¶®É«µÛ

To qualify for a program placement you must meet the following requirements:

• have a minimum Fall/Winter term GPA of 1.95, and
• successfully complete a minimum of 30 units by the end of Spring term, excluding ENGG 100 and ENGG 160. Courses taken in Summer term are not included in placement decisions.

To begin the program assignment process all students are ranked according to their Program Admission Factor (PAF). Students with the highest PAF are placed in their first program choice, so long as space is available. As space in each program fills up, students with lower PAFs may be placed into programs further down their list of selections from the Program Selection Form. You will still be placed into a program if your PAF falls below 2.0.

NOTE: If Y1Q1 students have a Fall/Winter GPA between 1.65 and 1.94 and successfully complete 30 units by the end of Spring Term they will be admitted to a second qualifying year (Y2Q2). Y1Q2 students are not automatically eligible for a second qualifying year.

You cannot be placed into another qualifying year if you meet the requirements above. There is an opportunity for you to change programs after second year.

Students who do not meet the requirements to qualify for an engineering program are encouraged to meet with an Academic Advisor to review the different options available to them.

NEW - Best 8 courses

As of Fall 2025 the method for determining a student’s Program Admission Factor has been changed.  Note that this only applies to students who qualify for a program placement as described above. The Program Admission Factor for Qualifying Year students will now be based  on their best 8 courses, not including ENGG 100 and ENGG 160, plus any appropriate light load deduction.

A student’s Program Admission Factor is based on their GPA, plus any light course load adjustment that may be relevant. Previously, the GPA that the PAF was based on included all courses the student took during their qualifying year.  As of Fall 2025, the PAF will be based on a GPA calculated only on your top 8 courses.

The light load adjustment used in the PAF calculation will still be on the full course load of 37 units. Details on this calculation are below.

The benefit to students is that if you are in a situation where you are not doing as well as you hoped in a course you can safely continue to the final exam and know that if you do fail or not do as well as in your other courses it will not be included in the GPA used to place you into a discipline.  This should ease the stress of going into final exams in the fall and winter terms.

In the example below the student has attempted all 10 of the graded courses in their first year engineering program with the following grades:

GPA on all 10 courses = 2.72

GPA on best 8 courses = 2.87 (removing MATH 100 and CHEM 103).  (Note that if either MATH 101 or MATH 102 were removed from the calculation instead of CHEM 103, the GPA would have been 2.85.)

In this example since the student attempted all 10 graded courses their GPA = PAF.

Students who do not meet the requirements to qualify for an Engineering program are encouraged to meet with an Academic Advisor to review the different options available to them.

PAF light course load adjustment

The PAF light course load adjustment is based on a full course load (37 units) excluding ENGG 100 and ENGG 160. If you complete a full course load of 37 units, then there is no adjustment and your PAF equals your GPA based on your best 8 courses. If, however, you complete less than 37 units, you will receive a deduction of .05 for every unit below 37 units.

PAF = GPA (based on best 8 courses) – y

y = (37 – total units completed in Fall/Winter) x 0.05

GPA - y = PAF

Where the following definitions apply:

• GPA = assessed on best 8 courses over the Fall and Winter terms; truncated to two decimal places.
• PAF = rounded to two decimal places; used for Engineering ranking purposes only
• Total units completed in Fall/Winter = all graded courses in Fall/Winter; does not include CR/NC courses such as ENGG 100 and ENGG 160

Important notes regarding units

The calculation of units is based on engineering units. Engineering units differ from the units shown in Bear Tracks. Engineering units reflect the weekly lecture hours of the course with the addition of .5 units for every one hour of lab and/or seminar time in the course. The ¶®É«µÛ Calendar descriptions will have engineering units listed.

In the example below, EN PH 131 consists of 3 hours of lecture, 1 hour of seminar, and 1.5 hours of lab per week. The equation to calculate the number of engineering units for this course is:

3+0.5x(1+1.5)=4.3

To qualify for a program placement you must meet the following requirements:

• clear Academic Probation at the end of Fall term;
• present a minimum Fall/Winter term GPA of 1.95;
• attempt a minimum of 28 units in Fall/Winter term (14.0 units of which must be in Fall term), excluding ENGG 100, ENGG 160, ENGG 200, or withdrawn courses; and
• successfully complete 28 units by the end of Spring term. Courses taken in Summer term are not included in placement decisions.

To begin the program assignment process all students are ranked according to their Program Admission Factor (PAF). Students with the highest PAF are placed in their first program choice, so long as space is available. As space in each program fills up, students with lower PAFs may be placed into programs further down their list of selections from the Program Selection Form. You can still be placed into discipline if your PAF falls below 2.0.

Note: You cannot be placed into another qualifying year if you meet the requirements above. There is an opportunity for you to change programs after your first year in a program.

Students who do not meet the requirements to qualify for an engineering program are encouraged to meet with an Academic Advisor to review the different options available to them.

NEW - Best 8 courses

As of Fall 2025 the method for determining a student’s Program Admission Factor has been changed.  Note that this only applies to students who qualify for a program placement as described above.  The Program Admission Factor for Qualifying Year students will now be based  on their best 8 courses, not including ENGG 100 and ENGG 160, plus any appropriate light load deduction.

A student’s Program Admission Factor is based on their GPA, plus any light course load adjustment that may be relevant. Previously, the GPA that the PAF was based on included all courses the student took during their qualifying year.  As of Fall 2025, the PAF will be based on a GPA calculated only on your top 8 courses.

The light load adjustment used in the PAF calculation will still be 0.3, but if you take more than 8 courses in Y2Q2, we will take the best 8 graded courses in the calculation.

The benefit to students is that if you are in a situation where you are not doing as well as you hoped in a course you can safely continue to the final exam and know that if you do fail or not do as well as in your other courses it will not be included in the GPA used to place you into a discipline.  This should ease the stress of going into final exams in the fall and winter terms.

In the example below the student has attempted 9 of the graded courses in their second qualifying year with the following grades:

GPA on all 9 courses = 2.61

GPA on best 8 courses = 2.69 (removing ECE 209).  (Note that if MATH 209 were removed from the calculation instead of ECE 209, the GPA would have been 2.67).

The PAF for this student will be 2.39. (2.69 - 0.3 with the Y2Q2 light load deduction).

PAF Calculation

PAF = Fall/Winter term GPA – 0.3

All students in Y2Q2 receive a straight 0.3 PAF deduction on their ranking GPA for placement into a program.

Important notes regarding units

The calculation of units is based on engineering units. Engineering units differ from the units shown in Bear Tracks. Engineering units reflect the weekly lecture hours of the course with the addition of 0.5 units for every one hour of lab and/or seminar time in the course. The ¶®É«µÛ Calendar descriptions will have engineering units listed.

In the example below, EN PH 131 consists of 3 hours of lecture, 1 hour of seminar, and 1.5 hours of lab per week. The equation to calculate the number of engineering units for this course is:

3+0.5x(1+1.5)=4.3