Forms & Policies

For CISE advisement, students should email an academic advisor (ugadvisors@cise.ufl.edu) or check out Academic Advising.

Contents

Grade Point Averages (GPA)

CISE tracks several grade point averages (GPA) depending on a student’s major.

UF Cumulative GPA (C-GPA) and Upper Division GPA (UD-GPA)

A minimum C-GPA and/or UD-GPA of 2.0 is required for all coursework attempted at UF. If a student drops below 2.0, then the student will be on academic probation.

Critical Tracking GPA (CT-GPA)

A minimum combined CT-GPA of 2.5 is required for all Critical Tracking courses. If a student drops below 2.5, then the student will be on Critical Tracking Probation and must sign a probation contract.

Computer Science Courses GPA (CS-GPA)

A minimum CS-GPA of 2.0 is required for all computer science courses attempted at UF. If a student drops below 2.0, then the student will be on Departmental Probation and must sign a probation contract.

Academic Probation

Students should email an academic advisor (ugadvisors@cise.ufl.edu) or check out Academic Advising.

Drop/Add

To drop a class:

  • College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Students:
  • College of Engineering Students:
    • If you wish to drop a class, you must take the following steps:
      1. Go to one.uf >> Registration >> Request to drop a course; enter info.
        (NOTE: THIS DOES NOT DROP THE COURSE, it is only the record of your request to do so.)
      2. Schedule an advising appointment to discuss and finalize the drop.
        (You may wish to speak to an academic advisor, your course instructor, and/or UF Office of Student Financial Aid and Scholarships to discuss the options and implications before taking action.)

View additional college-level policies related to drop/add/withdrawal.

View additional university-level policies related to drop/add/withdrawal.

Please note: the deadlines for regular drops will be announced or posted on the Registrar’s semester calendar.

For information, visit the UF Catalog site’s page on drop/add.

  • Courses can be dropped or added during the drop/add period without penalty. Classes that meet for the first time after the drop/add period can be dropped without academic penalty or fee liability by the end of the next business day after the first meeting. This does not apply to laboratory sections.
  • After drop/add, a course can be dropped up to the date established in the university calendar. A grade of W will appear on the transcript, and students will be held liable for course fees.
  • All drops after the drop/add period must be submitted to the Office of the University Registrar by the deadline and are subject to the following restrictions:
    • Students get two drops in their first 60 credit hours attempted at UF (hours carried plus S/U credits and repeats of satisfactory grades, not counting full-term withdrawals from all courses. AP/IB courses are not taken at UF and thus these credits are not counted towards the 60 hours).
    • The term after 60 hours of attempted enrollment at UF, 2 additional drops are allowed. Unused drops do not carry over from the freshman/sophomore years to the junior/senior years.
    • Students transferring to UF with an A.A. degree from a Florida public community college or with 60 or more transfer credits earned from another college or university get only two drops.
    • Students who can document extenuating circumstances may petition their college for additional drops.
    • After the deadline, students may petition to drop provided they can document sufficient reason, usually hardship or medical condition occurring after the deadline.
  • Failure to attend a class does not constitute a drop. 

The Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering has an additional drop policy for engineering students: A student with an initial course load of 15 credits or more will be permitted to drop one course per semester without penalty provided this is done prior to the end of the seventh week of class and the total credits remaining are 12 or more.

Undergraduate Research

UF and CISE offer numerous opportunities for students to pursue undergraduate research for credit under the direction of a faculty member. These intensive research opportunities personalize the academic experience and challenge students to strengthen their writing and analytical skills.

Interested students should:

  • Review the EGN 4912 Undergraduate Research Syllabus
  • Contact any faculty member(s), whose work appeals to you, to express interest in doing research for credit and inquire whether they have any projects you could work on.
  • Complete the registration form, digitally signed by the student and the faculty member. If you have not been registered EGN 4912 within two weeks, email an academic advisor (ugadvisors@cise.ufl.edu).

