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Being registered with the university and the College of Engineering and completing course enrollment are two different things. To be registered with both the university and the College of Engineering, new students must have
- obtained their ID card,
- paid their bursar bill,
- submitted all required health forms to Gannett Health Center, and
- attended a first year or transfer briefing.
Students who have not followed this procedure must register with both the university registrar (B7 Day Hall) and the engineering registrar (158 Olin Hall) and then meet with an advisor in Engineering Advising (167 Olin Hall) to receive and discuss course registration materials.
Continuing students are automatically registered after the due date of the tuition, provided the above criteria have been met and the student has no academic or judicial encumbrances preventing registration. Just the Facts, a student service on Bear Access, will provide students with information regarding their registration status at the beginning of each semester.
Early in the semester, students can use Cornell’s electronic add/drop system on "Just the Facts" to make most of their course enrollment changes. Some "permission only" courses may require that students complete and submit an add/drop form, which can be obtained by visiting the Engineering Registrar’s office, 158 Olin Hall.
To complete the add/drop form, students need to provide the following information:
- Social Security number, semester and year of study (e.g., FA ’00, SP ’01), and full name.
- The six-digit course identification number (CID), the department/ course name, and the number of credit hours for the course a student wishes to change. (This information can be found either online through Bear Access or in the Course and Room Roster, copies of which are available in the Engineering Registrar’s office.)
- Approval from the department offering the course. Because each department keeps a running tally of the numbers of students enrolled in each lecture, section, or lab, students must receive departmental approval before making formal changes to their schedule. (The location of departmental offices can be found in the campus directory or Courses of Study.)
- The signature of the student’s advisor. This indicates approval of the proposed schedule changes. The advisor’s signature is not necessary for changes in lectures, sections, or labs within the same course.
- Sign and date the form.
After the add/drop form is completed, the student should deliver it in person to the Engineering Registrar’s office in 158 Olin Hall. There, a staff member will process the changes and return one copy of the form to the student. It is very important that the student keep this record of the change and check their schedule periodically on Bear Access during the semester for accuracy.
During weeks one to three of the semester, students may add courses to their schedule anytime before the end of the third week of classes, using Cornell’s elec¬tronic add/drop system or an add/drop form mentioned in the previous section for "permission only" courses.
After week three (after the end of the third week of classes), a petition (avail-able in the Engineering Registrar’s office, 158 Olin Hall) will be required in addition to the add/drop form to add a course. Like the add/drop form, the petition must be endorsed by the student’s advisor. The completed petition and add/drop form should be submitted to Engineering Advising, 167 Olin Hall.
Students may drop courses from their schedule anytime before the end of the seventh week of classes, using Cornell’s electronic add/drop system or an add/drop form mentioned earlier for "permission only" courses.
During weeks 8 to 12 (after the end of the seventh week of classes and before the end of the twelfth week), a petition (available in the Engineering Registrar’s office, 158 Olin Hall) will be required in addition to the add/drop form to drop a course. Like the add/drop form, the petition must be endorsed by the student’s academic advisor. The completed petition and add/drop form should be submitted to Engineering Advising, 167 Olin Hall.
Courses dropped after the seventh week will be automatically marked with a "W" (for withdrawal) on the official transcript where the grade would normally appear. "W" is a matter of record, its removal cannot be petitioned.
No courses may be dropped following the end of the twelfth week of classes, even with a petition.
During weeks one to three of the semester, changing a grade option (on courses where a choice between letter or S/U grade is offered) may be accomplished with the online add/drop system, or with an add/drop form for "permission only" courses. If an add/drop form is used, permission of the faculty advisor and course instructor or departmental representative must be obtained. The completed add/drop form should be submitted to the Engineering Registrar’s office, 158 Olin Hall, by the end of the third week of classes.
Important: After the end of the third week of classes, the grading option may not be changed, nor will students be permitted to add a course in which they were previously enrolled (in the current semester) under a different grade option. (For more information on the S/U Grading Option, see "Grades and Credit" in this handbook.)
Certain upper-level courses in the Engineering curriculum are offered with "variable" credit hours. Students decide the number of credits they wish to attempt at the time they enroll in the course, in consultation with the instructor and their faculty advisor. (For example, a course might be listed as "variable to 5 credits". This means that a student could enroll in the course for as many as 5 credit hours, although options involving 4 or fewer credit hours exist.
