Department Policies

All departmental policies are strictly enforced, with some exceptions. To be granted an exception, students must have a petition approved by our Academic Standards Committee by filling out the Petition for Exception to Policy Form. If you have any questions about these policies please connect with your Academic Advisor to discuss them.

Academic Misconduct
Academic Standards
Course Repeats
Full Major Status
Minimum Grade
Prerequisites
Program GPA Requirements
Required Advising
Upper-division Transfer Course Policy

Academic Misconduct

Read the full ME Academic Misconduct Policy (.pdf) and the general Academic Misconduct Definition for Department (.pdf) for the Department that apply unless your instructor has provided course specific instructions.

Definition of Academic Misconduct

Per the University’s Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities: “Academic misconduct” includes, but is not limited to, cheating, misrepresenting one’s work, inappropriately collaborating, plagiarism, and fabrication or falsification of information (see https://regulations.utah.edu/academics/6-400.php for more details). It also includes facilitating academic misconduct by intentionally helping or attempting to help another to commit an act of academic misconduct.”

A primary example of academic misconduct would be submitting work that is copied from another student or an outside source as one’s own work. Other examples include showing your work to another student struggling with an assignment or posting solutions or exams to websites. See the documents above for more details.

ME EN course instructors have the right to define what constitutes academic misconduct for their specific class. Such definitions should be provided in the course syllabus or as an attachment provided with the syllabus. If a student has questions about the course definitions, they should seek clarification from the instructor. The departmental definitions of academic misconduct will apply by default and should be referenced if the instructor does not provide course-specific definitions.

Academic Standards

Good Standing

In order to remain in the status of Good Academic Standing in the Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Program, you are required to maintain a cumulative GPA of 2.5 or higher. If your cumulative GPA falls below 2.5, you will be subject to the status changes described below (Departmental Academic Warning, Probation, Suspension, or Dismissal).

Departmental Academic Warning

You will be placed on Departmental Academic Warning if your cumulative GPA falls below 2.5 from Good Standing for the first time.

Advising requirements: Each semester on Departmental Academic Warning, you must:

Meet with your Academic Advisor during the first month of the semester to create an Academic Success Plan
Update your academic advisor on your progress towards achieving your Academic Success Plan before the withdraw deadline

Enroll in either ME EN 1800 or 2800 (consult with your advisor)

Continued Departmental Academic Warning: You may remain on Departmental Academic Warning while improving your cumulative GPA as long as you earn semester GPAs of 2.5 or above and complete the Departmental Academic Warning advising requirement. Otherwise, you will be placed on Departmental Academic Probation.

Departmental Academic Probation

You will be placed on Departmental Academic Probation if:

At the end of a Departmental Academic Warning semester, your cumulative GPA and semester GPA are below 2.5 or you did not complete the Departmental Academic Warning advising requirement
Your cumulative GPA falls below 2.5 from Good Standing for a second time

Advising requirements: Each semester on Departmental Academic Probation, you must:

Meet with your Academic Advisor during the first two weeks of the semester to create an Academic Success Plan
Update your academic advisor on your progress towards achieving your Academic Success Plan before the withdraw deadline

Enroll in either ME EN 1800 or 2800 (consult with your advisor)

Continued Departmental Academic Probation: You may remain on Departmental Academic Probation while improving your cumulative GPA as long as you earn a semester GPA of 2.5 or above and complete the Academic Probation advising requirements. Otherwise, you will be subject to Departmental Academic Suspension.

Departmental Academic Suspension

You will be subject to Departmental Academic Suspension if:

At the end of a Departmental Academic Probation semester, your cumulative GPA and semester GPA are below 2.5 or you did not complete the Departmental Academic Probation advising requirements
Your cumulative GPA falls below 2.5 from Good Standing for a third time

As a result of Departmental Academic Suspension from the Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Program, your CIS status will be changed to Intermediate Mechanical Engineering, which will prevent you from enrolling in ME EN courses without special permission.

Advising requirements: Each semester on Departmental Academic Suspension, you must:

Meet with your Academic Advisor before the first day of class to create a course schedule and an Academic Success Plan, both of which must be approved by the ME Academic Standards Committee. Note that you may enroll in ME EN courses only with permission, and your credit load may be limited.
Meet with the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the second month of the semester to report on your progress towards achieving your Academic Success Plan and academic goals.
Meet with your academic advisor monthly to report on your progress towards achieving your Academic Success Plan and academic goals or enroll in either ME EN 1800 or 2800 (consult with your advisor).

Academic requirements: Your Academic Success Plan will include academic requirements that must be satisfied in order to continue in the program. Such requirements could include but are not limited to semester GPA, cumulative GPA, Full Major Status GPA, and course grade(s).

Continued Academic Suspension: You may remain on Academic Suspension while improving your cumulative GPA as long as you earn a semester GPA of 2.5 or above, complete the Academic Suspension advising requirements, and satisfy your Academic Suspension academic requirements. Otherwise, you will be subject to Departmental Academic Dismissal.

Departmental Academic Dismissal

You will be subject to Academic Dismissal from the Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Program if:

At the end of an Academic Suspension semester, your cumulative GPA and semester GPA are below 2.5 or you did not complete the Academic Suspension advising requirements or you did not satisfy your Academic Suspension academic requirements
Your cumulative GPA falls below 2.5 from good standing for a fourth time

As a result of Departmental Academic Dismissal from the Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Program, your CIS status will remain as Pre-Mechanical Engineering and you will not be permitted to enroll in ME EN courses unless you are readmitted.

