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ME Procedures for Studying Abroad

General Guidelines

In general, it is expected that upper-level technical classes (ME3xx & ME4xx) will always be taken at UM. Therefore, transfer of upper-level technical credit from another institution will not generally be granted.

Students are expected to take free electives, humanities and social science classes as part of their study-abroad experience. The advanced maths requirement, and lower-level (ME2xx) mechanical engineering classes may also be taken.

Petition for approval of credit

A petition for approval of a program of study abroad must be submitted to the ME Undergraduate Program Committee. This petition must include the following information:

  1. A current degree audit that shows all classes you have taken, and what grades you have received in them.

  2. A detailed syllabus for each class you wish to take while abroad. (Note that the information given in a college or university bulletin is usually insufficient for the committee to evaluate properly.)

  3. A description of the number of contact hours for each class. (This may be a count of the total number of lectures, or a count of the number of lectures per week and the number of weeks a class meets each semester, trimester, quarter or term. This information may be provided as part of the syllabus in which the length of time spent on each topic is given.) If it is available, an official statement from the university about the total number of hours of study expected outside the classroom for each course may be helpful to the committee.

  4. A statement of how you wish to count each class (free elective, humanity, social science etc.). You should pay attention to the requirements for the distribution of humanities, and the sequence requirement.


Timing

  1. All course approval must be granted before you travel abroad. Failure to obtain approval from the committee before going abroad may result in denial of transfer of credit when you return.

  2. In order to give the committee time to consider your request for course approval, complete petitions must be submitted no later than two months before the end of the semester prior to when you are going abroad. The committee reserves the right not to consider petitions submitted after this deadline.


Approval of petitions

Official approval of petitions will be in the form of a written letter signed on behalf of the ME Undergraduate Program Committee by the chair of that committee. You should not assume anything about the status of your course approval until you have received official approval. This letter will contain the following information:

  1. The specific classes approved and the amount of credit granted.

  2. The ME requirements that will be waived upon completion of all the approved classes.

  3. Restrictions (if any) on classes that must be taken, or that may not be taken, upon returning to UM.


Changing courses after approval of the petition

The committee may grant both credit and restrictions on the basis of the entire ensemble of proposed classes. Any changes to individual classes (whether beyond your control or not) may affect how the committee will award credit. Therefore, any changes to your program must be authorized by the committee. The fact that you request this authorization after you have already gone abroad or after you have returned, will not mean that the committee will necessarily grant you the credit you request.

Approval of classes

A number of different factors will enter the decision of how much credit will be granted. For example, approval may vary from student to student depending on other classes taken at UM, or elsewhere. In particular, you should note the following:

  1. No ME technical classes can be considered to be pre-approved, even if the undergraduate committee has previously approved them for another student.

  2. In order to provide flexibility in approving courses, you should be aware that the committee may count a class taken abroad as satisfying a required or pre-requisite class even if the total credits granted are not equivalent to the ME class. Under these conditions, the committee may specify how the extra credit must be made up.

  3. Credit will not generally be granted for ME3xx and ME4xx classes taken outside UM Ann Arbor.


College Residence Requirement

You are reminded that there is a College of Engineering residence requirement that 30 out of the last 36 units of a BSE degree must be taken on the Ann Arbor campus. Whether this condition will be met is one of the factors that will be considered by the undergraduate program when determining how much credit to allow. Occasionally, depending on the circumstances, and the extent to which this requirement is violated, the committee may support a partial waiver of this rule. However, in general, you are very strongly encouraged to plan your schedule so that at least three semesters of study remain before graduation after you return.


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