During weeks one to three of the semester, changing credit hours (on courses that offer variable credit) may be accomplished with the online add/drop system, or with an add/drop form for "permission only" courses. If an add/drop form is used, permission of the faculty advisor and course instructor or depart-mental representative must be obtained. The completed add/drop form should be submitted to the Engineering Registrar’s office, 158 Olin Hall, by the end of the third week of classes.
After the end of the third week of classes, variable credit hours may not be changed except by petition (see previous section on "adding a class after week three" for specific instructions).
Each semester, there is a period (usually near midterm) during which students electronically request courses they plan to take during the following term, using an online service called CoursEnroll. It provides the most accurate, up-to-date listings of course offerings for the coming semester and is available through any campus terminal connected to Bear Access.
Each semester, the University Registrar’s office assigns each class (freshman through senior) a one-week period during which CoursEnroll will be accessible through Bear Access. This access schedule will be published in writ-ten form by the University Registrar’s office and in the weekly e-mail newsletter, The Sundial.
To request courses through CoursEnroll students should
- determine their pre-enrollment access period by reading The Sundial or by contacting the Engineering Registrar’s office, 158 Olin Hall.
- pick up a copy of the Course and Time Roster from the Engineering Registrar’s office in 158 Olin Hall. (This step is optional because the most accurate course data can be found directly on CoursEnroll.)
- decide which courses they want to take for the next semester, keeping in mind the requirements for both the Common Curriculum and their intended Major program.
- use CoursEnroll to enter their course choices.
- make an appointment to meet with their academic advisor early in the pre-enrollment period. During this meeting, the student and their advisor will discuss the proposed course schedule and make changes as necessary.
When both student and advisor are satisfied with the proposed course schedule, the student (or the advisor) should "lock" the course request by entering a special PIN code (available only from the advisor) into CoursEnroll. Once the schedule is locked, a student may not make additional changes until the add/drop period for the following semester.
This formally completes the pre-enrollment process.
The College of Engineering permits (but does not encourage) students to take up to 23 credits a semester, excluding physical education, supplementary courses, and other courses that do not count toward the degree. Those who wish to attempt a schedule with more than 23 credits must petition to do so. Add/drop forms that result in a schedule of more than 23 credits will not be processed without a completed petition endorsed by the student’s faculty advisor and approved by a representative of ASPAC in Engineering Advising.
Supplementary Courses
Some majors offer supplementary courses in which material taught in other courses is reviewed. For example, the material taught in CHEM 211 is reviewed in CHEM 011. Although students are encouraged to take advantage of these courses, they cannot be used to fulfill graduation requirements, and grades received do not affect academic or class standing.
ROTC Courses
The use of ROTC courses to fulfill college degree requirements is regulated by the College Curriculum Governing Board. Under current policy, ROTC courses do not count toward a degree in engineering unless they are co-listed by another department. (For example, Naval Science 301 is co-listed as Biological and Environmental Engineering 305.) Some Majors further restrict the use of particular courses co-listed with Military Science, and students should check with their undergraduate coordinator office to find out whether such courses will count toward graduation.
Writing Workshop
The Writing Workshop offers a special writing seminar, An Introduction to Writing in the University, for students who have had little training in composition or who have serious difficulty with writing assignments. This course is graded S/U and does count as a first-year writing seminar. In the fall many students are urged to attend a writing assessment session during Freshman Orientation to see if they would benefit from this seminar. The University Orientation brochure will have full details about the assessment.
At any time during the semester, stu-dents enrolled in other writing courses who are having problems with their writing assignments can go to the Writing Workshop office (174 Rockefeller Hall, 255-6349) to discuss their writing with a mem¬ber of the workshop staff.
English as a Second Language
Many Cornell students are not native speakers of English. Because these stu-dents must still take a two-semester sequence of first-year writing seminars, the Writing Program offers a special writing seminar, English for Later Bilinguals, that focuses on language issues. Designed for second-language students whose writing skills are weak, this course allows students to improve their mastery of English while taking a first-year writing seminar. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. Students interested in this course should take the writing assessment during orientation. The orientation brochure contains full details about the assessment.
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