Undergraduate Academic Advising
UIC Engineering's Academic Resource Center provides academic advising and support for undergraduate students. We are located on the first floor of SEO toward the end of the south hallway. Undergraduate students are encouraged to make an appointment with the ARC staff whenever a check-in would be beneficial, but there are a few times during your UIC career when a visit to the ARC is required. See below for more information.
Contacts
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Email
Reach the undergraduate office and ARC team at uic-engr@uic.edu.
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Visit
We are located on the first floor of SEO. The main undergraduate office is in Room 123.
Important Advising Information
Faculty advising for the next term.
All engineering students must meet with their faculty advisor prior to registering for the next term. To ensure that these advising meetings take place, an “advising hold” is placed on each student’s record, and it will not be lifted to allow registration until the student and advisor have spoken. Faculty advising week is generally the 10th week of the current term and information regarding Faculty advising week is sent out in the weeks coming up to Faculty advising week.
Students should follow the instructions set forth by the department in which they are majoring to make an appointment with their advisor. Undeclared majors whose last names begin with A through E should make an appointment with Elena Diaz at ddiaz2@uic.edu. Undeclared majors whose last names begin with F through L should make an appointment with Patrick Eubanks at peubanks@uic.edu. Undeclared majors whose last names begin with M through Q should make an appointment with James Fricke-Waters at jfwaters@uic.edu. Undeclared majors whose last names begin with R through Z should make an appointment with Letreurna Owens at lowens2@uic.edu.
Appointments typically are made during the ninth week of the current term, and the advising meetings themselves take place during the 10th week. Failure to see an advisor during this time may result in a delay in registration.
Information on other key advising topics can be found in the sections below.
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my.UIC.edu is a comprehensive resource for current students. It is a portal that gives you access to registration-related, financial, academic, and personal information. Use this portal to obtain class schedule and registration information and to log in to Blackboard and other university systems.
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iAdvise is UIC’s integrated planning and advising system. It facilitates communication among advisors, integrates student success information, and incorporates Early Alerts to enhance advising and student success.
Powered by Starfish, iAdvise will enhance the opportunity for advisors, faculty, student resources providers, and students to work together for success. Students, staff, and faculty can access iAdvise through the my.uic.edu portal.
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uAchieve is a UIC system that provides a degree audit report. This is an unofficial audit of your progress toward your degree that reflects courses completed and currently in progress.
Viewing your uAchieve report in advance of your advising meeting—and bringing a copy with you—will make advising more productive. The uAchieve report can give your advisor a more complete picture of your accomplishments so far at UIC so that they can provide guidance on what lies ahead.
You can access your report via the my.uic.edu portal.
If you have questions about what is on your uAchieve report or feel that it is inaccurate, please email one of the Academic Resource Center staff (see directory on this page) so that they can review it and make any necessary changes. If you contact one of the counselors by email, please provide your UIN and be as specific as possible about what you believe is wrong with the report so that we can better understand the problem and get back to you in a timely manner.
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Students who plan to take PHYS 141 should be aware of the prerequisite and/or placement test requirement.
The prerequisite to take PHYS 141 is a grade of C or better in MATH 180 or concurrent registration in this course and a grade of C or better in PHYS 100 or adequate performance on the physics placement test.
The physics placement test assesses your capabilities in high school algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and word problems that require quantitative reasoning. No specific background in physics is required. Information about continuing student placement test reservations can be found on the UIC testing services website.
Add/drop deadlines
Adding a course
Continuing students register for the next term during the early enrollment period. If you want to add a course to your schedule before the term begins, you may do so on a space-available basis until the Friday before the term begins. After the term has begun, adding a course is subject to these deadlines:
- Fall semester: Friday of week 2
- Spring semester: Friday of week 2
- Summer session: Friday of week 1
Beginning with the Monday of the second week of the fall and spring semesters, students may only add a course with the approval of the instructor. Beginning with the Monday of the second week of the summer session, students may not add a course at all.
Exceptions to these deadlines are sometimes possible, but the request must be presented with written approval from the instructor to the College of Engineering undergraduate office, which will make the final decision. The undergraduate office may elect to deny the request even if the instructor has expressed support.
In general, adding a course after the term begins is not recommended. You will have missed several days of instruction, you may not have the syllabus, you may have missed an initial assignment or quiz. Some students seek to add a course after the start of the term because it may seem to be the only way to get into courses that are in high demand, but it still may not be in your best interest.
