Registration is always right around the corner, and before it arrives, it’s best to get prepared. Those of you who have tried to make an appointment with Katie near registration time know that her schedule fills up. She has “walk-in” office hours weeks 9-11, so you will not need an appointment, but you may face some lines. With this post I reach out to you with some advice to ensure that you have a good registration season.
Katie’s walk-in office hours schedule is posted here: blogs.mtu.edu/chem-eng-undergrad/
If you are uncertain what classes you need to take, please take a look at our video on Planning your Schedule.
Planning your schedule begins with the planning handout at this link (http://www.chem.mtu.edu/~fmorriso/advising/2015MoreAdvisingInfoHandout4SemPlanFAM.pdf), which shows a 4-year plan of how the Chemical Engineering curriculum maps out. I have indicated the classes that cause a bottleneck–these are the classes that are only offered one time per year. Up until the spring of junior year you have flexibility in when you can take classes. The three spring junior classes, however, (transport 2, kinetics, controls) are only offered in the spring. The senior chemical engineering classes (unit and plant operations, plant design, safety and the environment) are only offered once per year as well. This means that you need to be ready for those spring junior classes during the spring that you plan to take them.
The pre-requisites for our classes are summarized on this handout: www.mtu.edu/chemical/undergraduate/advising/pdfs/prerequisite-map.pdf
To plan out your schedule you should map out which semester you intend to take the fixed classes (spring junior classes, senior classes) and then back-calculate when you will take the pre-requisites for those courses.
On the planning handout I have also indicated when classes are offered on-line, and I’ve highlighted some General Education (GenEd) rules that you should be mindful of as you plan out your GenEd choices.
Finally, once things get close to graduation, every requirement must be met and this can get confusing sometimes. For checking or auditing your compliance with your degree requirements Michigan Tech uses DARS: Degree Audit Reporting System. Go to your Banweb account, log in, and look for Degree audit. You can run your own degree audit. It takes a minute or two for the computer to slot all your courses into the various bins or “buckets” where they satisfy requirements. When it’s finished, you can take a look. Green is good; red is bad. You will see all kinds of lists and requirements that are checked. It is a computer program and online, so hopefully you can poke around a bit and figure out how it’s working. If you are a transfer student or if you transferred in courses, it is very helpful for sorting out what credits count for what.
Please take a look at your DARS and see how your credits earned are stacking up towards getting your CM degree. If you look over the attached sheet, consult the pre-req map, look at your degree audit, and make use of the handouts for minors and technical electives that are on the Advising web page, you will see that registration is a snap.
Thanks for your patience during registration season. We will endeavor to answer all your questions and hopefully we can find a solution that will lead to a smooth path towards your BS in chemical engineering.
More helpful links:
- Blank semester plan
- Blank time of day
- Schedule of alternate year tech electives
- Undergrad research form
- Trifolds for minors
- Forms for registration stoppers
- Form for changing major, adding minor
best wishes,
Dr. Morrison