BS in Mechanical Engineering
Program Overview
Among the most diverse of the engineering fields, mechanical engineering affects almost all aspects of our lives and embraces many areas of specialization: automotive systems; bioengineering; combustion and propulsion; design methodology and tribology; dynamic systems and controls; energy systems and thermodynamics; fluid mechanics; heat transfer; manufacturing and production; materials behavior and processing; and microscale and nanoscale phenomena and systems.
Our ABET accredited undergraduate program in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Illinois is consistently ranked among the best in the United States. Students in our department enjoy access to internationally renowned and award-winning faculty, world-class laboratories, and exceptional resources.
ME Curriculum Requirements
The flowsheets below are a semester-by-semester visual outline of the courses required within the Mechanical Engineering curriculum. These flowsheets are provided to enable students and advisors to visualize pre-, co-, and postrequisites associated with specific courses within the curriculum. This is a tool to enable you to understand how courses are connected throughout our curriculum to provide guidance regarding course registration and scheduling.
Please start by choosing the curriculum flowsheet corresponding to your entering Academic Catalog Year. With departmental approval, students may change to a newer catalog year if the degree requirements change. Students may not move to an older catalog year and may not mix and match requirements between catalog years. Students may request to change catalog years by completing the Academic Catalog Year – Request to Change form.
- Academic Catalog Year 2022 - 2023 and beyond
Visualization of pre-,co-, and post-requisites
- Course prerequisite chain
- Immediate prerequisite
- Credit or concurrent registration required
- Concurrent registration required
- Postrequisite course sequence
| First Year | Second Year | Third Year | Fourth Year | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall First Year | Spring First Year | Fall Second Year | Spring Second Year | Fall Third Year | Spring Third Year | Fall Fourth Year | Spring Fourth Year |
Notes
Before reviewing the links, students should find their effective Academic Catalog Year. When clicking any links referenced below that take students to the Academic Catalog Year pages, they should be mindful of which Academic Catalog year is displayed.
- External transfer students take ENG 300.
- MATH 220 may be substituted. MATH 220 is appropriate for students with no background in calculus. 4 of 5 credit hours count towards degree.
- RHET 105 (or an alternative Composition I sequence) is taken either in the first or second semester of the first year, according to the student's UIN (SP if UIN is odd). ME 170 is taken the other semester. Composition I guidelines can be found at Degree and General Education Requirements under Written Communication Requirement.
- General Education: Students must complete the Campus General Education requirements including the campus general education language requirement. One of the SBS courses must be an introductory economics course (ECON 102 or ECON 103). ME 470 will satisfy a core course requirement and the Campus General Education Advanced Composition requirement.
- CS 124 or ECE 220 may be substituted.
- Science Elective of 4 hours, semester placement depends on prerequisites. Students may choose from CHEM 104 & 105, MCB 150 (& 151 recommended) or PHYS 213 & 214.
- ECE 110 and either ECE 210 or ECE 211 may be substituted.
- Additional coursework, subject to the Grainger College of Engineering restrictions to Free Electives, so that there are at least 128 credit hours earned toward the degree.
- Statistics Elective totaling 3 hours. IE 300 or STAT 400 (4 hrs). The extra hour for STAT 400 will count towards Free Elective hours.
- ME 470 is taken either the first or second semester of the fourth year, according to the student's UIN (FA if UIN is odd, SP if UIN is even). ME 470 satisfies the Advanced Composition requirement. Technical Elective is taken the other semester.
- MechSE Electives totaling 6 hours and Technical Electives totaling 6 hours, selected from department approved lists. The Technical Elective category can also be fulfilled with MechSE Electives over the required 6 hours.
The code used to present this flowsheet is based on original work shared by the University at Buffalo School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
ME Tech Electives
The revised MechSE and technical elective list must be used by all students that will start their college career in Fall 2017 and beyond. This updated list includes a new “professional elective” category that allows Mechanical Engineering students to take up to 3 credit hours (towards their technical elective requirement) of 300 or 400 level STEM related courses that will enhance their career opportunities.
Mechanical Engineering students who began their college career prior to fall 2017 (fall 2017 calendar year) can petition to follow the prior MechSE and technical elective requirements. Continuing students who already took courses that were removed from the technical electives list can petition to follow the prior technical elective requirements, if they still want those courses to count towards their technical elective requirements. Petitions for curricular changes regarding technical electives must be sent to mechse-ug-advise@illinois.edu.
MechSE 2.25 GPA and TGPA Requirements
The MechSE Department maintains a cumulative 2.25 grade-point-average (GPA) requirement for lower-level technical courses. In order for a student to move onto upper-level (generally 300/400-level) ME or TAM courses, the 2.25 GPA requirement must be met. Failure to meet the 2.25 GPA will require students to retake previous coursework and potentially reduce course loads to meet the 2.25 GPA requirement.
Once students gets into their upper-level, more specialized coursework, a cumulative technical GPA (TGPA) requirement is implemented in addition to the traditional cumulative GPA requirement (>2.0 GPA to remain clear of probationary status). Students who do not have a TGPA of atleast 2.0 will be subject to probationary rules and will not be able to graduate. For more information on probationary rules, please see the Student Code, Article 3 - Academic Policies and Regulations.
The back of the ME flowsheet indicates courses in the ME curriculum subject to 2.25 GPA and TGPA rules.