CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY BAKERSFIELD
Computer and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science


Advising Information

Last Updated: January 24, 2021

These advising notes apply to current students majoring in Computer Science (CS), Computer Engineering (CE), and Electrical Engineering (EE) only. Within Computer Science, some notes may apply only to one of the three tracks: Computer Science (CS-CS), Computer Information Systems (CS-CIS), and Information Security (CS-IS).

Department Petitions for Exception

The department requires an NSME Petition for Exception for several enrollment or graduation requirement exceptions. Students must include a justification with the petition. Petitions are turned in to the CEE/CS Department office in Science III and will be evaluated by the appropriate department subcommittee (CS or ECE). Dean's Office approval is not needed for these petitions.

During remote/virtual operations, petitions and all supporting documentation should be emailed to ceecs@cs.csub.edu for processing.

The blank NSME Petition for Exception is at the NSME Student Center: Petition for Exception.

Petitions are required for the following:

  • Override a prerequisite for a CMPS or ECE course (also attach an add slip with permission from the course instructor)
  • Take a CMPS or ECE course concurrently with its prereq course (also attach an add slip with permission from the course instructor)
  • Take a CMPS or ECE course for the fourth time (also attach the campus petition forms from the Academic Petitions Committee)
  • Substitute a core course (justification must state hardship/extenuating circumstances that will prevent the student from taking the core course when it is next offered)

Students will be notified of the subcommittee decision by email.

Quarter-to-Semester (Q2S) Transition

Students continuing from the quarter system to the semester system in Fall 2016 have the option of using the 2013/15 catalog or the 2016/18 catalog for major and general education requirements. Older catalogs will not be converted to the semester system. See the Degree Info page for Q2S transition guides and information.

Standing Substitutions

These are standing substitutions for coursework within the CS, CE, and EE majors. Students will still need to fill out an Advising Checklist that lists these substitutions during their grad check process. Note: Some of these substitutions are only for specific catalog years.

All Catalogs:
  • Students can opt to use the elective list from the current catalog on any earlier catalog. This will not show up automatically on myCSUB. Paperwork must be filed with the campus.
Semester-system substitutions:
  • Students can opt to take either the regular calculus (MATH 25xx) or engineering calculus (MATH 23xx) sequence.
  • There are several options for ECE students to complete multivariable and vector calculus: MATH 2330, MATH 2530, MATH 2533, or both MATH 2531+2532.
  • For CS-CIS students, MATH 1030 (dual credit precalculus) satisfies the MATH 1040 (precalculus) requirement.
  • CMPS 4890 Experiential Prior Learning credit will only count for general elective units in the CS-CIS track (up to 4 units). It will not count as an advanced elective.
Quarter-system substitutions:
  • MATH 231, 232, 233, and 234 (Calculus for Engineering) may be substituted for MATH 201, 202, 203, and 204 respectively. Engineering majors are encouraged to take the MATH 23x sequence instead of the MATH 20x sequence.
  • MATH 230 may be taken instead of MATH 330 for the Linear Algebra cognate.
  • MATH 6E from Bakersfield College may be used to meet the Linear Algebra (MATH 230 or MATH 330) cognate.
  • ENGR B47 from Bakersfield College may be used to meet the ECE 160 requirement.
  • Students on older catalogs that only required CMPS 490 or ECE 490 who did not complete that course under the quarter system will have to take both CMPS/ECE 4910+4928 courses under semesters to complete their Senior Project requirement. There is no single-course option for Senior Project under the semester system.
  • For CS-CIS students, CMPS 224 (Assembly Language Programming), ECE 277 (Special Topics - High Speed Rail), ENGR/CMPS 270 and 271 (CAD for Engineering), and MATH 201-203/231-233 (Calculus) count as general elective courses.
  • CMPS 489 Experiential Prior Learning credit will count for general elective units in the CS-CIS track (up to 5 units). It will not count as an advanced elective (e.g. you cannot use it to substitute for CMPS 435, 450, 456, etc.).
  • For CS-CIS students who are taking a minor, you can use the units of your minor (up to 25 quarter units) to replace some or all of the general elective units for your catalog year.
  • Students on 2011/13 or earlier catalogs may use MATH 339 or MATH 205 for MATH 340 if a course conflict prevents enrollment in MATH 340.
  • For CS-CIS students on catalog years before 2011/13, CMPS 211 (Web Development & Programming) counts as an elective.
  • For CS-CIS students on older catalogs that require MATH 191 or higher, MATH 190 can be used instead of MATH 191. CS-CIS students on newer catalogs are required to complete MATH 192 or higher.
  • For CS-CIS students on catalog years before 2013/15, CMPS 435, 442, 450, 456, 460, 471, or 476 may be used for the CMPS 435/442/465 requirement.
  • For CS students on the 2009/11 or 2011/13 catalogs, see substitution guidelines for additional advisory substitutions within those tracks.
  • For CS Hardware Track students on catalog years before 2009/11, MATH 206 may be substituted with either MATH 204 or 205.

Additional substitutions may be granted on a case-by-case basis. Students will need very strong justification for substituting courses if they are on the 2013/15 or later catalogs.

