Confidential

The program is delivered on the Georgia Tech campus during the day, between 8 AM and 6 PM for most classes, except for lab classes and recitation sessions.

There were no deficiencies, weaknesses, or concerns documented in the final report from the visit during 2002.

Undergraduate admissions are centrally handled by the Institute (see www.admission.gatech.edu). Individual units (e.g. the School of Aerospace Engineering) do not directly receive or process applications for admission. The application forms are typically available on-line by the month of August (when students have entered their senior year in high school) for the following year. The application deadline is January 15 of the calendar year when the student will enter Georgia Tech. Scholarship programs (e.g. President’s Scholarship) have an earlier deadline (Oct 31).

The School of Aerospace Engineering uses the following complementary procedures for monitoring the progress of students.

1. 
   We use a faculty-led academic advising process. Please see the next section for additional details.
   
2. 
   Students enrolled in 1000 and 2000 level courses receive a mid-term evaluation of their progress (“S”: Satisfactory or “U”: Unsatisfactory) by the instructors. This evaluation is not recorded in the transcript and does not enter into the grade point average calculations. This evaluation serves as an early indicator to the student of his/her performance in that course. If a student has two or more “U” grades, the student is required to meet with his/her academic advisor to discuss their grades and develop strategies for improving their performance. AE places an academic hold on the student’s records until the student and the advisor have had an opportunity to have this meeting.
   
3. 
   The data from the students’ academic records are processed at the end of each term to monitor their term grade point average and the overall GPA. Their academic status (Faculty Honors, Dean’s List, Good, Warning, Probation, Drop) are also monitored. The entire faculty receives this list by e-mail from the AE School Academic Office, so that they may monitor their advisee’s progress. A paper copy of the current transcript is kept in the permanent records and used to by the advisors to monitor the progress.
   
4. 
   The students and the faculty have access to an on-line auditing tool developed by the Institute (http://www.registrar.gatech.edu/students/cappinstructions.php) This system allows the student to monitor his/her progress in various categories (humanities, social sciences, mathematics/Physics/Chemistry, engineering sciences, AE courses, free electives etc), and plan their future studies. Students may also use this tool to examine “What-If” scenarios (e.g. addition of a dual major, minor, or certificates) and to identify the impact of enrolling in the Co-Op, International Plan, or Research Option on their course load during the upcoming semesters.
   
5. 
   The progress of students in special categories (research option, honors program, thesis option, international Plan) are monitored by the Academic Office, in coordination with the Institute (Office of International Education, Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program), and the students are periodically notified.
   
6. 
   Students who have been dropped from class roll due to poor academic performance are required, as part of the readmission process, to prepare and sign a three-term academic contract spelling out their course work and required term the GPA. These students are advised and monitored by the School Associate Chair, and the academic advisor. The registrar’s office also monitors the student’s transcript at the end of each term (until the student’s overall GPA rises to 2.0 or above) to ensure that these students are making satisfactory progress towards “good” standing.
   
7. 
   Transfer students are strongly encouraged to meet their academic advisors at least once every term and develop a 2 or 3 year study plan. This is done to ensure that they will complete the program in time.
   
8. 
   The School of Aerospace Engineering strongly encourages all the students to develop a portfolio of accomplishments that complements their studies. For this reason, we also monitor (in addition to the transcripts) the student portfolios of accomplishments and offer enriching opportunities- study abroad experiences, International Plan, Co-Op, undergraduate research, honors program, thesis option.
   

The School of Aerospace Engineering has a faculty based academic advising system in place. All the students are assigned an Academic Advisor, who also serves as their mentor and career advisor during the entire time the student is in our program.

Until December 2007, mandatory academic advisement was required of all students, and a hold was placed on all students to ensure that the students consult their academic advisors before registering for classes. An Institute-wide survey indicated that the students were unhappy with this system and preferred a voluntary system. The Aerospace Engineering School Student Advisory Council (http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gtg357x/AESAC/aesac.htm) examined this matter from the students’ perspective and cited a number of reasons. The busy teaching and research on the part of our faculty, and the class schedules of the students both often kept the students from meeting their advisors in a timely fashion. This caused some of the students to register late, by which time many of the classes were full. The system (outside of AE) also has various restrictions that kept the students from following the schedule that was developed during the academic advising session. These include level restrictions that keep a senior from taking a required freshman or sophomore level class and vice versa, major restrictions placed by other units that give priority to their own students, and limits on class size to ensure a quality instruction. Our external advisory board also examined the difficulties and frustrations that the students faced (in spite of the number of hours our faculty and students spent meeting) and recommended that the academic advisement process be improved.

