The USD Department of Engineering welcomes transfer students. In general, courses that are accepted for transfer to UC or Cal State schools are transferable to our programs. USD offers three different engineering majors: Electrical Engineering, Industrial & Systems Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering. The three different programs share a common first two years, so if you take the right courses you are ready for any of the three majors.
Within Engineering, the vast majority of our courses are "sequenced" - this means that they need to be taken in a certain order. You can't take Calculus II until you have taken Calculus I and so on. To make it easier to avoid sequencing mistakes, we present our major requirements in the form of a "standard pattern" that shows classes taken in the correct order.
Standard Pattern for the First Two Years as an Engineering Major at USD:
Freshman Year |
|
Semester I |
Semester II |
|
|
Semester I |
Semester II |
Frequently asked questions:
1. What are the "most important" courses? The most important courses to take if you want to be ready for sophomore-level engineering requirements are:
MATH 150: Calculus I, MATH 151: Calculus II , PHYS 270: Mechanics
With all three of these courses, you are ready in terms of prerequisites for the sophomore courses. Without each of these three, you are only ready for Freshman-level engineering requirements. (A list is provided below of what the equivalent community college course is for each of these.) In general, the more Calculus and Calculus-based Physics requirements you take, the better prepared you are.
2. When is the best time to get advising on being a transfer into engineering? Advising can help you avoid taking the wrong classes and delaying your degree. The information provided here is a good start, but it isn't a substitute for academic advising from an engineering professor. It is never too soon to meet with an advisor. You can make an appointment to get transfer advising from a USD Engineering faculty member even before you are actually accepted for admission. If you would like an advising appointment, please contact USD Engineering at usdengr@sandiego.edu and request one. Please bring a copy of your college transcript(s) with you so we can make an accurate evaluation of what courses you should plan to take.
3. What community college courses meet transfer requirements? See the listing below that refers to actual San Diego Community College District courses and lists the USD course it will transfer as in parentheses after each. Your own college or university will often have very similar courses. A website, www.assist.org, offers online transfer information about equivalent transfer courses at CA state universities and community colleges.
San Diego Community College District equivalent courses to USD requirements:
Math Courses:
- Mathematics 150 Calculus/Analytic Geometry I (equiv to MATH 150)
- Mathematics 151 Calculus/Analytic Geometry II (equiv to MATH 151)
- Mathematics 252 Calculus/Analytic Geometry III (equiv to MATH 250)
- Mathematics 255 Differential Equations (equiv to MATH 330, we will accept in place of MATH 310)
Physics Courses:
- Physics 195A Mechanics (equiv to PHYS 270)
- Physics 195B Electricity and Magnetism (equiv to PHYS 271)
- Physics 195C Waves, Light, and Modern Physics (equiv to PHYS 272)
Chemistry Courses:
- Chemistry 200 General Chemistry (equiv to CHEM 151)
- Chemistry 200L General Chemistry Lab (equiv to CHEM 151L)
Engineering Courses:
- Engineering 111 or 151 Intro to Computer Aided Design (we will accept for ENGR 101)
- Engineering 152 Engineering Design (equiv to ENGR 102)
- Engineering 200 Statics (MENG 210)
- Engineering 260 Electric Circuits (equiv to 3 of 4 units for ELEC 201; prepares students for all courses that require ELEC 201 as a prerequisite)
- Engineering 210 Properties of Materials (equiv to ENGR 311, a junior-level engineering requirement)
- Computer and Info Science 192 C/C++ Programming (equiv to ENGR 121)
- Instead of C/C++, we will also accept these courses in place of ENGR 121:
- Computer and Info Science 186 Visual Basic Programming
- Enginering 15 Fortran and Numerical Methods for Engineers and Scientists
- Computer and Info Science 190 JAVA Programming
- Computer and Info Science 205 Object Oriented Programming
Other Useful Courses
- English 105 Composition and Literature (equiv to ENGL 121)
- Economics 120 or 121 Principles of Economics (EE or ME majors may substitute for ISYE 220; not suitable for ISyE majors)
- Philosophy 101 Symbolic Logic (equiv to PHIL 102) or Philosophy 100 Logic/Critical Thinking (either one meets GE critical reasoning requirement)
