Frequently Asked Questions

• There are many opportunities for students to participate in research/internships. As an incoming freshman, you can apply to the Mechanical Engineering Freshman Introduction to Research in Engineering (FIRE) Program. You can also find a complete list of Cockrell School research opportunities here.
• The ME department also offers an Independent Research Course (ME 377K) that allows you to do research with a faculty member and earn 3 upper-division credit hours towards your required technical electives
• Internship support for Cockrell is offered through the Engineering Career Assistance Center (ECAC)
  • ECAC hosts a Career Expo each semester that also assists students with finding jobs and/or internships

ECAC tracks post-graduation statistics for the Cockrell School, so they would be the best resource for seeking more information about job placement.

Junior year and senior year courses are when you will start taking courses that have lectures and labs. Here is a screenshot of the courses you would be taking your last 2 years and you can see that most of them have a lab component to them.

• The ME lectures can sometimes be 100 students, but those larger lectures may also have a discussion session that is smaller (25-30 students). For example, ME 316T – Thermodynamics (pictured below) has a MWF 11am-12pm time that is the same for all 4 sections pictured, but each section has a different discussion time (listed second) that would be the discussion session.
• For your junior/senior year courses, the lectures (ME 334, ME 330, ME 340, etc.) may have 50 – 100 students enrolled, but the labs associated with them (ME 134L, ME 130L, ME 140L, etc.) will have 10-12 students enrolled.

The Cockrell School does not allow engineering students to double major or minor in another engineering discipline. You can however take courses in BME by speaking with their advising office during the semester that you are interested in taking one to see if there is availability. The ME department also offers a technical track that covers BME course content that would allow ME students to explore this area of study. More information about the technical tracks can be found under Career Gateway Electives.

• While engineering is why you want to come here, you should also be looking at what non-STEM related organizations/activities/groups that might interest you; that way you can get involved in the campus life in a variety of ways. It is always good to have a nice balance between work/personal life even while being a student.
• Good study locations – this is also important to understand how you learn best, so you can find environments on campus that support that learning
  • If you like to study alone in a more isolated location or if you like to study outside, there are places all across campus that you could discover. 

• Advisors are available to students Monday – Friday, 8am – 4:30pm
• Advisors work remotely Mondays and Fridays (available via email)

• All advisors have availability posted on Navigate throughout the semester. If you do not see any appointments, please email an advisor directly.
• Appointments are offered virtual and in-person to accommodate all student needs and schedules.

Yes, there is virtual drop-in advising every day; Monday/Wednesday/Friday: 2p – 4p and Tuesday/Thursday: 9am – 11am

ME students cannot register for non-me courses that say open;reserved. Open;reserved means that the course is reserved for students in a specific major or program. Courses that are available to you will have the status “open”.

• If you are interested in taking an engineering course from a different department, you will need to reach out to the advisors for that department directly to ask about their non-major course request process. All departments do it differently and some courses are not available to non-majors, so please be aware that you may not be able to take all of the courses that they offer.
• Mechanical Engineering students can gain access to other engineering courses on the 1^st class day, but should be able to notify the department that they are interested once registration opens for that semester.

For ME courses that have a lab associated with them, you have to be successfully enrolled in the lab to gain access to the lecture

To gain access to the lecture for a lab, you must be successfully enrolled in the lab. If the advising office is able to add you to the lab, we will also add you to the lecture.

Please join the waitlist for all the courses that you need for the upcoming semester and the advising office will add students to the courses they need

No, joining a waitlist just lets the advising office know that you need the course, we may not be able to add you to that specific section

While we do our best to add students that faculty request to have in their course, the advising office controls the enrollment for all ME courses and we have to follow strict enrollment protocols that may limit adding students even with faculty recommendation.

• Non-ME students that would like to take a ME course for the upcoming semester will be required to complete the Non-Major Course Request
  • This form is available for Fall and Spring semesters only. For summer sessions, non-ME students should email the Academic Advising Coordinator to see if there are available space to be added.

Transfer students will be notified well in advance of the start of the new semester to allow for changes. Whether you are leaving ME or joining ME, there will be time for you to sit down with an advisor and have a 1:1 meeting if you need it.

Students should be enrolling in courses for their current major just in case they do not get accepted into their new major choice. Transferring is not guaranteed within Cockrell or other colleges at UT, so you want to make sure you are prepared to remain in your current major and continue coursework.

If you are not accepted into your new major, you can speak with an Engineering Student Services Advisor about the options that you have moving forward.

All external transfers should be attending summer orientation where you will receive all the information you need to get started at UT and have a 1:1 appointment with a Mechanical Engineering Advisor.

• You will have the opportunity to apply for a transfer to a different department at the end of your first semester. Accepted transfers become effective the following spring semester.
• All students interested in transferring to a different department within Cockrell or a different college within UT Austin, will need to attend a mandatory information session led by Engineering Student Services