clearance and how to get it. He co-ordinates everyone’s security clearances and let’s people into classes based on their successful background check. His office is McNutt 230.

Wait listing everyone is standard procedure. People are enrolled into classes once they have passed the background check and have the necessary pre-requisites. Due to the popularity of the explosives classes from time to time priorities are put in place depending on the course. Do not delay in signing up for a class though as leaving it to the last minute may cause you problems.

We try and match people where possible with potential employers. It is up to you to build your portfolio, people & interviewing skills, and take full advantage of the opportunities that we offer (see the careers web page).

This all depends on whether you are an in-state or out-of-state student and how many years it takes you to get your degree. Cost information is regularly updated on the admissions page. Costs can be offset by state, university, and departments scholarships which are often linked to ACT scores. Once in the mining department there are opportunities to further offset costs by summer and co-op employment in industry and eligibility for further industry scholarships and sponsorship. The cost of getting a degree should be balanced against the great salaries that are available in our industry for qualified people.

Cost Estimation

Stop by V.H. McNutt Hall and meet our faculty. They will make sure you are on the email lists and that you are notified of all department activities and opportunities; such as, summer jobs, float trips, get-togethers, and society functions.

As an explosives student joining we highly encourage joining the Missouri S&T Chapter of the International Society of Explosives Engineers.

Check out their page: ISEE

In the dorms there is a rumor that pervades about the departments not being interested in freshmen and that whilst in freshmen engineering everyone is treated the same. This may be the case for some departments but definitely not our department. We encourage and expect our lower classmen to fully participate in departmental activities, the majority of which are great fun, like haunted mine. Also, think about looking into the competition teams such as mucking, mine rescue etc.

Students are not allowed to take the commercial pyrotechnics class before 18 because of state law, will not be eligible to obtain a blasters license before graduation, and will probably not be eligible for the summer internships and industry experience that most of our graduates get.

No. The masters program in Explosives Engineering is an advanced "Engineering" degree and requires a solid background in math & science. We accept applications from persons having a B.S. (Bachelors of Science) in Physical Sciences, Technology or Engineering.

No. You first need a 4 year acredited bachelors degree in engineering or physical (not social) science.  You cannot be enrolled in any of our graduate programs without first obtaining a bachelors or graduate degree.

We try and match people where possible with potential employers. It is up to you to build your portfolio, people & interviewing skills, and take full advantage of the opportunities that we offer.

The background check is the standard state highway patrol check with name and social security number. The current cost is $11 ($12 if you use a credit card (as of March 2014)). You should go and see Mr. Stephen Casey at the mining department as he has the specific paperwork with the return address to us. Stephen can answer any further questions you might have about the clearance and how to get it. He co-ordinates everyone’s security clearances and let’s people into classes based on their successful background check. His office is McNutt 230.

This all depends on whether you are an in-state or out-of-state student and how many years it takes you to get your degree. Cost information is regularly updated on the admissions page.

Unfortunately, the porgram does not offer postgraduate scholarships. There are many opportunities to offset costs while enrolled in the program; such as, industry scholarships, summer or co-op employment, and working as a teaching or research assistant

Cost Calculator

Stop by V.H. McNutt Hall and meet our faculty. They will make sure you are on the email lists and that you are notified of all department activities and opportunities; such as, summer jobs, float trips, get-togethers, and society functions. Get to know our explosives faculty and department chair to discuss your interests. They are always happy to discuss the program and are a wealth of information on the subject. 

As an explosives student joining we highly encourage joining the Missouri S&T Chapter of the International Society of Explosives Engineers.

Check out their page: ISEE

We encourage and expect our lower classmen to fully participate in departmental activities, the majority of which are great fun, like haunted mine. Also, think about looking into the competition teams such as mucking, mine rescue etc.

The 2013/14 cost is $1,116.37 per credit hour, so that will be approximately 13 grand for the explosives engineering certificate and 33 grand for the masters in explosives engineering. This is favorable compared to being out of state and coming to campus to do the degree (including cost of living in Rolla). Because you do not have to forgo your salary and lifestyle whilst pursuing their degree, distance learning is ideal for professionals in well paying jobs. Because it usually takes far longer to do the degree part time by distance, the payments are spread over a longer period of time, making it much more affordable. In addition employers often pay a substantial portion of tuition. The down side is not being able to actively participate in hands on application at S&T. However, some of our distance students fly in for the commercial pyro class (one weekend per month for Sept, Oct, & Nov) and/or take a leave of absence for a single semester to be on campus to gain the hands on experience and/or do research.

