Advising

Your advisor at Boise State University is a valuable asset. It is their role to guide you through the complexity of enrolling in the courses that will get you to your academic and career goals. As you advance in your program, we hope that your relationship evolves from merely scheduling classes to working with scholarships, internships, study abroad, job placement, and how to apply for jobs in your desired career areas.

We highly recommend meeting with an academic advisor as you navigate the process of creating your course plan. Our advising staff work with your individual circumstances, personal development, and skills to provide advice on:

• Degree planning, academic requirements, policies and procedures
• Exploration of necessary skills, and
• Referral to campus resources.

See above for the academic advisors for the Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Department

If you need an answer or want to schedule an advising appointment, send an email to AdviseME@boisestate.edu.

First, if you have not yet applied to attend Boise State University, go to the admissions page and apply to become an undergraduate student at Boise State.

Apply to Boise State University

Boise State University uses an online assessment tool, The Write Class, to place all students in the appropriate first-year writing course. Before your orientation session (and before you are able to register for a first-year writing course), you need to complete The Write Class. Results take up to 72 hours to process. You may need to access your results during your orientation session.

Key to your success is determining the appropriate level of Mathematics you should be taking. This can be done through several methods.

• The Right Math Class online assessment. Math Placement at Boise State begins with an online assessment, where you provide information regarding previously taken math courses and tests (SAT/ACT/AP/IB/CLEP), your academic background, and belief in your math abilities. This assessment will provide an initial category as a starting point for math placement. Every student will receive the Right Math Class online assessment and you must complete it prior to your initial advising appointment.
• Accuplacer Examination. If you feel that the ACT or SAT exam score does not accurately reflect your ability in Math, or did not take recently take the ACT or SAT, then we recommend you take the Accuplacer placement examination to determine the appropriate mathematics course.

More details on Math Placement

After you are admitted to Boise State University, you should declare your major as Mechanical Engineering in the myBoiseState system.

After meeting with your advisor and developing your course plan, you can begin to enroll in courses on or after your enrollment date as shown in myBoiseState.

Enrollment Appointments

The Mechanical Engineering program includes a sequence of required courses that must be taken in a specific order. To help you stay on track and graduate in four years, we offer a suggested course plan that clearly outlines how to organize both required and elective classes efficiently.

See the Four-Year Course Plan

Mechanical Engineering is a difficult program and we want to make sure you will be successful. As such, we evaluate your progress in foundational courses before you can enroll in more advanced coursework.

After you complete the eight ME CORE courses listed below, you can apply for upper division standing.  More details on the application process  can be found on the ME Program Requirements page.

ME CORE Courses

Students can advance from pre-ME to full ME major status upon completion of these courses with an average GPA of 2.6 and no more than 3 repeats.

• MATH 170 Calculus I
• MATH 175 Calculus II
• ME 201 Engineering Mechanics I
• ME 203 Engineering Mechanics II
• ME 273 Introduction to Computation for Engineers
• PHYS 211 Physics I with Calculus

There are two resources that are essential to planning your schedule over the course of your academic career.

Degree Tracker is an academic planning tool available to all undergraduate students, designed to simplify course selection and scheduling. It helps you identify the courses you need to take, shows when they are offered, alerts you to any missing prerequisites, and allows you to experiment with different scheduling scenarios to find the one that best fits your needs.

For more information on the Degree Tracker click here.

The Academic Advisement Report (AAR) is a crucial tool for tracking your progress toward graduation and planning your course enrollment. This interactive online resource displays your program’s academic requirements and indicates whether you have fulfilled them. It also provides details on both completed and available courses, allowing you to add courses directly to your planner and shopping cart.

Please Note: The Academic Advisement Report (AAR) is used for graduation evaluation to ensure all degree and course requirements are met.

Click here to access your AAR

All Boise State students should familiarize themselves with the Course Repetition Policy (#3190) to understand its implications on their academic journey.

If you have repeated a course but still not passed, you must complete a “Request to Exceed Maximum Course Registration” form, which requires approval from both your advisor and the department chair of the course in question.

The Mechanical & Biomedical Engineering (MBE) Department will assess your request based on the following criteria:

• If you have six (6) or more grades below C- (including W) in degree-required MATH, CHEM, PHYS, ENGR, CS, or ME courses, your request will be denied, and you will be encouraged to meet with an advisor to explore alternative academic options.
• If you have fewer than six (6) grades below C- in the aforementioned courses, you will need to develop an “Academic Recovery Plan” as part of the approval process, which will be reviewed and signed by the Chair or designee.

