As an undergraduate in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) there are lots of resources available to you. The following links give you very important information regarding your undergraduate student career at WSU. If at any time you have questions or problems, do not hesitate to contact an EECS undergraduate advisor:

Patricia Arnold
335-2446
patricia AT eecs.wsu.edu

Advising

You must consult with your EECS academic advisor prior to registering for classes each semester. You won't be able to register for classes until the advising hold is removed from your account by your advisor. EECS generally begins advising two to three weeks prior to the beginning of registration each semester (consult the academic calendar to see when registration opens.) Each semester you will be notified regarding your actual priority registration time and date by the Student Advising and Learning Center (SALC) through a notice sent to your my.wsu.edu account. This is the date and time that you are eligible to register for classes, not an appointment time to see your advisor. Priority registration means that seniors register ahead of juniors, who register ahead of sophomores, and so on.

You will need to go to your advisor's office to sign up for an advising appointment. DO NOT LEAVE THIS UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE. We are advising 400+ students in a short time frame and advising appointment calendars fill very fast. If you do not get your advising done early, you may not get the classes that you need.

Advising instructions:

1) Show up for your appointment and be on time! If you miss an advising appointment you will not be permitted to schedule another appointment until one week after your missed appointment.

2) Look at the schedule of classes for your degree program and plan your next semester prior to your advising appointment.

3) Look at your Degree Audit Report and make sure that it accurately reflects all of the courses that you've taken and are currently enrolled in.

4) Make sure you have the prerequisites for any courses you are planning to take.

E-mail advising

Certified students (juniors and seniors) may do their advising via email with the following conditions:

1) Your picture is in your file. Students need to have a picture taken when they certify. This is a requirement for your file, it is optional for the certified student picture board in the hallway of EME.

2) Your advising is straightforward. Long email discussions take too much time, it is a much better use of time to come in for an appointment.

To advise through email, you need to send an email to Patricia Arnold (patricia AT eecs.wsu.edu) with the following information:

1) Your name

2) Your WSU ID number

3) Your anticipated graduation date

4) The classes you intend to take. You must check prerequisites and class availability before you send your email.

5) Brief questions.

You need to allow up to two weeks for a response. Email advising is not faster, it's just more convenient. Do NOT send reminder emails!!

Faculty Advisor

Your interactions with faculty outside of class are an extremely valuable and important part of your education. All faculty members have posted office hours and you are strongly encouraged to take advantage of this time that's made available to students. Because we feel this is a very important aspect of your education, you will be assigned a faculty advisor when you apply for certification. At least two meetings with your faculty advisor are required, however, you are welcome to contact them at any time. Discussions with your faculty advisor can include such things as career goals, determination of appropriate technical electives, internship and research opportunities, and attending graduate school.

Grades

The EECS department policy is: "All listed EE and CptS courses, required electives, and pre-requisites to these courses must be completed with a C or better." There are no exceptions to this. If you earn a 'C-' grade or lower you need to repeat the class. This policy applies to transfer courses as well as course taken at WSU.

Important: WSU policy states that you may repeat a class with a 'C-' or lower grade only one time during a spring or fall semester. You can repeat a class in summer session (if it is offered) as many times as you'd like, or you can take it at another school and transfer it back. In other words, if you take a class in a fall semester and earn less than 'C', you can repeat it at WSU the following spring semester. You can also repeat it at WSU the following summer. If after this you have not achieved a 'C' or higher, you may not repeat it again at WSU until the next summer

Certification

Certification is the process by which you are formally accepted into the EECS department. You must be certified to take any upper-level (300- or 400-level) EECS classes. You must be certified to graduate. This is not just a formality! A certification committee consisting of three or more faculty members considers each application and makes decisions regarding certification.

The minimum courses required for certification are:

BA CptS: CptS 121, 122, 223; Math 201 (or 171), 202 (or 172), 216; Phil 201.

BS CptS: CptS 121, 122, 223, 260; Math 171, 172, 216; Phil 201; Phys 201.

BS CptE: Chem 105; CptS 121, 122; EE 214; Math 171, 172, 216; Phys 201, 202.

BS EE: Chem 105; CptS 251; EE 214,221; Engl 101; Math 171, 172, 273; Phys 201, 202.

If you have completed all minimum classes listed above, and you have earned at least a 'C' grade in ALL of your classes, you will be certified provided there is room in the degree program, and there aren't any other issues with your progress in the department (academic integrity issues, too many repeated classes, etc.) We are limited in the number of students we can certify into each degree program. While this is not currently an issue, it could be when enrollments numbers are high. The higher your grades, the more likely it is that you will be certified if enrollment numbers are high when you apply for certification.

If you have lower than a 'C' grade in any class, it is likely that you will not be certified. Some exceptions are made for less than 'C' grades in General Education Requirement (GER) classes, however, this is done on an individual basis by the committee and you should not count on it.

If you are not certified and your class schedule needs to include 300-level coursework, you can apply for an exception to take the upper-level course(es) you need. Exception forms are available from your advisor. This exception, if granted, is a ONE TIME ONLY exception. If you receive any grade lower than a 'C' while taking classes under this exception, you will not be permitted to continue to take upper-level classes without being certified. Specifically, this means that if you have an exception to take 300-level classes while competing one course remaining in the list of courses required for certification, and you receive lower than a 'C' in ANY course you are taking, you will not be allowed to take any more upper level courses in EECS. You will only be allowed to take the EECS course in which you received the low grade.

Degree Audit Reports

Your Degree Audit Report (DARS) is an on-line listing of all the classes you need to take to earn your degree and is available to you at all times through my.wsu.edu. It shows the courses you've completed and the courses that are in progress. It is absolutely imperative that you become familiar with and understand your degree audit, and that it is accurate, because the degree audit is used by your advisor for advising and by the Graduations Office for graduation clearance. If any items on your degree audit are not completed, you do not graduate. Your very best bet is to check your degree audit each semester to be sure that the classes you are taking are where they belong on the degree audit. Use it to plan your advising sessions. Any questions - ask your advisor sooner rather than later!!

My.wsu.edu

My.wsu.edu (http://my.wsu.edu) is your portal into all online student activity, everything from registration to degree audit reports to student accounts. The Student Advising and Learning Center (SALC) sends ALL official student notifications through my.wsu notices, which is another feature of the portal. Other campus offices will be adopting this, so at some point in the future this will be the only place you will receive official University notifications and letters. Use this portal for all of your online University business!