View college requirements for Agricultural and Environmental Sciences or Letters and Science.
Jump to list and general description of majors and minors offered in the College of Engineering.
Each candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Engineering must satisfactorily complete an approved curriculum in engineering. Each curriculum consists of a specified Lower Division Program (or an approved equivalent program for students who transfer into the College with 90 or more quarter units) and a specified Upper Division Program. No unit of coursework you complete may be used to satisfy two different degree requirements (except where the catalog specifically states otherwise). Detailed requirements for the approved curricula are given in the "Programs and Courses" section of this catalog; to see the courses required in your major, consult this section.
The minimum number of required units in the combined Lower and Upper Division Programs varies, with the curriculum, from 180 to 195. You are responsible for planning your program and satisfactorily completing all degree requirements.
You may, for good cause, request a modification of particular degree requirements by submitting a student petition. These petitions, which are available in the Undergraduate Office, can be a valuable aid in resolving individual program conflicts or other special problems. Such petitions are subject to approval by the Student Petitions Committee, a body of six professors and six (non-voting) students. A negative decision by the committee may be appealed to the College faculty for action at a regular meeting.
Transfer students. To be eligible for transfer, you must have at least 90 transferrable quarter units. You will be classified as having upper division status, but you will be required to complete the lower division requirements for your major before your lower division is considered complete. You may, however, start your upper division program while completing your lower division requirements provided you meet all prerequisites for the upper division courses.
All engineering majors are impacted. For your application for transfer to be considered, you need to have completed a substantial number of your lower division requirements.
For more specific advice on your requirements, see the transfer counselor at your institution, consult Project Assist (available at community college transfer centers), or consult with advisers in the Engineering dean's office.
| Subject Areas | Minimum Quarter Units |
| Mathematics (calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, vector analysis) | 22 |
| Physical and biological sciences (typically, at least 10 units must be in general chemistry and at least 12 units in physics courses designed for engineering and physical science students) | 22-26 |
| Engineering (lower division subjects such as graphics, properties of materials, surveying, computer programming, statics and circuit theory. These courses must include statics, circuits and FORTRAN for all but Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science majors, who must take C and C++ programming. Students majoring in Mechanical, Aeronautical, Materials Science, Civil, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or Computer Science may have additional course requirements specific to their respective majors. Because of additional lower division chemistry requirements, Chemical Engineering majors may elect to take only 10 units—FORTRAN, circuit theory and statics—of engineering in their lower division programs) | 15-26 |
| Written expression (two courses in University level English composition) | 8 |
| Humanities-Social Sciences (courses that are similar to courses acceptable for General Education credit for Engineering students) | 5-12 |
| Additional subjects (Chemical Engineering majors should cover quantitative analysis and one course in organic chemistry with a laboratory component during their sophomore year) | 7-8 |
| Total | 90 |
Once you have completed the Lower Division Program and fulfilled these specified subject area requirements, you need not take additional lower division courses, except those that are prerequisite to upper division courses in your curriculum. For additional information on core prerequisite courses, please contact your department or college adviser.
Credit in University Extension Courses. Appropriate courses taken through University Extension may be used for degree credit; however, you may use a maximum of 16 units of courses taken through University Extension for degree credit. Simultaneous registration in resident courses and Extension courses requires prior approval by the College's Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies. Such approval will be given only for a limited number of credits. No grade points are assigned for courses completed in University Extension.
In addition to fulfilling the university residence requirement, you must complete at least 35 of the final 45 units characteristic of your curriculum in engineering while registered in the College.
In addition to meeting the university scholarship requirement, you are required to maintain a 2.0 grade point average for all course work within Engineering.
After completing 70 quarter units, you may elect to satisfy the upper division English Composition requirement by passing the English Composition Examination administered by the College of Letters and Science. (You should take it early in your junior year and must take it before your last quarter. Units of credit are not given for passing this examination.)
Or, upon completion of 90 quarter units, you may satisfy this requirement by completing English 101, 102, 104A, or 104E with a grade of C- or higher.
This requirement is in addition to the expository writing course requirement (English 1 or 3; Comparative Literature 1, 2, 3 or 4; or Native American Studies 5) specified in the Lower Division Programs.
During the 1999-2000 academic year, the English Composition Examination will be offered on the following three Saturdays: October 23, 1999; January 29, 2000; and April 29, 2000. Sign-up rosters will be posted on the bulletin board near the main English Department office (176 Voorhies), Monday until Friday at noon (or until they are filled) just preceding each Saturday examination date. You must sign up, in person, by noon on Friday. You must obtain the English Composition Examination form, available at the UCD Bookstore, to take the exam.