The AE faculty, in consultation with the student AE Student Advisory Council, has developed the following plan that has been implemented in spring 2008.

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  All the students are assigned an advisor, and are strongly encouraged to meet with their advisors at least once a term.
  
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  All the seniors (approximately 100 to 120 out of a total of ~700 students) are given academic advisement at the time they submit their degree petition by the Associate Chair or the staff Academic Advisor. This is done during the semester prior to the graduating term. A complete academic audit of the student’s transcript is done as part of this advisement, and the students are advised to take the remaining courses for meeting all the requirements of the program. This information is entered into the program of study as part of the degree petition certification process. This information is also entered into the student’s records by the registrar. Any deviation from this program of study (say, due to the student inadvertently failing to register for a required class) triggers a degree petition deficiency at the start of the graduating term. The student is able to correct this deficiency during the first week of classes and register for the missing class.
  
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  The freshman students (typically 170 to 200 students) are advised in group sessions, since nearly all of them have common course requirements. Approximately 70 of these students are registered for the freshman seminar (two sections of GT 1000) taught every fall term by the Associate Chair of the Undergraduate Program and the staff Academic Advisor. These students receive their academic advising during regularly scheduled class hour. Students not enrolled in the program attend two or more group advising sessions. The School takes advantage of these group sessions, and the GT 1000 lectures to brief the freshman students on the program options (Co-Op, International Plan, thesis Option) and other enriching experiences (design-build fly competitions, honors program, research opportunities, internships). One-on-one academic advising session is offered to all freshman students who wish to meet with a faculty advisor and for those with special requirements (e.g. students with a large number of AP credit hours).
  
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  Students with a GPA above 3.5 (approximately 70 to 80 students) are offered academic advising by their academic/research advisor.
  
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  Transfer students (approximately 20 to 30) are required to see an advisor.
  
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  The remaining students (approximately 350) are grouped into two categories: those with a GPA above 2.5 and those below 2.5. For students with a GPA below 2.5, academic advisement is mandatory because these students need to carefully plan their course of study to maintain good standing (GPA > 2.0) in the future. Students with a GPA above 2.5 are not required, but are strongly encouraged, to meet with their advisor before selecting classes.
  
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  Regardless of the category above to which a student belongs, the student always has the opportunity to meet with his/her advisor at a mutually convenient time during their studies to plan their studies and explore enrichment options.
  

Career mentoring is done in a number ways, in order to ensure that the students receive the guidance they need in choosing their careers and employers. The School works closely with the institute staff, alumni, and employers. The following approach is being used.

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  Career Services (http://www.career.gatech.edu/ ) has dedicated staff members trained in advising students as they make their career choices. Career Services has a well equipped career library, and assists students with their resume preparation, and in posting the resume and the student portfolios on a database that all employers have access to. Career Services also schedules on-campus interviews several times a year.   Finally special events (e.g. career Fair) and information sessions featuring industry speakers are organized several times a year.
  
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  The Division of Professional Practice (http://www.profpractice.gatech.edu/ ) offers three unique programs: Co-Op, Internship, and Work Abroad. Staff members who are familiar with the aerospace industry are assigned to work with the AE students (Co-Op: Debbie Pearson, Work Abroad: Jyoti Kaneria, Internships: Cindi Jordin). Students may meet with a staff advisor by scheduling an appointment. A staff advisor from this Division is also available once a week (Cindi Jordin, typically on a Tuesday, from 11 AM to 12 noon, in Room 325 of Montgomery-Knight) to meet with students interested in these opportunities.
  
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  Student Chapters of the professional societies (AIAA, AHS) and the Honor Society (Sigma Gamma Tau) organize regularly scheduled information sessions where the employers and recruiters brief interested students on their industry sector and job/internship/Co-Op opportunities. These seminars are usually combined with on-campus interview sessions hosted by the AE School, Career Services, or the Division of Professional Practice.
  
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  Most AE faculty members also serve as career advisors for students. These members have spent several decades working in the government, industry, or research labs. Most of our faculty members also have extensive industry and government liaisons as a result of their sponsored research activities. Students seeking career mentoring in a specific sector (aircraft, space, rotorcraft, government, DoD, NASA) are referred to these specialists by the student’s academic advisor and the AE Academic Office.
  

