1. MAE Undergraduates
  2. Undergraduate Student Petitions

Undergraduate Student Petitions

*Petitions for non-MAE courses should be submitted to the relevant department.*

What Can I Petition?

Petitions may be submitted for multiple reasons, including but not limited to:

Course Substitution

  • Substituting one UC San Diego course with another course at UC San Diego
  • Substituting one UC San Diego course with a course already completed at another institution. Submit a pre-approval petition (see below) if you have not yet taken this course.
  • Receiving Technical Elective (TE) credit for an upper-division course that is not listed in the pre-approved TE lists
  • MAE 30A is Statics and Introduction to Dynamics. Any course petition must cover these two topics.
  • MAE 30B is Dynamics and Vibrations. Any course petition must cover these two topics.
  • Please see the specific requirements for petitions for MAE 3 below.

Pre-approval

  • Substituting a UC San Diego course with a course to be taken at another institution (follow-up documentation will be required for final approval)

Prerequisite Waiver 

(*A minimum 3.0 GPA is required to submit a prerequisite waiver petition)
  • Enrollment in a course without completing the required prerequisite
  • Enrollment in a course concurrently with a prerequisite course

All all issues related to course enrollment such as the system not reading prerequisites due to exceptions, please submit an Enrollment Authorization System (Easy) request.

For courses restricted to majors, non-majors may submit an EASy request to enroll beginning Friday of Week 9.

MAE 150 - Students must take ALL prerequisites. No petition to take MAE 150 without the prerequisites will be approved. 

How Do I Submit a Petition?

  1. Log in via the online petition portal.
  2. Input PID #.
  3. Select the MAE department.
  4. Select the type of petition to be submitted.
  5. Complete petition request with course information and reason for petition.
  6. For course substitution and pre-approval petitions, attach supporting documents such as course syllabus and transcript, homework assignments, exam questions, project reports, etc., anything that will provide further information on the courses being petitioned.  Only PDF files will be accepted.

What is the Process of Submitting a Petition?

After an online petition has been submitted, it will be reviewed by the teaching faculty, followed by the Undergraduate Advisory Council (UAC) Chair.  Once reviewed, the student will be notified of the decision via Virtual Advising Center (VAC) - an email will be sent to the student's UC San Diego email account alerting them that a VAC message is awaiting their review. Note: Decisions on petitions may take 1-3 weeks.

Other Information to Note

  • Submit as early as possible!  With busy schedules, travelling faculty and faculty who go on sabbatical, petitions may require a longer review period than expected.  The sooner a petition is submitted, the sooner it will be reviewed.
  • Sometimes more information may be required than what was originally submitted.  The student will be notified of this and the petition will be rerouted back to the student requesting further documentation.
  • If you have any questions, please contact an advisor through the VAC.

 

Guidelines for Students Submitting Petitions Out of MAE 3 

MAE 3 covers both Engineering Graphics and Design. We believe that to learn design one must build hardware, evaluate the hardware performance, and redesign as needed. Accordingly, to petition out of MAE 3, we need to see both Engineering Graphics and a significant hands-on design process. To better understand the level of complexity we are looking for, please see prior MAE 3 Robot contests at: https://sites.google.com/a/eng.ucsd.edu/mae3-robots/home. The reasons we are insistent on seeing this level of design experience is so that you are not at a disadvantage when you reach your senior level design courses.

When submitting a petition, please show evidence that you have taken courses that cover the following MAE3 learning topics and objectives:

1. Engineering graphics (including copies of some of your CAD assignments)

2. Hands-on prototyping (including a report that demonstrated performance of your prototype)

3. Teamwork/Project Management

4. Mechanical design and analysis

5. Technical communication (verbal and written)

6. Design Project that combines the above skills – to see the level of complexity expected in MAE3 robots, please see: https://sites.google.com/a/eng.ucsd.edu/mae3-robots/home

Please upload a SINGLE PDF that is organized and clearly labels each of the six areas listed above. Evidence can include items such as the relevant course syllabus, project report, etc., as long as it demonstrates your proficiency in the above topics. Please do not upload any extraneous documents.