Dropping a course
Continuing students register for the next term during the early enrollment period. If you want to drop a course from your schedule before the term begins, you may do so up until the Friday before the term begins. After the term has begun, you may still be able to drop a course by following these deadlines:
- Fall semester deadline: Friday of week 2
- Spring semester deadline: Friday of week 2
- Summer session deadline: Friday of week 1
Students who drop a course before the deadlines listed above will not have the course reflected in their record and will not receive a grade for the course. Students who drop a course after these periods receive a grade of W in the course in their record, but grades of W are not included in the calculation of a student’s grade point average.
Exceptions to the add and drop deadlines
As noted above, engineering students may drop a class through the Friday of the second week of the fall and spring semesters and through the Friday of the first week of the summer session without any penalty. In addition, all undergraduate students receive four opportunities over the course of their entire UIC enrollment to drop a course without penalty between the third and 10th weeks of the fall and spring semesters or between the second and fifth weeks of the summer session. These four “late drops” will be approved, regardless of the circumstances, provided that the student submits a Late Drop Petition Form to the COE front office (123 SEO) within the designated period and that the student has not exceeded the four-opportunity limit.
Requests to drop a course after the 10th week of the fall and spring semesters (or after the fifth week of the summer session) and requests to exceed the limit of four late drops are not routinely granted unless there are documented exceptional circumstances outside of the student’s control. Such requests require a written petition and are reviewed by the dean. Poor performance in a course is not a sufficient reason to justify approval of a request. Because of the limitations on dropping classes, students are advised to evaluate their academic standing in the course with the instructor before requesting to exercise one of the four allowable late drops.
Withdrawing from UIC
A university withdrawal is a process by which all courses for the term are dropped and an entry of W is made for each course on the transcript. You may withdraw from the university at any time from the first day of instruction through the last day of instruction in each term, conditional on not having earned a final grade in any course. After the 15th week of the semester (or after the seventh week in the summer session), the college requires verification that the conditions for withdrawal have been met. Students contemplating a university withdrawal are advised to meet with an academic advisor.
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The current policy for repeating courses depends on when you were admitted to UIC Engineering.
Students admitted for fall 2017 going forward are bound by the university’s repeat policy for standard graded courses.
Students admitted for summer 2017 or earlier are governed by the following policy: For classes taken at UIC from fall 2009 forward, you can petition for a Grade Point Average recalculation for up to four total courses during your studies at UIC. You must declare your intent to have this recalculation by the end of the second week of classes in the fall or spring semester, or by the end of the first week of classes in the summer session. Petition forms for this purpose will be available on the student resources page during the times of year when they can be filed. More information on this policy is available on the UIC registrar’s website.
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Certain courses in the College of Engineering may be taken “credit/no credit.” Through this option, a student may be allowed to complete a limited number of courses with a grade of credit (CR) or no credit (NC) instead of a letter grade.
Important: courses below the 200 level, required courses, and essential prerequisite courses cannot be taken as credit/no credit. In addition, certain courses cannot be taken credit/no credit due to the policies of the departments that offer them.
For detailed information on the credit/no credit option, please inquire in the College of Engineering undergraduate office, 123 SEO. Students also should check with the department that offers the course they want to take credit/no credit to make sure that it is eligible under this policy. Please verify with the department before you visit the undergraduate office.
In addition, make sure you check your record for any holds that may prevent you from registering. You can find this information on the my.uic.edu portal. Remember that all engineering students will have an advising hold placed on their record in each spring semester until they speak with their advisor.
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As a student, you are responsible for knowing and adhering to all university and College of Engineering policies, deadlines, and procedures. Avoid potential enrollment and registration problems by carefully reading university and college rules and regulations regarding registration and add/drop of courses.
You can receive credit only for those courses for which you are properly registered. Likewise, you assume academic and financial responsibility for any course for which you register unless you officially cancel or withdraw your registration according to the deadlines that are published by the university.
As a precaution, you should verify your schedule at three key points: prior to the first day of classes, before the add/drop deadline (the end of the second week of classes), and prior to the late-drop deadline (the end of the 10th week of classes).
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The schedule of classes is published by the university. You can access the schedule search portal.
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During the semester before you intend to graduate, you should request a graduation check by submitting a graduation check form. This will give you time to address any issues with degree requirements. We also suggest you view your Degree Audit Report on the my.uic.edu portal.
To declare your intent to graduate, you will need to submit an Intent to Graduate form online at my.uic.edu.
The submission deadline for the Intent to Graduate form is the Friday of the third week of the fall and spring semesters or the second week of the summer session.