All requests will be carefully reviewed by the Department Chair or their designee. Remember, our goal is to support your success. If you encounter difficulties in your courses, reach out to your advisor early to explore available resources that can help you overcome challenges. Proactive steps now can prevent larger issues down the road.

Still have questions about repeats?

Please contact our advising staff at AdviseME@boisestate.edu.

What Are Professional Fees?

Professional fees are additional charges applied to courses in disciplines with higher instructional costs, such as specialized equipment, software, licenses, and consumable materials. These fees replace previous class-specific fees, offering students a clearer understanding of the overall cost of their education.

How Much Are Professional Fees?

The fees are $45 per credit for students enrolling in upper-division courses in engineering disciplines, including Mechanical Engineering (ME), Electrical Engineering (ECE), Civil Engineering (CE), and Materials Science and Engineering (MSE).

Why Are These Fees Necessary?

Engineering is an expensive discipline to teach due to the high costs of equipment and resources. Many universities charge higher tuition for engineering programs. At Boise State, professional fees help offset these costs without increasing overall tuition rates.

• Educational Support: These fees are invested in hiring peer educators, course support assistants, and tutors to provide students with access to personalized assistance, tutoring sessions, and timely feedback on assignments. They also cover the maintenance of equipment and the replenishment of consumable materials used in student projects.
• Engineering Innovation Studio: In response to student feedback, professional fees have been used to expand and enhance our student machine shop. This investment has quadrupled the shop’s floor space, added new equipment, and increased collaboration spaces and staffing, providing students with better access to hands-on learning resources.
• Student Support: A portion of the fees is allocated to support experiential learning opportunities, such as student organizations, undergraduate travel awards, and other activities that enrich the student learning experience beyond the classroom.
• Program Advancement: Professional fees also help the department offer exposure to various career paths within mechanical engineering. These funds allow us to bring in guest speakers, industry professionals, and offer professional development opportunities that prepare students for successful careers post-graduation.

Have you taken courses at another school? It’s likely some of them weren’t automatically considered as equivalents to our courses. We often can accept your engineering courses as substitutions for ours. Think a class should count towards one of our requirements? Submit the course information to our Advising staff to review.

Email AdviseME@boisestate.edu

If you’ve earned an academic degree and are obtaining an additional undergraduate degree from us, it’s likely you’ve met most (if not all) of our foundational requirements. We also can apply to waive some of our courses when you’ve taken the appropriate equivalent courses for your previous degree.

Please send an email to AdviseME@boisestate.edu to begin this process.

If you have experience in a particular area, you can request credit for courses in that area. We don’t offer this for mechanical engineering; however, many of our students have successfully obtained credits for language and other courses. You may also be able to obtain College Level Examination (CLEP) credits for prior learning. Before pursuing these credits, talk with your advisor to make sure the courses will help you in your degree progress.

Credit for Prior Learning

If you feel your background, education, and experience have given you sufficient knowledge in a subject area, you may challenge certain courses. That is, you may be able to receive credit for the course by passing a challenge exam.

In the Mechancial Engineering Program, we routinely offer the ME 187 Graphical Communications Challenge Exam.

Not all external courses meet requirements established for MBE programs. You need to do a MBE

Pre-Approval

To request pre-approval of a non-Boise State course:

• Submit a MBE Course Evaluation Form.
• A separate submittal is required for each request.
• You will receive an e-mail indicating whether or not your request was approved. This e-mail will validate you’ve met pre-requisite course requirements and can be used in requests for permission numbers for follow-on courses.

Are you taking this class to replace a grade for a previous Boise State class you did not pass?

Your pre-approval request may be rejected. Please state any extenuating circumstances in your request so that information can be considered in the evaluation.

Online Courses

Planning on taking an online course for the Mechanical Engineering major or Biomedical minor degree? You’ll need approval from the MBE Department prior to taking the course.

Exceptions to this policy are:

• Courses you are taking to fulfill University DL or UF requirements
• Online courses offered by Boise State University

To request an online course pre-approval, complete the MBE Course Evaluation Form with documentation attached. You’ll receive an e-mail indicating whether or not your request was approved. A separate submittal is required for each request.

Is the class an online course from another program?

If so, the course syllabus must clearly document that a proctor is required, either from the instructor, department, or University offering the course. You must include course proctor information in your MBE Course Evaluation form.

Submit an MBE Course Evaluation Form