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ECE Policies & Forms

For more information, please see your ECE Advisor.

All Virginia Tech undergraduate students are required to maintain a minimum 2.0 cumulative GPA. If your GPA falls below 2.0, you will be placed on academic probation. If you do not raise your cumulative GPA to a 2.0 within a designated time period, you will be placed on academic suspension.

All engineering students who are placed on probation are notified by the Dean's Office and required to complete probationary paperwork. ECE students are required to meet with ECE advisors to develop individual plans for academic improvement. The Dean's Office will block students who do not follow this procedure from further enrollment.

All undergraduate students must apply for degree to be cleared for graduation from the University. Students may apply for their degree in Hokie Spa under the Undergraduate Degree Menu. ECE students are encouraged to apply for degree in the junior year. Please include any double majors or degrees, minors, and/or concentrations on your application. An application for degree will generate a DARS (Degree Audit Report). Students are required to review their DARS reports with their ECE advisors within ten days from the receipt of the DARS report. At that time, your advisor will submit any necessary substitutions.

https://www.registrar.vt.edu/graduation-multi-brief/degree-application.html

ECE Student Services maintains a Google Group of Virginia Tech students who are interested in earning money through private ECE tutoring. The tutoring requests range from 1000 – 4000 level ECE courses and, generally, several requests are made per week. There is no obligation to take any jobs. However, if you decide to take a job, all arrangements (including rate charged) are up to the individuals involved.

Please keep in mind the following ethical boundaries when considering a tutoring request:

  • If you are a grader for a course, you cannot tutor a student enrolled in the specific section(s) for which you are a grader.
  • However, you can tutor a student enrolled in a different section.
  • If you are teaching a course, you cannot offer tutoring for the course (this includes any section).
  • Please treat the transaction between you and the student as confidential.

To add yourself to the group, visit https://groups.google.com/a/vt.edu/d/forum/ece-tutoring-g and request to join.


Individuals seeking tutoring will send an email to the *listserv* (ECE Tutoring) and interested tutors then contact the individual directly.

TO SEND A PRIVATE TUTOR REQUEST to the entire list of available ECE tutors, please send an email to ece-tutoring-g@vt.edu with:

  1. Email/Contact Information
  2. Course Number & Description (i.e. ECE 2704 – Signals & Systems)
  3. Hours/per week
  4. Rate/per hour

Please indicate the course in the subject line of your email. Interested tutors will respond directly to you.

*Please be aware you are sharing this information with the entire list of available ECE tutors. If you do not wish to share your contact information, please contact your advisor and attach a completed tutor request form.

*If you have any issues, please contact your advisor. Also, international students must check with Cranwell International Student Center or International Graduate Student Services before accepting a paid position. This is not considered an on-campus job.

ECE students are required to earn minimum C- or better grades in all prerequisite courses. Students who do not earn a minimum C- in a course have the right to submit a petition for an appeal of the C- policy.

An appeal will be granted for exceptions to the rule in the case of enrollment in ECE or CS courses only in the most unusual and extenuating circumstances and, then, only if the overall and in major grade point averages are satisfactory. The C- Petition form must be submitted to 340 Whittemore no later than 12:00 noon on Tuesday of the first week of classes each semester or summer session.

Appeals for exception to the rule for enrollment in ECE Technical Elective courses are at the discretion of the course instructor. Faculty are urged to make exceptions with caution and, in particular, to consider the performance of the student in related courses.

ECE students wishing to petition for exceptions to required or elective courses should contact their advisor. For example, students who wish to take a Mathematics Elective that does not appear on the approved Mathematics Elective list should submit a request for an exception. Only in exceptional or valid circumstances will exceptions be approved.

ECE force-add requests will be accepted ONLY from students who are eligible to take ECE courses but are unable to request certain ECE course(s) during the Course Request period due to a prerequisite or class restriction. If you do not submit a Course Request during the Course Request period, you are not eligible to complete the ECE force-add survey. Incomplete or ineligible surveys will not be reviewed and will be deleted with no notification to the student.

The force-add survey for undergraduate courses will open each semester near the start of Course Request and close at 5:00 pm on the 3rd day of classes. No force-add requests will be accepted after this date. All decisions will be made by the last day to add classes. Students with approved force-adds will be notified by the last day to add classes.

On the Friday before classes begin, ECE will open up classes to class capacity. This means that if the timetable is showing a course as full, then it is full to capacity and we cannot and will not add additional students. Note that class capacity does not always equal classroom capacity. Just because there may be empty seats, this does not mean that we can add additional students. Many factors go into determining class capacity.

The force-add forms can be found in the Quick List of Forms section on the right side of this page.

Students may calculate projected GPA using the GPA calculation sheet or online GPA calculator. The in-major GPA calculation for CPE majors includes the C++ course from the freshman year and all ECE courses. The in-major GPA calculation for EE majors includes the C++ course from the freshman year and all ECE courses.

ECE seniors with a minimum 3.0 overall GPA and students participating in the Undergraduate/Graduate (UG/G) Accelerated program may petition to take ECE graduate courses by completing the Graduate Course Force-Add Survey. Students in the UG/G program will be permitted to double count graduate courses between their undergraduate and graduate programs. Students not enrolled in the UG/G program cannot use graduate courses taken as an undergraduate to fulfill requirements for a graduate degree at Virginia Tech.

