CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY BAKERSFIELD
Computer and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science


Advising Information

Last Updated: April 27, 2016

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).

Overload Petitions

COMPUTER SCIENCE majors
Overload petitions from Computer Science majors are ONLY allowed when the student is within 3 quarters of graduation AND the student meets the GPA requirements for an overload petition. The major advisor must certify that you are within 3 quarters of graduation or you can present a grad check that shows your projected graduation to meet that requirement. All other overload petitions will be denied.
COMPUTER or ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING majors
Overload petitions from Computer Engineering or Electrical Engineering majors are allowed when the student meets the GPA requirements and has been a student at CSUB for at least one term.

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 a Degree Outline that lists these substitutions during their grad check process. Note: Some of these substitutions are only for specific catalog years.

  • 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 have the option of either taking 490A and 490B (two quarters) or taking 490 (one quarter). If you opt to take 490, an individual study petition must be filled out to enroll in the course.
  • 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 by the department chair 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, since those catalogs will be the curriculum used when we apply for ABET accreditation and they have been reduced to 180 quarter/120 semester units.

General Education (Quarter System)

  • 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 the 2013/15 catalog would be better suited for them. The General Education reductions in the 2013/15 catalog can lower the number of classes needed to graduate for some students.
  • CMPS 221 has a bug that sometimes prevents students who are pre-calculus ready from enrolling. Contact the CEE/CS department ASC in Sci III 317 or a major advisor if this happens to you.
  • CMPS 222, 223, and 224 may be taken in any order after completing CMPS 221. They do not have to be taken in sequence. CS students are encouraged to take CMPS 222 before CMPS 223.
  • CS and CE students are strongly encouraged to take CMPS 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 quarter. 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 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 (100-level and 200-level) major requirements as possible at your community college.
  • The following is the 2013/15 requirements at the lower-division for our degree programs. Note that these are quarter system courses, so the equivalent semester system courses will vary. 
                                         Required by the degree?
CSUB Course                    | CS-CS | CS-CIS | CS-IS | CE  | EE  |
------------------------------ | ----- | ------ | ----- | --  | --  |
MATH 140 Elementary Statistics |       |   X    |       |     |     |
MATH 192 Pre-calculus II       |       |   X    |       |     |     |
MATH 201 Calculus I            |   X   |        |   X   |  X  |  X  |
MATH 202 Calculus II           |   X   |        |   X   |  X  |  X  |
MATH 203 Calculus III          |   X   |        |   X   |  X  |  X  |
MATH 204 Calculus IV           |       |        |       |  X  |  X  |
MATH 230 Linear Algebra        |   X   |        |   X   |  X  |  X  |
                               |       |        |       |     |     |
PHYS 221 Newtonian Physics     |   X   |        |       |  X  |  X  |
PHYS 222 Maxwellian Physics    |   X   |        |       |  X  |  X  |
PHYS 223 Modern Physics        |       |        |       |  X  |  X  |
                               |       |        |       |     |     |
ECE 160 Intro. to Engineering  |       |        |       |  X  |  X  |
ENGR 207 Electric Circuits     |       |        |       |  X  |  X  |
                               |       |        |       |     |     |
CMPS 150 Intro. to Linux       |   X   |   X    |   X   |  X  |  X  |
CMPS 221 Procedur. Programming |   X   |   X    |   X   |  X  |  X  |
CMPS 222 Object-Oriented Prog. |   X   |   X    |   X   |     |     |
CMPS 223 Data Structures       |   X   |   X    |   X   |  X  |     |
CMPS 224 Assembly Language     |   X   |        |       |  X  |  X  |
CMPS 295 Discrete Structures   |   X   |   X    |   X   |  X  |     |
  • The CMPS 150 requirement can be waived on a case-by-case basis if the student can demonstrate adequate proficiency using the command-line environment, previous experience in the Unix/Linux command-line environment, or certifications pertinent to the Unix/Linux command-line environment (e.g. CompTIA Linux+). Students should contact the chair to ask for such a waiver.