Below are several resources to help students pursue an opportunity for undergraduate research.

  1. CISE pages:
  2. Search in Bits & Bytes (CISE Blog) for any posts in the last year or so that sound interesting, and make the appropriate contact.
  3. Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering undergraduate research information
  4. UF’s Center for Undergraduate Research

Once a potential faculty member(s) is chosen, students must discuss and finalize the work they are agreeing to do. Students will then need to complete the registration form, to be registered for credit. Please note that any research done must be registered for 0-3 credits as indicated on the registration form.

Students may also be interested in applying for the University Scholars Program.

CIS 4905 Individual Study Policy

CIS 4905 Individual Study allows students to register, for credit, for a faculty-supervised customized independent-learning plan using written materials in an area of Computer Science over the duration of a semester. In order to be considered for CIS 4905, the proposed project must:

  • be in an area of Computer Science
  • involve a plan of study about the selected topic(s) through faculty-curated learning materials
  • be set up with a *CISE/ECE faculty supervisor using the CIS 4905 Registration Form.
  • be for 1-4 credits, depending on the amount of work agreed upon

*A student may use a non-CISE/ECE faculty member at UF:

  1. if that faculty member has appropriate expertise and can oversee a Computer Science-related plan of study, and
  2. the student has a CISE faculty member approve and ultimately take responsibility for the project.

The faculty member will establish and guide the study plan as well as assign a letter grade at the project completion.

For students who are interested in CIS 4905, there may or may not be a faculty member willing to oversee the desired project. Students should not assume a faculty member will be interested or have time to oversee. Therefore, students should start by respectfully asking if a faculty member with expertise in the area of interest would be open to discussing the possibility of Individual Study. If so, students would need to have a conversation about interests, and then follow the faculty member’s lead on how to proceed. If the student and faculty member come to an agreement, they would need to complete the CIS 4905 Registration Form and email an academic advisor (ugadvisors@cise.ufl.edu) by the end of the drop/add week of the term for which the study will be completed.

Note: The difference between CIS 4905 Individual Study and EGN 4912 Undergraduate Research is that CIS 4905 is learning about something via a planned program of study (“book learning”), whereas EGN 4912 is hands-on application where students are participating in the research project of a faculty member.

Coursework from Outside UF

CISE undergraduate students can request to transfer in a maximum of four courses toward required core Computer Science or required Computer Science elective coursework, dependent upon courses being deemed equivalent by the Department. For evaluation of transfer courses for Course Equivalency in CISE, transfer students admitted to any of the undergraduate programs offered by CISE (including the UF Online programs) are required to submit Course Equivalency Requests for desired CS courses by the end of their first semester at UF. See below for Course Equivalency request process.

Course Equivalency Request Process

Using the Course Equivalency Request form (click here for COP 3502 or here for other CS courses), students must provide all relevant evidence and documentation of the non-UF course (i.e. course description, syllabus, assignments, instructor contact info.) with the request form as well as the specific UF course for which equivalence is requested. The Course Equivalency Request form and accompanying documentation must be submitted to the Advising Office (UFO students: mwilliams@eng.ufl.edu, Campus students:  ug-coordinator@cise.ufl.edu), and the appropriate faculty will evaluate.*

*The course equivalency process will take approximately two weeks.

S/U Grade Option

All courses taken at the university to satisfy degree requirements, general education, and writing requirements must be taken for letter grade (A-E), unless the course is offered only on a satisfactory-unsatisfactory (S-U) basis. Students may request permission from instructor to take a course for S/U if that course will not be used to meet degree requirements.

Form and process for seeking permission can be found here: https://registrar.ufl.edu/pdf/SUgradeoption.pdf

Internship/Co-op

While it is not required, CISE strongly encourages students to participate in one or more internships. An internship/co-op gives students the opportunity to explore hands-on academic and vocational interests, gain valuable experience in the chosen field prior to graduation, and earn income that can be used to defray college expenses. The work experience is conducted under approved industrial, business, institutional, or governmental agency supervision. When students obtain an internship, CISE offers students an opportunity to receive one-credit per internship or co-op term (repeatable up to three times) as they integrate classroom instruction with practical work experience.

