Updated March 14, 2024

Advising Week is the time for undergraduate and master’s students to visit their academic advisors to plan and approve classes for the Fall 2024 semester. Also, students can discuss their plans to graduate, career and job questions, graduate school possibilities, study habits, and life, in general.

Note the headers of each section will state if the section applies to Bachelor’s (BS), Master’s (MSE), of both (BS and MSE) types of students.

Please read this entire page and take action!

When Advising Week is in…

  • …October-November – all undergraduate and master’s students.
  • …March-April – all current freshmen, sophomores, juniors, plus only seniors returning for a 9th semester or starting their “5th-year” masters in the fall; as well as all master’s students returning the next fall.

Undergraduate seniors and master’s students who are graduating in spring and not returning in the fall do not have to go to a meeting.

Review your information sources for degree requirements:

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.

The “It’s Academic” sections of the MechE “Info for Undergraduate Students” and the “Academics” section of the MechE “Info for Graduate Students” pages provide quick links to specific academic advising and catalog policies.

Check out the Undergraduate and Graduate Course Schedules.

You can also view all courses in SIS Classes or Courses.JHU.edu

This document describes how to find course locations and delivery methods (in-person, online, or hybrid).

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.

  • Undergrads
    • Either use your checkout sheet, or “4-year” plan that you created with Mike Bernard or your faculty or academic advisor…
    • …or, if you don’t have a checkout sheet established, download checkout sheets from the Academic Advising – Undergraduate page. Please download the correct sheet for your major and class.
  • Master’s Students
    • Use this Checkout Sheet as a course plan. Complete it as much as you can and take it to your advisor meeting.
    • Visit the Academic Advising – Graduate Page the degree requirements. Your academic advisor can help you select appropriate classes based on your academic and research interests.

Do You Need Help with Your Plan?

  • Sophomores / Rising Juniors, Juniors / Rising Seniors, and Master’s Students:  Academic Program Manager Mike Bernard is happy to review your Bachelor’s checkout sheet (4-year plan) or Master’s checkout sheet with you. Please contact him at me-academic@jhu.edu to arrange a meeting.
  • Freshmen / Rising Sophomores: please contact your Whiting School Professional Academic Advisor for help with your course plan. Lead advisor Emily Hinton can help you directly or refer you to your advisor. Contact Emily at ehinton8@jhu.edu.

Attention, freshmen / rising sophomores of the Class of 2027: remember that you will have to attend two meetings.  One will be with your Whiting School academic advisor, who will release one advising hold in SIS. The other will be with your Mechanical Engineering department faculty “mentor,” who will release a second advising hold. Both holds must be released before you can register for courses.


Schedule your Spring 2024 meetings by selecting the link for your advisor:


If your advisor is Prof. Hurley, Prof. Meneveau, Prof. Nguyen, or Prof. Ni…

Your advisor is on sabbatical in Spring 2024.  You will visit another advisor for this semester only.  Please select this link for information on arranging your advisor meeting.


Please contact your faculty advisor or their support staff directly to schedule a meeting:

When to Register

Registration begins at 7:00 a.m. on these dates…

  • Graduate Students and Rising Seniors ’25 – Monday, April 8
  • Rising Juniors ’26 – Wednesday, April 10
  • Rising Sophomores ’27 – Friday, April 12

Registration for BS/MSE

The Registrar will take graduate registration forms from Seniors registering for their master’s fall semester in the spring semester, as you will not yet have SIS access for graduate registration. Your current advisor or Mike Bernard can sign the form for you.


Registration Help

Visit the Registrar’s Student page for info.

On occasion, your academic advisor might approve a course to substitute for required courses in your degree program.

Part of the approval process is to complete the Course Substitution Exception Waiver (SEW) Form. Please use this form if your academic advisor approves substitute courses, as it is required for your graduation.  Note that both the substitution, exception, or waiver along with the academic rationale must be clearly documented on the form.

Bring or send the completed form to Mike Bernard at me-academic@jhu.edu or Microsoft Teams so he can obtain the appropriate Director of Undergraduate/Graduate Studies or Whiting School Academic Advising office signature. This form will be kept in your departmental advising file.

The forms are available on these pages:

If you have not already done so, please work with your classmates now 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 Dr. Rich Bauernschub at rbauern1@jhu.edu with questions on how to form a team.

When registering for EN.530.403 Engineering Design Project I, there will be one section for all students to enroll. Your teams will be administered separately from the course registration.

Elective Definitions
There are specific definitions of Mechanical Engineering, Engineering Science, 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 at me-academic@jhu.edu or Microsoft Teams with your questions on whether a course counts for your degree.

The Johns Hopkins E-Catalog section on Program Requirements describes Course Areas, which categorize undergraduate courses into five main areas:

  • E = Engineering
  • N = Natural Science
  • Q = Quantitative (math and programming)
  • H = Humanities
  • S = Social Sciences

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.

MATHEMATICS

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

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).

ELECTIVES

Mechanical Engineering electives must have an E course area and be numbered EN.530.3xx or higher, or the various courses noted above in the “BS only – OPTIONS for Mechanical Engineering electives” above.

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).

NO DOUBLE-COUNTING IN MULTIPLE SECTIONS OF THE SAME DEGREE

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:

  • 530.115 (Fall) / 530.116 (Spring) MechE Freshman Lab
  • 530.205 Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory
  • 560.211 Statics and Mechanics of Materials Lab
  • 530.212 Mechanical Engineering Dynamics Lab
  • 530.216 Mechanics Based Design Lab
  • 530.232 Thermodynamics Lab
  • 530.243 Electronics and Instrumentation Lab
  • 530.254 Manufacturing Engineering
  • 530.329 Intro to Fluid Mechanics Lab
  • 530.335 Heat Transfer Lab
  • 530.344 Design and Analysis of Dynamic Systems Lab
  • 530.352 Materials Selection
  • 530.403 (Fall) / 530.404 (Spring) Senior Design
  • 530.446 Experimental Biomechanics

To take the course:

  1. Open the myJH Portal
  2. Select the Education sidebar tab
  3. Select the MyLearning option
  4. Enter Laboratory Safety Introductory Course in the search area
  5. Select the course title, then Add to Dev Plan
  6. Click Next, then click Done to begin the course.
  7. If you need help, contact help@jhmi.edu

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 Undergraduate 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 Majors and Tracks page for track requirements and eligible courses.

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.

If you are considering changing or are ready to change majors to Mechanical Engineering or Engineering Mechanics, please contact Mike Bernard at me-academic@jhu.edu or look for Mike on Microsoft Teams 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.

Sophomores / Rising Juniors, Juniors / Rising Seniors, and Master’s Students are welcome to contact Academic Program Manger Mike Bernard at me-academic@jhu.edu or Microsoft Teams to set a time to create a 4-year BS  Course plan or MSE Course Plan or get a checkup on your current one. Meetings can last anywhere from 15-30 minutes.  Mike will be able to visit with one or two students per day, depending on schedules, so contact him early!

Freshmen / Rising Sophomores must contact their Whiting School professional academic advisor for help with course planning.

ACADEMIC STAFF – OPEN OFFICE HOURS

Mike Bernard is available to answer questions and help with course planning from October 30-November 4 and November 6-10 from 1:00-4:30 p.m.:

  • Thursdays in-person in Latrobe 117, the temporary MechE Administrative office. Note that Mike advises some students directly and they will be meeting with him during that time.  You might have to wait a few minutes if you’re walking in on someone’s scheduled meeting.
  • Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are by Zoom at https://wse.zoom.us/s/9935119873