Degree Requirements

We hope for every student to avoid last minute panicking discoveries on their last semester of classes. Below is our way to help in minimizing stress for Graduating Seniors and in avoiding long waiting in lines in the first two weeks of their last semester. Regularly check your degree audit and keep track of your credit and progress each semester. Wherever you are in your studies, as you register for "next semester" classes, keep on checking!

This is where you can find all the Programs of Study. Check the Requirements of your degree, semester by semester.

This is where you can generate and check your Degree Audit; The table below guides you for things to look for in your Degree Audit Report.

Tracking Your Degree Progress

Keep track of your progress towards graduation here. Please remember it is very important for you to speak with an advisor (your faculty advisor, your department's advising office, or a dean in 206 Engineering Hall) on a regular basis. The materials found here are meant to only be guidelines.

If you have classes that you took at another institution, check Course Registration#TransferCredit

Advanced Composition

The Advanced Composition requirement is fulfilled by a writing-intensive course beyond basic composition. It is required of all students, including transfer students. It is normally taken in the junior or senior years.

The course used to fulfill this requirement varies with curriculum. Consult your advisor for current information. The campus list is a series of courses that have been approved for Advanced Composition credit. It is available here .

Policy

The following policy statements may help in answering questions regarding this requirement.

Composition I

Unless exempt for having credit obtained by SAT, ACT, or AP Scores, you must complete the Composition I requirement during your freshman year by enrolling in one of the following courses or course combinations:

Students may register for Rhetoric 101-102, ESL 111-112, or ESL 115 only by placement into the sequence. Students should see their advisor if they have questions about the appropriate placement in a Comp I class.

Free Electives

Undergraduate students in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Grainger College of Engineering need 6 or more semester hours of free electives; the exact number required depends on the major. Almost any course offered by the University, and most transfer courses, can be used for free electives. However, the following restrictions apply:

Foreign Language Requirements

High school language requirement: Effective for all entering freshmen in Fall 2000 or later (Fall 2002 for transfer students) the following language requirement must be completed for graduation. This requirement may be satisfied by:

Students without three years of the same language in high school may complete the requirement in college. One year of high school language is normally equivalent to a semester of college instruction.
In order to enroll at Illinois in language courses beyond the first level, students must first take a placement test. If testing shows that repetition is needed, credit will not be granted for college courses more than two college semesters below the high school achievement level. For example, if a student has had three years of high school foreign language and is placed at the first level, as a result of the language placement test, credit will not be given for the first-level course but will be given for the second-level and higher. If the placement test is not taken, no credit will be given for repeated course work and only the fourth level of the language fulfilling high school requirements may be taken for credits.

A course taken in college to fulfill the third level of the high school non-primary language requirement must be taken for letter grade. For lower levels, it is allowed to take courses under the credit/no credit option.

International applicants, who have attended high school in another country, are normally expected to fulfill the language requirement by taking three years of instruction in English and a minimum of three years in their primary language. If not, it is possible to fulfill also the primary language requirement on campus by taking a proficiency test, if available.

Language Credits

Humanities elective credit: Starting in fall of 1994, freshmen must also satisfy the campus general education requirements which include six hours of humanities from the campus list. Foreign languages are excluded from the list. However, foreign language taken as part of the International Minor in Engineering will be used for campus humanity credit.

Proficiency Credit

Proficiency credit for language courses at the third level or higher can be obtained by proficiency examination (subject to the placement rule described in the previous section). A placement test is required before taking a language proficiency examination.

General Education Requirements

The campus General Education requirements fall into several categories. Those in Composition I, Natural Sciences and Technology, and Quantitative Reasoning are met by courses required in engineering curricula. Beginning with the class that entered in fall 2000, students must complete a third-level college language course. Most students satisfy this requirement by completing three years of high school instruction in a single language.

The campus General Education requirements in social and behavioral sciences and in humanities and the arts can be met while satisfying the College of Engineering's liberal education course work requirements (see below) . Proper choices will assure that these courses also satisfy the campus requirements in the areas of Western and non-Western cultures. Beginning with the class that entered in fall 2018, students must also assure that they take a course that satisfies the campus requirement in the area of U.S. Minority Culture. Many of these courses satisfy the campus Advanced Composition requirement, which assures that students have the advanced writing skills expected of all college graduates.

Students may obtain credit from different academic sources, i.e., residential instruction, advanced placement (AP or IB) tests, and transfer credits. All course work taken to satisfy campus general education requirements must be taken for grade.

For more information about General Education course work requirements, consult the campus' General Education website.

Cultural Studies

The campus General Education requirement in Cultural Studies is as follows:

Students who matriculated Spring 2018 or prior must complete two (2) courses taken for a grade:

  1. a course that is designated as Western/Comparative Culture(s) and
  2. one that is designated as Non-Western/U.S. Minority Culture(s).

Students who began Fall 2018 or after must complete three (3) courses taken for a grade:

  1. a course that is designated as Western/Comparative Culture(s),
  2. one that is designated as Non-Western Culture(s), and
  3. one that is designated as U.S. Minority Culture.

Courses that carry a cultural studies designation may, or may not, fulfill other general education requirements.

General Education Electives

The Grainger College of Engineering requires eighteen hours of General Education Electives. Through these courses students deepen their understanding of human culture and society, build skills in inquiry and critical thinking, and lay a foundation for civic engagement and lifelong learning.

The college requirements include the campus General Education (GenEd) requirements in humanities and social/behavioral sciences (described above). To satisfy the General Education requirements, students must complete:

*With careful course selection these requirements and the cultural studies requirements can be completed with a few as twelve hours of course work.

Advising Tip: To quickly find courses that satisfy more than one campus GenEd requirement, go to http://courses.illinois.edu/cisapp/dispatcher/search and Search the General Education Course Lists . You can find, for instance, all of the History courses that count toward both the Humanities & Arts requirement and the Western Cultural Studies requirement.