Updated September 3, 2020
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Whiting School has created an information resources in these pages:
These links address health and wellness needs, coping with social distancing, academic policy and grading adjustments, research, remote courses, future course registration, and visa concerns.
Advising Week is the time for undergraduate and master’s students to visit their faculty advisors to plan and approve classes for the Spring 2021 semester. Also, students can discuss their plans to graduate, career and job questions, graduate school possibilities, study habits, and life, in general.
The Advising Week dates will be announced soon.
Please read this entire page and take action!
When Advising Week is in…
Please be aware of the academic policies that will affect your course choices, especially if you are taking a 2nd major or a minor elsewhere. Don’t be surprised in your final semester by some policy you’ve never seen that will affect your eligibility to graduate.
Section 2 of the MechE “Top 12 – Undergraduate Students” and Section 4 of the MechE “Top 12 – Graduate Students” pages provide quick links to specific academic advising and catalog policies.
Check out the Undergraduate and Graduate Course Schedules.
In the schedules in SIS in “Day-Times” section, where there is more than one day/time listed, it usually means one section is a lecture and the other is a lab. SIS does not differentiate between the two, but where a course has multiple sections listed, the “common” time between the sections is the lecture time.
The schedules in the Mechanical Engineering webpage will be updated along with the SIS schedule as changes occur.
You must complete a checkout sheet and take it to your meeting to keep your advisor updated on your degree plan.
Do You Need Help with Your Plan?
Academic Program Manager Mike Bernard is happy to review your Bachelor’s or Master’s checkout sheet (4-year plan) with you. Please contact him at me-academic@jhu.edu to arrange a meeting.
NOTE: the information below was for last April.
This section will be updated soon for Fall 2020.
All meetings will be held remotely in April 2020. Please view the tab for your faculty advisor to arrange your meeting. Remember, where you see blue, it’s a link. Click the link for info.
Academic Program Manager Mike Bernard will answer your questions at me-academic@jhu.edu.
Elective Definitions
There are specific definitions of Mechanical Engineering, Engineering Mechanics, and Technical electives, which are explained in Sections 6.4.2 (Mechanical Engineering) and 7.5 (Engineering Mechanics) of the MechE Undergraduate Advising Manual. Please be familiar with these definitions while making course choices.
Cross-Listing
The University allows departments to “cross-list” their courses in SIS so that they appear in multiple departments’ SIS course listings. Departments do this to encourage students in majors other than the department’s own to easily see their offerings and register for their courses.
Choose Carefully
Courses that are cross-listed in SIS in other departments may not meet the elective definitions, so choose carefully. Please contact your faculty advisor or Academic Program Manager Mike Bernard with your questions on whether a course counts for your degree.
Effective immediately, the department has expanded the list of courses that will count for the Mechanical Engineering electives section for the BS Mechanical Engineering:
On occasion, your faculty advisor might approve a course to substitute for required courses in your degree program.
Part of the approval process is to complete the Course Exception Waiver Form. Please use this form if your faculty advisor approves substitute courses, as it is required for your graduation.
Bring or send the completed form to Mike Bernard (me-academic@jhu.edu) | Latrobe 230) so he can obtain the appropriate Chair or Whiting School Academic Advising office signature. This form will be kept in your advising file.
Forms are available here:
If you have not already done so, please work with your classmates to form a Senior Design team. They must be formed in the Junior year. Visit the “Senior Design for Juniors” web page for information. Please contact instructor Prof. Nathan Scott at nscott@jhu.edu with questions on how to form a team.
When registering for 530.403 Senior Design, you will notice multiple sections of with an enrollment limit of 8 students in each section. These will be the times for team meetings with your instructors and sponsors. The understanding is that students who intend to be on a Senior Design team together should enroll in the same section. There may be up to two teams (or eight people) signing up for the same section. Contact Prof. Scott with questions on how to register for the appropriate section for your team.
The Johns Hopkins E-Catalog section on Program Requirements describes Course Areas, which categorize undergraduate courses into five main areas:
Courses can have up to two course areas.
If a course carries no course area, then it will not count for the sections of the degree that require a course area.
Math courses must have a Q course area but must be a math course. Courses numbered AS.110.xxx (Mathematics), and EN.550.xxx or EN.553.xxx (Applied Mathematics) will have the “Q” course area. Please ask your faculty advisor about Q courses with any other course number before counting and taking them.
Humanities and Social Sciences courses have to have either H or S as one of the course areas. They could have both (HS) or be paired with another course area (e.g., HN or QS or other combination).
Mechanical Engineering electives must have an E course area and be numbered EN.530.3xx or higher, as well as EN.580.451 and EN.580.452 Cell and Tissue Engineering I / II.
Technical Electives must have either an E, N, or Q course area and must be numbered xx.xxx.3xx or higher (upper-undergraduate level). They, too, could be paired with another qualifying course area (e.g. EN, EQ, NQ) or with another course area (e.g. HN or QS or other combination).
Courses with unusual combinations like HN or QS can count for only one course in your degree program. For example, a course with a QS course area cannot simultaneously count for both a Technical Elective and a Humanities/Social Science elective. It can be counted for one elective or the other, but not both.
All students taking courses with experimental labs must now take 990.100 Laboratory Safety for Undergraduates once before registering for your courses. This two-hour online course should be completed at least 24 hours before your registration period begins so the SIS registration system will acknowledge the course’s completion.
Taking the course just one time will cover all of these courses:
To take the course:
Please note that the course EN.990.100 will NOT be visible on your transcript even after you successfully complete it. It is administratively recorded in SIS, and will be read by SIS when pre-requisite checking your selected courses.
Please read Section 5.3 of the Academic Advising Manual about where Humanities and Social Science courses can be taught. Only one can be taught in the Whiting School, which will have courses numbered EN.xxx.xxx. Some EN.660.xxx and EN.661.xxx courses have an H or S course area, but many don’t. Please confirm your desired course has an H or S course area. Many students have been tripped-up by this requirement. Don’t be one of them!
Visit the Aerospace and Biomechanics Tracks page for track requirements and eligible courses. Note that the names of these were recently changed from “concentration” to “track.” An explanation is on the page, and the same recognition for the achievement of tracks will occur when they were called “concentrations.”
Be sure to confirm that courses from other departments that count are being offered. Not all of them are offered every semester, and occasionally a course is dropped.
Mike will be able to visit with one or two students per day, depending on his schedule, so contact him early!
If you are considering changing or are ready to change majors to Mechanical Engineering or Engineering Mechanics, please contact Mike Bernard to be assigned an advisor.
If you have questions about changing majors but are not quite ready, contact Mike to arrange a meeting to discuss your concerns.
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