Engineering design is the process of devising a system, component, or process to meet certain needs. Design involves a decision-making process (often iterative), in which the basic sciences, mathematics and engineering sciences are applied to convert resources optimally to meet a stated objective. Among the fundamental elements of the design process are the establishment of objectives and criteria, synthesis, analysis, construction, testing and evaluation. You must take at least 24 quarter units of such design course work through a combination of required and restricted elective courses. Specific comments about design are included in individual
curricula descriptions. You should also review the design content of your individual program with your adviser in the course of completing the upper division advising worksheet.
In general, there are three kinds of elective courses in the engineering curricula: General Education, technical and unrestricted. Transfer students have an additional set of electives: Physical and Biological Sciences electives or Mathematics/Science electives.
General Education electives. Because, as an engineer, you will be a significant participant in the human setting, you will need to have a breadth of education that will allow you to deal with contemporary social issues and to understand the imapact of engineering solutions on the global and societal context. To these ends, youwill need to take a minimum of 24 units (33 units for Computer Science Engineering majors) of General Education electives.
Since all engineering majors are in the Science and Engineering topical breadth area, you will fulfill the campus GE requirement by taking courses in the Arts and Humanities and the Social Sciences areas.
In satisfying the GE requirement, note that (a) you must take GE courses for a letter grade, and (b) you must satisfy the Subject A requirement before you can receive GE writing experience credit for any course. In consultation with your academic adviser, you should attempt to design a coherent approach to contemporary issues by using your GE electives.
The list of the Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences electives appears earlier in this chapter. Note that you may not take the following courses for GE credit if you are a College of Engineering student:
Agricultural Education 100, 160, 172
Animal Science 141, 148
Applied Science 137
Civil and Environmental Engineering 165
Engineering 160
Fiber and Polymer Science 110
Food Science and Technology 2
Geology 115N
Physics 137, 160
Plant Biology 141
Political Science 192A
Statistics 10
Viticulture and Enology 3
Technical electives permit you to tailor a program to your own academic and career objectives. For some, the technical electives offer the opportunity to prepare for a specific occupation. For others, they offer an opportunity to broaden a background in the sciences and engineering.
You may receive technical elective credit to a maximum of 6 units for any combination of engineering courses numbered 190C, 192, 197, 198 and 199, unless further restrictions are imposed on your major. Academic credit for 199 courses is limited to a maximum of 5 units per quarter for each substantially different project. Academic credit for engineering internship courses (192s) is also limited to a maximum of 5 units per quarter.
With the exception of the following courses, all upper division courses in engineering, physics, chemistry, mathematics and statistics may be taken as technical electives. The courses which may not be used are:
In addition to upper division engineering, physics, chemistry, mathematics and statistics courses, the following courses may be taken as technical electives:
You are urged to discuss the selection of technical elective courses with your academic adviser.
Unrestricted electives. You may count any course for which university credit is allowed as an unrestricted elective in the engineering curricula.
Physical and Biological Science electives. Engineering students are required to have 26 units in physical and biological sciences, typically 10 units of chemistry and 16 units of physics. If you transfer into the College of Engineering with advanced standing, you are required to complete 26 units of physical and biological science by graduation, but you need to have completed only 5-10 units of chemistry (depending on major) and 12 units of physics by the time you transfer. You may make up the remaining 4 units by taking 4 additional units of chemistry, 4 additional units of physics, or 4 units in courses selected from any of the curricula listed below, with the restrictions that follow.
All courses in these departments numbered 10 and 190199 are excluded for credit, as are the following courses:
Use the Degree Requirement Check sheets for each of the curricula for monitoring your progress toward a degree. The Undergraduate Office will prepare only one unofficial preliminary degree check for you (preferably at the end of your junior year). You should also request a follow-up degree check during the quarter before you plan to graduate. To have this degree check prepared, submit a signed Degree Check Request and request an appointment. You can get further information concerning these services and the forms for requesting a degree check or an exit interview in the Undergraduate Advising Office.
Since engineering is a rapidly developing profession, curricular changes are made by the faculty from year to year. To ensure that you benefit from these changes, the College of Engineering has established a policy that you must fulfill the degree requirements stated in the catalog for the year in which you complete degree work or in the catalog for the year immediately preceding.
UC Davis 1999-2000 Online General Catalog. Posted July 30, 1999.
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Molly Theodossy, Keitha Hunter and Barbara Anderson, Editors
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