Graduate Course Force-Add Survey

An ECE student who is interested in course credit through Independent Study or Undergraduate Research with an ECE faculty member should first consult with his or her advisor. The advisor will provide direction with regard to faculty areas of technical expertise as well as the required paperwork process. Independent Study/Undergraduate Research paperwork must be submitted to the departmental advisor no later 2:00 pm on the third day of the classes.

All ECE undergraduate students are automatically subscribed to the ECE_Undergrad listserv upon transfer to CPE or EE. Prospective students in General Engineering or other majors can also submit a request for subscription. Listserv subscriptions are updated each semester. There will be enough information in the subject line to help you determine whether the information posted is relevant to you. It is very important that you read the messages posted to the listserv that are relevant to you. Postings will include information on organizational meetings, policies and procedures, co-op, internship, and permanent job opportunities, and scholarship opportunities.

University Policy 91 outlines university-wide minimum criteria to determine if students are making satisfactory progress towards the completion of their degrees. The ECE Department fully supports the policy. Specific expectations for satisfactory progress for BSCPE and BSEE majors are as follows:

  • Each student must meet the minimum University-wide criteria as described in Policy 91 and summarized in the Undergraduate Catalog under Academic Policies.
  • Upon completing 2 semesters in ECE, students must have satisfactorily completed ECE 2024, ECE 2514, ECE 2544, MATH 2214, and PHYS 2306.
  • Upon completing 3 semesters in ECE, students must have satisfactorily completed ECE 2804.   
  • Upon attempting 90 credits, BSCPE and BSEE students must have successfully completed 33 credits of in-major courses and have 2.0 overall and in-major GPAs. (The BSCPE and BSEE in-major GPA includes all ECE courses, including repeats).

Course prerequisite requirements have been put into place for the benefit of the student. All ECE class rolls, including lecture courses and laboratories, are reviewed at the beginning of each semester. Those students who have not satisfactorily completed prerequisite course requirements with a C- or better grade will be dropped and notified of the drop via e-mail.

In accordance with the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA), all information regarding a student's academic record is considered private between the student and the university and requires a written release for discussion of this information with a third party. For a variety of reasons, you may wish to partially waive this protection and permit release of some types of information to certain people, for example, an advisor, a potential employer, a parent, or a faculty member.

Students may submit course requests via Hokie Spa. The course request period for Spring Semester is in late October and the course request period for both Summer Sessions and Fall Semester is in late March. Schedule changes may also be processed via DROPADD on Hokie Spa.

Often times transfer students and internal transfers have taken courses that are appropriate substitutions for required CPE or EE courses. If you believe that you have already completed the content of a required ECE course through a previous course, your should contact your ECE advisor.

While official transfer course requests must be submitted to the Dean's Office in 212 Hancock Hall, in many cases, in major transfer course requests will be reviewed by the department before submission of the official transfer course request form. If you are interested in taking an in major course (CS or ECE for CPE majors and ECE for EE majors) at another college or university, please see your advisor prior to enrolling in the course.

The Office of Academic Affairs in 212 Hancock Hall has administrative responsibility for the undergraduate programs of the College of Engineering. The office staff and some of their principle activities include:

The College of Engineering Receptionist, is your first point of contact when you enter the suite of offices and is responsible for processing of most forms and requests. She will answer your question or refer you to the person who can.

Mr. Ryan Wagoner, Enrollment Services Specialist

  • Processing of course substitutions and DARS updates
  • Clearing students for graduation and helping solve graduation-related problems
  • Conducting a special orientation for engineering transfer students
  • Talking to potential transfer students visiting campus
  • Evaluation of transcripts from other schools on a course-by-course basis for transfer credit at Virginia Tech for both incoming transfer students and students currently enrolled who wish to take courses at other institutions.

Ms. Christi Boone, Administrator of Academic Support Programs

  • Coordination of academic and career advising for the College
  • Recruiting in community colleges
  • Talking to students (and their parents) in academic trouble, and also those with personal problems
  • Conducting a special orientation for engineering transfer students
  • Talking to potential transfer students visiting campus
  • Management of internal transfers
  • Coordination of Fundamentals of Engineering (formerly Engineer in Training) examination

Dr. Keith Thompson, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

  • Approval/disapproval of exceptions to academic policy (late schedule changes, course overloads, etc.)
  • Administration of academic probation and suspension program for the College
  • Talking to students (and their parents) in academic trouble, and also those with personal problems
  • Preparation of cases for academic appeals to University Committee
  • Oversight of all course proposals for the College as well as curriculum modifications
  • Oversight of accreditation activities and policies
  • eng.vt.edu

The following procedures are handled in the Office of the University Registrar in 250 Student Services Building.

  • Questions regarding registration and DROPADD
  • Requests for academic transcripts
  • Requests for certifications (enrollment verification)
  • Resignations or withdrawals
  • Reservations for classrooms for student organizations
  • Requests for DARS (Degree Audit Report)
  • Orders for diplomas
  • Requests for information about Academic Common Market
  • Requests for residency information for tuition purposes
  • Questions regarding Veterans Affairs
  • registrar.vt.edu

Quick List of Forms

For BSCPE and BSEE checksheets, please see ECE degree programs and requirements.


Need Info on ECE, Engineering, or University Policies?

Your ECE academic advisor is always your first point of contact regarding departmental, college, and university policies and procedures.

In most cases, if you do not contact your advisor first, you will be referred back to the ECE Department. In the event that your advisor needs to refer you to another office within the university or college, they will do so.