General Education for CS and ECE Majors

Semester-system GE:
  • Upper-Division Area B is waived for majors in NSME. It will be substituted by your Senior Project II course on your myCSUB Academic Requirements page.
  • PHIL 3318 (Professional Ethics) satisfies the Upper-Division Area C requirement.
  • PHYS 2210 satisfies Area B1/B3. CS-CIS and CS-IS students still need to take an Area B1/B3 course.
  • Students who complete MATH 1040, 1050, 1060, 2200, 2310, 2320, 2510, or 2520 with a grade of C or better will also satisfy B4.
  • The following GE Modifications are only for CS and ECE majors and will be lost if the student switches to another major.
    • Area B2 is waived.
    • 3 units of lower-division Area D are waived.
    • Upper-Division Area D is waived.
  • ECE students also have Area A3 waived. This will be lost if the student switches to another major.
Quarter-system exceptions for GE:
  • Theme 1 is waived for majors in NSME. It will be substituted by your Senior Project course on your myCSUB Academic Requirements page.
  • Beginning with the 2003/05 catalog, PHIL 316 (Professional Ethics) is a cognate requirement for our majors. This course also satisfies Theme 2.
  • Students who complete PHYS 221 for their cognate (CS-CS, CE, EE) will also satisfy B1/B3.
  • Students who complete MATH 192 or higher with a grade of C or better will also satisfy B4.
  • Students on the 2013/15 catalog receive the following additional general education modifications. These modifications are NOT automatically available to students on older catalogs (even if they show up on your myCSUB Academic Requirements page, that is a bug in Peoplesoft):
    • B2 is waived.
    • US History course double counts for Area C History.
    • 5 units of lower-division Area D are waived.
    • Theme 3 is waived.
    Students on older catalogs should consult the NSME Student Center about petitioning for these GE reductions. There is no guarantee that the campus will approve such a petition.

General Advising Notes

  • Students on older catalogs are strongly encouraged to speak with a major advisor to see if switching to a newer catalog would be beneficial.
  • CS and CE students are strongly encouraged to take CMPS 2120/295 before taking upper-division CMPS or ECE courses.
  • Students should view the Degree Roadmaps on the degree information page for recommended courses to take in each term. The roadmaps assume students enter either calculus ready (CS-CS, CS-IS, CE, EE) or pre-calculus ready (CS-CIS). Students who require additional mathematics preparation should speak with a major advisor.
  • If you need to take the Calculus Readiness Exam, see the Math Department on the 2nd floor of Sci III for the schedule.
  • Admission to California State University, Bakersfield and application for Financial Aid are both handled by the Office of Enrollment Management. For more information see
    http://www.csub.edu/admissions
    http://www.csub.edu/finaid

Transfer Information

  • Students transferring from a California community college with an Associate's Degree for Transfer (ADT) in Computer Science can complete the CS-CS concentration in 60 semester units. Switching to another CS concentration may increase the units needed for graduation, due to the differences between the concentrations.
  • Engineering students transferring from a California community college who have completed the C-ID.net Engineering model curriculum with either the Electrical track for Electrical Engineering transfer students or the Computer track for Computer Engineering transfer students can begin their respective majors at the upper-division level. Exact units needed after transfer will depend on the General Education transfer credit awarded by CSUB.
  • Students planning to transfer to one of our programs from Bakersfield College should review the CSUB/BC Articulation Agreements at the bottom of the degree information page and speak with an advisor at either CSUB or BC to plan an academic roadmap.
  • For students transferring from colleges in California, check assist.org for existing articulation agreements between CSUB and your college.
  • Students who have completed a transfer from another college to CSUB should meet with either a major advisor or the NSME Student Center to verify that your transfer credit was processed correctly.
  • Vocational course work such as certifications (MSDN, CompTIA, etc.), training on specific commercial packages (Visual Basic, Word, Access, Excel, Photoshop, etc.), and so forth may transfer for unit credit at the university but DO NOT count towards Computer Science degree requirements.
  • The lower-division CMPS programming sequence is taught in C/C++. Several upper-division classes will assume familiarity with these two programming languages, even if transfer credit is awarded for programming courses in Java or another high-level language. The major study room (Sci III 341) and the tutoring center (Sci III 324) have several C/C++ books available for self-study (books must be used in the room and cannot be taken home).
  • The specific requirements differ for each degree program. In general, you should try to complete as many lower-division (1000-level and 2000-level) major requirements as possible at your community college.
  • CSUB's lower division CMPS and ECE courses map the the following C-ID.net course descriptors. The mappings for cognate courses can be checked at https://c-id.net/courses/search 
    
                                                        Required by the degree?
CSUB Course                    | C-ID.net Number  | CS-CS | CS-CIS | CS-IS | CE  | EE  |
------------------------------ | ---------------- | ----- | ------ | ----- | --  | --  |
CMPS 2010 Programming I        | COMP 122 (or for |   X   |   X    |   X   |     |     |
                               | CE/EE, ENGR 120) |       |        |       |  X  |  X  |
CMPS 2020 Programming II       | COMP 132         |   X   |   X    |   X   |  X  |     |
CMPS 2120 Discrete Structures  | COMP 152         |   X   |   X    |   X   |  X  |     |
CMPS 2240 Comp. Arch. I        | COMP 142         |   X   |        |   X   |     |     |
                               |                  |       |        |       |     |     |
ECE 1616 + 1628 Intro to Engr. | ENGR 110         |       |        |       |  X  |  X  |
ECE/ENGR 2070 Electric Circ.   | ENGR 260+260L    |       |        |       |  X  |  X  |
  • Note: EE and CE students may opt to take either C-ID.net COMP 122 or ENGR 120 to transfer in for CMPS 2010. CS students must take COMP 122 to transfer in for CMPS 2010.