Rico A.R. Picone, PhD Advising

Advising

and all that

This advising page is for ME undergraduate and graduate students at SMU.

Academic calendar

One can find the official academic calendar here. I’ve put together an unofficial online shared calendar that I try to maintain and keep accurate:

Final exam schedule

The final exam schedule can be found here.

ME undergraduate students

The Mechanical Engineering curriculum can be considered in four primary divisions: Core (General Education), math and science, general engineering (GE), and major courses (ME).

The ME Plan

I made this excel spreadsheet I call the ME Plan. All my undergrad advisees will use it. This entire paragraph is a link to the ME Plan page, which includes the spreadsheet itself and some screencasts to get you acquainted.

Undergraduate catalogs

Be sure to familiarize yourself with your catalog (that of the year you began at SMU unless you have succeeded in switching to a newer catalog. Not only are you required to fulfill the catalog requirements, SMU is also required to grant you a degree if you fulfill them.

Here are recent catalogs.

Undergraduate flowcharts

Below are generic flowcharts for undergraduate students by catalog year (the year you started at SMU). Use the following legend.

2021-22 through 2019-20 catalog flowchart

2018-19 catalog flowchart

2017-18 catalog flowchart

2016-17 catalog flowchart

C- policy

The entire SMU Hal and Inge Marcus School of Engineering has adopted a policy of requiring a grade of C- or better for all prerequisite and major courses. There are a few “grandfathering” rules for old grades in certain courses. See this guide for more details.

Concentrations

(Adapted from the Catalog p. 182)

Students may elect to declare a Concentration within the ME degree—

  • bioengineering,
  • design and entrepreneurship,
  • intelligent and dynamic systems and analysis,
  • fluid mechanics and energy systems, or
  • numerical analysis

—by completing four of their six required electives from the Concentration areas outlined below. With prior approval from the department chair, one of the four electives required for a Concentration may be satisfied by a relevant offering of ME 495 or ME 497. To be granted a concentration, a students oncentration application must declare the concentration with the of office of the Registrar no later than two semesters before graduation. [The Registrar has been interpreting this to mean before the semester before graduation.]

See the Catalog p. 183-84 for the specific ME Electives required for each Concentration.

Adding a Concentration is easy: submit this form to the Registrar (with your Advisor’s signature … Dean signature not required):
Change Form Major/Minor/Concentration/Certificate/Advisor

EE minor

We are offering an Electrical Engineering (EE) minor!

For an ME major, this requires an additional four courses (11 credits). This minor is a nice way to gain experience in electronics and differentiate yourself from other engineers, especially in high-tech fields.

To officially add EE as your minor, so it appears on your transcripts, fill out this form and submit it to the Office of the Registrar.

4+1 Master’s degree

The 4+1 Master’s program provides a path for SMU undergraduate students to finish a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering (MSME) degree with a single additional year.

The MSME degree is 30 credits, six of which are thesis credits for those choosing to write a thesis. This is a total of 15 courses. As an undergraduate student, up to 12 MME credits may be taken, up to 6 of which can be applied to both the ME (as an ME elective) and MSME degrees. There are multiple ways to finish the graduate degree in the “fifth” year:

  • with 12 MSME credits as an undergraduate, taking 8-10 more each semester of the “fifth” year;
  • with 10 MSME credits as an undergraduate, taking 10 more each semester of the “fifth” year or during either summer; and
  • with 8 MSME credits as an undergraduate, taking 8-10 more each semester of the “fifth” year plus some during each summer.

To apply for the 4+1 program, click the Apply to 4+1 button on this page.

Once you have been accepted, fill out this form to enroll in specific courses, get the required signatures (the Director is Dr. Picone), and submit the form to the Registrar. Requirements to apply are

  • To have completed at least 90 undergraduate credits (senior status)
  • To have a minimum of a 3.0 GPA
  • To not be enrolled in more than 18 credit hours of combined undergraduate and graduate course work for the semester

For more information about the MSME program, see this page. Current MSME graduate students, see the following section of this page.

MSME graduate students

MSME graduate students interested in MSME-specific processes, such as completing a thesis, see the MSME Processes page.

Graduate catalogs

General information and resources

Finding forms

Some forms are hyperlinked on this page. Others can be found directly from the Registrar’s Forms page.

Adding a course

Typically, if you meet the prerequisites, a course can be added on self-service. However, when you are unable to add a course you believe you are able to take, complete an Add/Drop Form.

Directed and independent study

There is a difference between Directed Study (ME 495 or MME596) and Independent Study courses. Directed Study is for a course not already in the catalog with a professor. Independent Study is for a course already in the catalog, but not currently being offered, so a professor independently teaches the course to the student. Here are the associated forms.

Core or General Education course substitution

In rare cases, courses taken at SMU or another university that were not initially approved as satisfying Core (General Education) requirements can be retroactively approved to satisfy a Core requirement. The Director of the Core must be petitioned with this form.

Graduation application

During the semester in which you plan to graduate, be sure to apply for graduation here before the deadline (listed on the application site).