Applications from transfer students for all units (including AE) are centrally received and processed by the Georgia Tech Office of Admissions. The web site http://www.admiss.gatech.edu/transfer/ gives the admission criteria, deadlines, and other useful information. In the case of transfer students interested in pursuing a degree in AE, the program requires that they have completed at least 30 semester hours of course work with a GPA of 2.7 or above (GPA > 3.0 for out of state students), and that they have completed English I and II, Calculus I and II, Chemistry I, and Physics I. Calculus II should include linear algebra. If this is not the case, the incoming student is required to take a 2 hour course (Math 1522) on linear algebra upon entering Georgia Tech. A course on computer science is strongly encouraged, equivalent to CS 1371 (where Java and Matlab programming languages are covered in addition to principles of computing). If the student has taken a computer science course that does not include Matlab but covers the remaining topics, then the student is required to take a 1 credit hour self-paced course on Matlab (CS 1171).

The Registrar’s Office at Georgia Tech has created a transfer credit equivalency database (see https://oscar.gatech.edu/pls/bprod/wwtraneq.P_TranEq_Ltr ) that allows incoming transfer students to look up the classes they have taken and the equivalent Georgia tech credit they will receive for their course work. The courses transferred into the student’s program are recorded with the grade “T” in the student’s transcript. It is highly desirable that as much of the applicable coursework be transferred into the Georgia Tech prior to the student entering Georgia Tech, so that the student and the academic advisor can plan a program of study. Because of the differences in the schedules of the colleges around the world, the grades for many of the courses may not have been reported to the registrar on time. Georgia Tech allows the student to transfer credit after he/she has entered our program.

If a course that a student has taken at the prior institution is not found on the transfer credit equivalency database, the student is asked to meet with the academic advisors at the individual units (Math, Chemistry, AE, etc) with supporting material (transcript, course outlines, names of text books used, etc). The unit sends a ‘transfer credit approval form’ to the registrar if the course is found to be equivalent to a Georgia Tech course. Courses that are not identical to those at Georgia Tech are given generic numbers (AE 2xxx, CS 13x1, etc). The equivalency table database is updated to include all transferred courses. In many cases, partial credit is given if it is found that only a few topics are missing (linear algebra, Matlab, etc). For instance, in the case of students transferring a course on dynamics, 3-D rigid body dynamics content is sometimes missing. In such an event, the student is asked to take a bridge course (for 1 or 2 credit hours) that covers the missing material.

The students in the school of Aerospace Engineering are strongly encouraged to meet with their academic advisors regularly to ensure that they are making satisfactory progress towards the degree. A flow chart (available on-line at http://www.ae.gatech.edu/academics/undergraduate/forms/Sem-05A1.pdf ) is used to track the student’s progress and to identify courses that remain to be completed. Students and advisors may also monitor the progress using an auditing tool available on-line at http://www.registrar.gatech.edu/students/cappinstructions.php.

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  During the term prior to the graduation, the student fills out a degree petition, listing the classes he/she will take during the following (graduating term). This degree petition, and the student’s transcript, both are manually audited by the Associate Chair of the AE School and/or the staff Academic Advisor, to ensure that the student will complete all the requirements. Any discrepancies (e.g., missing courses, transfer equivalencies, etc) are addressed at this point as needed, and the student is given an opportunity to take these courses during the following (graduating) term. A meeting with the student is arranged as needed. The registrar receives a copy of this audit. The student can monitor the status of the degree petition on-line to ensure that there are no deficiencies.
  
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  The graduating seniors, like all other students, will pre-register for classes for the following term. For instance, a student graduating in spring 2008 will pre-register for the spring term classes in October 2007. The Registrar’s Office generates an audit of the graduating term courses. The AE School receives this audit, and independently checks the audit to ensure that the student is pre-registering for the required courses to complete degree requirements.
  
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  At the start of the graduating term, the graduating senior has an opportunity to add or delete courses. In order that the student does not inadvertently drop a required course, a third manual audit is done (by the AE School and the registrar) before registration closes. The student is given ample time, and multiple opportunities, to correct any deficiencies.
  

The BSAE program has been steadily growing over the past 5 years. The table below gives the total enrollment and graduation data.