Advising FAQs

TWO-YEAR or JUNIOR COLLEGE TRANSFER CREDIT:  A student may transfer in any amount of hours from a two year or Junior college; however a minimum of 60 semester hours must be earned at a four-year (senior) institution in order to be cleared for a baccalaureate degree. 

UPPER LEVEL HOURS: A student must earn a minimum of 40 hours of upper level credit (courses numbered 3-4000) for a baccalaureate degree.  (Note: Some colleges may require a higher minimum), If a lower level transfer course is applied toward what would be an upper level course at OU, those hours carry the level of credit from the originating institution. (Read this last sentence again carefully.)

RESIDENCE (Required Hours at OU) REQUIREMENTS:  A student must complete in residence (at OU) 36 of the hours listed in the junior and senior years on their curriculum check sheet and Degree Navigator.  24 of these 36 must be in the major field (eg AME, ChE, ECE, etc.).

SECOND UNDEGRADUATE DEGREE:  A student who has completed the requirements for the bachelor's degree at OU may also receive a second bachelor's degree at OU upon the completion of the curriculum prescribed for the second degree, provided that the work completed includes at least 30 additional hours of engineering, applied science and APPROVED elective courses appropriate to the field of the second degree.  TWENTY FOUR (24) OF THESE HOURS MUST BE IN THE MAJOR FIELD, INCLUDING A CAPSTONE EXPERIENCE.   These courses must be over and above the hours completed for the first degree.

CORE III/CORE IV HUMANITIES/SOCIAL SCIENCE ELECTIVES:  III. AND IV. Humanities/Social Sciences - requires 12 hours, plus U.S. Government and American History.  The 12 hours must be chosen, three hours each from four areas: (1) social sciences; (2) understanding artistic forms; (3) western civilization and culture; and (4) non-western culture. At least one of the courses (minimum of 3 hours) used to satisfy the general education requirements must be at the upper division level (3000/4000 level).

FOREIGN LANGUAGE:  The University requires 2 consecutive semesters of the same foreign language.  This requirement can be fulfilled by the completion of 2 years of the same foreign language in high school, the completion of an Associate of Arts or Science or the prior completion of a Bachelor’s Degree.

PROFESSIONAL, TECHNICAL OR EXPERIMENTAL ELECTIVES:  These elective lists are available in your department and in most cases a faculty advisor’s approval is required on the blue sheet.

WHAT YEAR CURRICULUM AM I ON?  The Degree Navigator record is a personalized printout of your degree requirements and indicates the degree program and year in which you are enrolled.  NOTE:  Curriculum sheets in the Williams Student Services Center are for the current year and may not match your DN record.  You are always able to move to a newer curriculum; however, you must fulfill ALL requirements on that curriculum even if they differ considerably from the earlier ones.

ONE-HOUR DEFICIENCY:  If your DN record indicates that you are one hour deficient in a course, complete a DN correction request.  If the deficiency is in a technical area (math, science or engineering) the deficiency can be fulfilled by one hour of a technical course.  This course can be from excess course work (extra courses appear at the bottom of your DN Graduation Report) or from enrollment into an extra hour.  It must be “curriculum level” or higher.  (For instance, if a student is short one hour in the Calculus sequence, it may NOT be made up by using one hour from a math course below Calculs I, i.e. Math 1823.)    

INDEPENDENT STUDY: College of Engineering students may take courses through the University of Oklahoma’s correspondence department if they are in good standing in the College of Engineering with a GPA above 2.0.  Students need to have their Independent Study application signed in the WSSC and will be cautioned regarding unfinished coursework.

WHERE CAN I GO FOR QUESTIONS NOT LISTED?: Please feel free to see one of our Counselors-on-call in the Williams Student Services Center (WSSC) Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.  in Felgar Hall 112 or make an appointment by calling 325-4096 or logging onto our online appointment scheduler: http://iadvise.ou.edu .  You may also e-mail questions to coeadvising@ou.edu.