We have always made allowances for military personnel on active duty.  If you are on active duty we will give you extra time and allowances to complete the class.  Many of our classes can be taken distance with materials bundled for you before your deployment.  We currently have and previously have had many US military students in our graduate program throughout the world, from Guam to Afghanistan, from Israel to Australia.  Many that have seen multiple tours in active war zones. We support our troops!

To give credit, at a minimum S&T faculty would have to go through the syllabus to determine credit and credit titles. S&T graduate regulations allow the transfer of up to 9 graduate credit hours for a S&T Masters of Science.  If an armed forces college is willing to give graduate credit for those classes then we will seriously look at accepting them.  We just can't take undergraduate credit for a graduate program, the university won't allow us to do that.  There is one proviso though and that is the student will have to already of completed his BS or at least senior year in advance to obtain graduate credit.  

S&T has several classes in which they give partial credit for the CCC.  Basically you sign up for an hour of S&T make up classes to meet a listed S&T class and gain credit for the portions of that class that are covered during the CCC.  The departments involved include Civil, Geological Engineering and Engineering Management. Courses that we have pre-approved for the explosives Masters are listed on the current courses page.

We are currently trying to work with FTLW and the university to give partial credits for the explosives components of the engineers LT and Captains Career Course (2 credits) and adding 1 hour S&T credit for field expedient use of civilian explosives, wrapping them together in an S&T class called "military demolition" (3 credits). We still have to complete the loop on this class.

Unfortunately, Missouri S&T rules and regulations of the university are pretty specific about this and unless we have a class that is specifically set up for this and taught at the university there is no way for us to provide credit.

There are 4 routes you can take in academia when graduating with a PhD. These in descending order of prestige are 1) a tenure track assistant professor, 2) research assistant professor (non tenure track), 3) teaching assistant professor (non tenured) and 4) post doc (which is mainly used as a stepping stone to the first 2.  Of most importance is the tenure track route.  There are currently very few teaching professorships.

In short, you need to be very intelligent, hard working, resourceful and complete your PhD on time.

Most successful professors say that working at a university is not an easy job and requires some of the hardest work you will ever undertake, especially to survive as a young assistant professor.  There are long hours and lower pay than in industry and because of this it needs to be a passion rather than a job. It is also a very ruthless environment: A tenure track appointment at the starting assistant professor level allows only a 5 year performance window before a terminal assessment, and if unsuccessful placement on a terminal appointment. I cannot stress enough that to gain promotion and tenure requires a substantial record in grant procurement, research and publication (specifically refereed journals) and a good teaching record is only seen as an additional necessary requirement rather than a primary one.  As example the most outstanding teacher on our campus with the most teaching awards (virtually one every year since he has been here) was denied promotion to full professor because it was deemed that his research and publication record was not up to standard.  Because of these requirements, universities examining potential assistant professor candidates are looking for evidence of potential including finishing your PhD in a timely manner (normally 3 to 4 years) and evidence of the ability to secure research funding, do quality research and publish quality papers especially with regards to refereed journal publications.

Because of the very short window to perform for an assistant professor, universities that hire are looking for candidates that completed their PhD in a timely manner and have already built a track record of publication.  A person that has taken 6 or more years to complete with very few publications would be looked on as a potential liability.  The reasoning is if they have a track record of not being able to perform in 6 years, how are they going to perform to significantly higher standards and expectations in 5?

To do this you must have extra-ordinary talent or many years of experience. In our level of university, it is extremely unlikely that  someone who gets all 3 degrees from one institution will be hired on at that same institution upon completion of their PhD, unless they are exceptional in every respect.  Being hired on straight after graduation at the same institution is looked upon as incestuous in upper tier universities. In addition you need to get in line behind everyone else with more experience and qualifications.

The whole intent of our explosives PhD is to provide graduates to go out to other universities and educate engineers to the same standard as at S&T. Thus increasing the talent base for and prestige of the explosives industry.