Internship/Co-op for Credit Policy

CIS 4940 Practical Work (Internship/ Co-op) is a one-credit course that may be applied toward the technical electives requirement for CISE undergraduate degree programs. Students register for CIS 4940/4949 prior to beginning the internship/co-op. The participatory requirement is for the student to complete the internship/co-op and file the summary documents at completion. Students may register for CIS 4940/4949 a maximum of three times for a total of three credits. It may only be taken S/U (Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory). Registration for the course is handled through CISE Academic Advising.

To register for CIS 4940/4949, a formal letter from the sponsoring company describing the nature of the internship/co-op must be emailed to CISE Academic Advising (ugadvisors@cise.ufl.edu) before the end of the registration drop/add period and before the start of the internship/co-op. To qualify for credit, the offer letter must confirm the following about the work:

  • Computer science-related
  • Full time (40 hours per week)
  • Minimum of 12 weeks (600 hours or more)
  • Description of the student’s responsibilities
  • Detailed contact information of the person or persons who will be supervising the student during the internship

Note: Students may complete a during-term (Fall or Spring) internship for credit while simultaneously being enrolled in classes at UF. CISE will allow 1 credit of internship if the internship is 20 or more hours per week AND the student is enrolled in 12 credits of course work. Other requirements remain the same as a full-time internship: Computer Science-related work, minimum of 12-week duration, offer letter on hand on company letterhead that outlines the relevant details.

Co-op vs. Internship

Co-ops (short for cooperative work and academic experience) differ from internships in that they involve programmatic repetitive work with a single company alternating with traditional semester coursework, but other requirements and processes are the same. Co-ops can be taken either as an Alternating Co-op in which a student works full-time in non-consecutive semesters with a company, registering only for CIS4949 during co-op, or as a Parallel Co-op in which a student works part-time for consecutive semesters with a company while enrolled as a full-time student at UF. Registration for the course is handled through CISE Academic Advising. Co-op students are required to meet with an advisor at the Career Connections Center before the Co-op begins. The Career Connections Center will keep a file on the student’s co-op experience.

In the case of a Parallel Co-op, the letter must indicate that the student will be working approximately 20 hours a week over the term of the semester (approximately 300 hours total) while the student is enrolled in class full time (12 credits).

To successfully complete the CIS 4940/4949 with a grade of Satisfactory, a 2-4 page Post-Internship Summary Report written by the student, and a formal Evaluation Letter written by the student’s supervisor(s) must be emailed to an academic advisor (ugadvisors@cise.ufl.edu) one week prior to the end of finals week.

The Summary Report should result from the student’s reflection on the internship and should include:

  • A summary of the role the student played in the company (no need to include sensitive details),
  • How the student believes they did in the role,
  • And most importantly, how the student feels the internship/co-op contributed to their own learning and professional development in the field of computer science.

In short, the report should address how the internship contributed to the student’s overall educational experience.

The Evaluation Letter must include:

  • Dates worked
  • The role the student played and nature of the work (in brief, no need for sensitive or technical details)
  • Evaluative comments (brief is fine) about how the job was performed and how the intern’s work contributed to the company

Graduating Seniors

Degree Application

All CISE graduating seniors are required to submit a Degree Application, usually within the first three weeks of the semester in which they intend to graduate. Degree application due dates can be found here.

Graduating seniors who do not submit a Degree Application by the deadline are required to petition their respective college Dean’s office. Petition information can be found here.

Exit Interview

CISE graduating seniors are also required to complete the CISE Online Exit Interview.

Note: The Exit Interview page will require you to log in with your CISE account username and password. If you are using Internet Explorer and receive a certificate error, please click “Continue to this website (not recommended).”

FORMS

Additional information on policies at UF are listed in the catalog.