When I started studying engineering at Ohio State in the fall of 1965, engineering was a 5 year program culminating in a Bachelor of Engineering degree. They had all the freshman engineers in a big room, 900 of us, and told us that when we graduated the person on either side of us wouldn't be there. (For the PC crowd, there were 7 female engineering students among the 900. And don't jump on me, I married a female engineer.
). By the time I was graduating, they'd changed to program to take only 4 years and culminate in a Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree since most companies wouldn't pay more for the extra year of study.