Readmission Process: If you wish to return to the Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Program after being dismissed, you must:

Wait for a dismissal period of at least one full academic year.
Meet with the ME Academic Advisors to develop a plan for readmission. Your initial meeting must take place at least one full semester before your desired return semester.
Receive permission from an ME Academic Advisor or the Director of Undergraduate Studies to apply for readmission.
Complete the online admissions application.
Meet the current admissions standards.

Course Repeats

As a Mechanical Engineering student, you have two attempts to pass (C or higher) each course required for the major. This includes all math, science, and engineering courses.
If you need an additional attempt to pass a course:
- You must have a petition approved by the departmental Academic Standards Committee to count that attempt toward graduation requirements.
- Your major status will be changed to Intermediate Mechanical Engineering until a petition is submitted and approved. With Intermediate status, you will not be able to add any ME EN courses to your class schedule.
To submit a petition go to this website. Please consult with your academic advisor if you have any questions prior to submitting your petition.
Your petition will have one of the following outcomes:
- Approved: You can count an additional attempt of the course toward graduation requirements.
- Approved with conditions: You can count an additional attempt of the course toward graduation requirements as long as you satisfy the conditions of the approval. For example, your enrollment may be limited to a certain number of technical or total courses/credits, or you may be required to enroll in an Academic Skills or Academic Success course. If you do not satisfy these conditions, you will be dismissed from the Mechanical Engineering undergraduate program (major status changed to Pre-Mechanical Engineering) and will need to follow readmission guidelines in order to continue in the program.
- Denied: You are dismissed from the Mechanical Engineering undergraduate program (major status changed to Pre-Mechanical Engineering). You should consult with an academic advisor about next steps.
If you do not submit a petition for an additional attempt of an ME EN course:
- During the first week of the semester, you will be dropped from that course and all ME EN courses that require that course as a prerequisite or co-requisite
- You will be unable to add any ME EN courses to your class schedule because you will have Intermediate Mechanical Engineering status
- You should talk to your academic advisor about staying enrolled in other ME EN, math, science, and engineering courses. You would be taking these at your own risk since they may not be useful if you are dismissed from the Mechanical Engineering undergraduate program because an eventual petition is not approved.
If you do not submit a petition for an additional attempt of a math, science, or other engineering course that is required for the major:
- You will be unable to add any ME EN courses to your class schedule because you will have Intermediate Mechanical Engineering status
- You should talk to your academic advisor about staying enrolled in ME EN, math, science, and engineering courses. You would be taking these at your own risk since they may not be useful if you are dismissed from the Mechanical Engineering undergraduate program because an eventual petition is not approved.
If you do not pass a class on the granted additional attempt, you may go through the petition process again. However, the departmental Academic Standards Committee would be significantly less likely to approve a subsequent petition for the same course.

Full Major Status

Students must be accepted to Full Major Status in order to take any ME EN course except ME EN 1000. For information on how to receive or apply for Full Major Status consult the Future Students page for either First Year students or Transfer Students.

Minimum Grade

Students must pass all technical coursework (engineering, math, and science courses) with a grade of ‘C’ or higher. Students with a catalog year of 2015-16 or earlier may pass their technical coursework with a grade of ‘C-‘ or higher. See your degree audit for your declared major if you are unsure of your catalog year. (Spring & Summer 2020 are exceptions to this policy, the department will accept CR and C- grades from those semesters only,)

Prerequisites

Beginning Spring 2022 the Mechanical Engineering program requires a C or better in all prerequisite classes (previously it was a C-) and prerequisites are strictly enforced.

Students will be permitted to enroll in a follow-on course with a C- grade if they are repeating the prerequisite course at the same time. A permission code must be requested after enrolling in the prerequisite course.

Program GPA Requirements

A minimum of a 2.500 cumulative U of U GPA is required to be in Good Academic Standing in the program.
A minimum of a 2.300 cumulative GPA is required in the Upper Division Core courses at the time of graduation.

Required Advising

Undergraduate students are required to meet with an Academic Advisor for the following touch points. To schedule a meeting with your Undergraduate Advisor or learn more about the Mechanical Engineering Advising Team click here.

Orientation
Mandatory First Year or Transfer Advising (during your first semester at the U)
Mandatory Second Year Advising (before completing 60 credits)
For any required Academic Standards or petition decision appointment (notified through Umail)

Upper-division Transfer Course Policy

Generally, required upper division ME courses (e.g. ME EN 3xxx level and ME EN 4xxx level) and technical electives must be taken at the University of Utah to earn a Bachelor’s degree or BS/MS degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Utah. Some courses must be taken at the University of Utah. Any requests to consider classes as substitutes for these courses will automatically be rejected. Courses that cannot be transferred include Engineering Design I and II (e.g. ME EN 4000 and 4010, respectively).

Exceptions:
Up to two (2) Approved Upper Division Courses can be transferred to the University of Utah and used in place of Required Core Upper Division ME EN Courses.
Up to one (1) Approved Technical Elective Course can be transferred to the University of Utah and used in place of an Approved ME Technical Elective.

Requirements:
No more than two courses in total (core courses + tech elective) can be transferred.
Any course being transferred must be approved via the Course Articulation Form.
Students must earn the required department minimum passing grade (currently a C) in any course for those credits to be transferred.