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Rules and Regulations

Engineering School Policies

Cumulative GPA Requirement

A minimum GPA of 2.7 for Master's students must be maintained in order to be considered in good academic standing. If this minimum is not maintained, academic probation or dismissal from the program will be invoked. A 2.7 final GPA must be achieved to graduate in all situations. (Effective Fall 2007 class)

Failure to maintain the minimum GPA requirement will result in placement on academic probation, prevent graduation and may result in dismissal from the School. Students cannot graduate with a grade of D or lower in a core course.

Enrollment

Three courses in the Fall and Spring semesters respectively constitutes full-time enrollment. Part-time students must take one or two course units each semester during both Fall and Spring.

Failure to maintain continuous enrollment will result in the student being dropped from the School's rolls. Students are required to be continuously enrolled while in graduate school, unless an official leave of absence is requested by the student and granted by the graduate group chair. One exception is that students who have completed all their degree requirements before the beginning of a given semester and are to graduate in that semester may petition the Associate Dean to be exempted from registration.

University of Pennsylvania reviews of courses can be found at vpul.upenn.edu/coursereview/dept_listing.php

If you register for a class as an Audit, you will be charged the same tuition & fees as if you registered for the class for a credit/grade.

Students should try to drop classes during the add/drop period to avoid financial penalty. If a student withdraws from a class after the add/drop period, the "Withdrawal from a Course petition" - www.seas.upenn.edu/forms/g-withdrawal-petition.pdf - is used.

Full-time and part-time master's students must complete the program requirements within seven years of matriculation at Penn.

Retaking classes: As noted in the SEAS Graduate Handbook - www.seas.upenn.edu/grad/handbook/registration.html#acad_standing
"At the discretion of the instructor, the student can work with the instructor to improve the grade to "C" or higher with additional course work. At the discretion of the instructor, the student can retake the course by attending the course again (in a subsequent term) without registering or paying additional tuition, and will receive a grade change if earned.
If the instructor does not agree to either (1) or (2), the student's only option is to register and pay tuition for the course again. Upon successful completion of the retake, the original registration will be changed to 'withdraw'. [Thus the original course and grade will not be counted toward graduation or GPA; i.e., SEAS will not allow the course to be counted twice toward the degree. . . . .No course may be retaken/re-registered to improve a grade of "C" unless the content is different. (Students may, with instructor's permission, do additional work to improve this grade, however)."

Courses

All University course descriptions can be found at www.upenn.edu/registrar/register/cis.html.

CIS course web pages can be found at www.seas.upenn.edu/class.html#CIS.

Transfer Credit

Graduate courses taken at another university prior to starting the graduate program, and not used to complete the requirements for an undergraduate program, may be transferred to the Penn Penn transcript. Up to two courses can be transferred to the master's program.  The transfer credit form can be accessed at www.seas.upenn.edu/forms/g-transfer-credit.pdf

Registration

Directions & procedures for registering using the PennInTouch registration system are available from https://sentry.isc.upenn.edu/intouch/.

During the advance registration period each semester, CIS grad students are placed on an administrative ``hold''; this is to assure that students should consult with their advisors before registering for classes. Before you can register using PennInTouch, the hold must be cleared, either by submitting a paper permission form signed by both student and advisor, or by an e-mail from the advisor to Mike Felker. Once the "hold" is released, students can register, add/drop classes, etc. using PennInTouch.

Billing

The Student Financial Services website, www.upenn.edu/sfs, provides information regarding billing, billing schedules, payment plans, resources, etc.

Courses, even those taken in another school of the University, are billed as SEAS courses.

If you detect any sort of discrepancies in your bill, please contact Mike Felker, mfelker@cis.upenn.edu

Leave of Absence

A student may be granted a leave of absence---generally for military or medical reasons, but other circumstances will also be considered. The student must submit a petition to the Graduate Group Chair for approval. Final approval rests with the Associate Dean. A student who plans to leave SEAS either temporarily or permanently must submit to the Graduate Group Chair a ``Petition for Action'' form, available at www.seas.upenn.edu/forms/g-petition.pdf. 

Withdrawal

Students should try to drop classes during the add/drop period to avoid financial penalty.  If a student withdraws from a class after the add/drop period, the "Withdrawal from a Course petition" - www.seas.upenn.edu/forms/g-withdrawal-petition.pdf - is used.

A student who plans to leave SEAS either temporarily or permanently must submit to the Robotics Chair a Petition for Action form, available at www.seas.upenn.edu/forms/g-petition.pdf.  A student who is considering withdrawal is strongly encouraged to meet with Mike Felker or the Chair to discuss their situation and options. Students are responsible for dropping all registered courses in the semester they wish to withdraw to effectively stop the billing process (i.e., withdrawal from the School does not automatically cancel course registration). Once a student has withdrawn, he or she may request reinstatement by writing a letter.

Ethics

The CIS department encourages collaboration among graduate students. However, it is important to recognize the distinction between collaboration and cheating, which is prohibited and carries serious consequences. Cheating may be defined as using or attempting to use unauthorized assistance, material, or study aids in academic work or examinations. Some examples of cheating are: collaborating on a take-home exam or homework unless explicitly allowed; copying homework; handing in someone else's work as your own; and plagiarism.

More information can be found at: Code of Academic Integrity - www.vpul.upenn.edu/osl/acadint.html
                                                    Notes on Academic Integrity - www.upenn.edu/osc/faq.html

Information re: University grievance procedure policy can be found at www.gsc.upenn.edu/resguide/univ.html#grievance

Please also contact Mike Felker, mfelker@cis.upenn.edu, 215 898 9672 re: a grievance or other problems.

Forms

Many of the forms needed for administrative concerns can be found at www.cis.upenn.edu/grad/forms.shtml.

Many of the SEAS administrative forms are at www.seas.upenn.edu

Resources

Links to resources can be found at www.cis.upenn.edu/grad/administrative.shtml  and

www.cis.upenn.edu/grad/general-resources.shtml

questions - mfelker@cis.upenn.edu