English proficiency is also a requirement for graduation. Student must demonstrate English proficiency by earning a C or better, or receiving advanced standing credit, in ENGL 1001 and ENGL 2000.

The BSIE program requires specific courses be taken in several of these categories.

Students may alternatively take the Honors college equivalent of these courses.

The General Education list may be found in the LSU General Catalog for your catalog year. You can find links to these lists on the flowchart link at the top of this page. It is critical that you only choose General Education courses listed for your specific catalog year.

There are some additional regulations regarding General Education requirements:

Industrial Engineering Technical Electives

In the BSIE curriculum, you will see 9 credit hours (3 courses) of "Industrial Engineering Technical Electives" listed in the Senior year. The list of approved elective courses may be found on the "flowcharts" link at the top of this page.  The electives allow a student to begin specializing into a particular area of Industrial Engineering matching their career objectives.

Minors

Many Industrial Engineering students also pursue one or more Minors in addition to their IE program. A minor is additional coursework in a particular specialization area. Students take minors which they feel with strengthen their career preparation and make them more competitive in the job market. Most minors require 18-30 credit hours of coursework. Completed minors are noted on your official transcript.

Minors often taken by IE students include Quality & Reliability Engineering (QRE), Occupational Health & Safety (OHS), Business, Mechanical Engineering, Construction Management, Mathematics, and Internal Audit. The "Minors" link at the top of this page provides additional information on the requirements for these minors.

The requirements for many of these minors overlap with the IE curriculum requirements. The QRE and OHS minors, for instance, can be earned without taking any additional coursework beyond the IE requirements, by carefully selecting IE Technical Electives. Likewise, the Business, Construction Management, and Internal Audit minors all have substantial overlap with the IE curriculum.

Occasionally it is impossible for a student to take all required courses (for example, a course on an older catalog may no longer be taught). In such cases it is possible to substitute an equivalent course. Such substitution requires the approval of the IE Undergraduate Coordinator. The substitution will appear on your degree audit and transcript once approved.

Taking Courses at Other Schools

You may decide to take a course at another university or another campus in the LSU system, perhaps during the summer. If you plan to use these credits toward degree requirements, you must be in good academic standing at LSU and you must obtain prior approval in writing for each course. Approval forms are available in the College of Engineering office (3304 PFT Hall). Approval for engineering courses must be obtained from the IE Undergraduate Coordinator and possibly the coordinators of other engineering programs (if taking non-IE engineering courses).  The approval form also establishes what the equivalent course at LSU is. To see course equivalencies for Louisiana Colleges and Universities, see the Louisiana Board of Regents Master Articulation Matrix.

Be aware that other universities may have different credit hour and semester systems. For instance, a 4 credit hour course at a University with a trimester system (8-10 week semester) may only transfer as 2.5 credit hours to LSU.  You should make sure that courses taken at other schools will transfer with sufficient credit to replace the equivalent course at LSU.

LSU has a special relationship with Southern University and Baton Rouge Community College which allows cross-registration in courses considered equivalent to LSU courses (students can take courses at Southern and BRCC at the same time taking courses at LSU).  For courses taken during the normal academic year semesters, students are limited to at most 1 math, 1 science, and 1 engineering course.  This limit does not apply to courses taken during the summer terms. See the College of Engineering counselors for approval and instructions for cross-registering.

Note that there is a minimum residency requirement for College of Engineering. Students must take AT LEAST 30 credit hours of coursework within the College of Engineering at LSU.  This limits the number of engineering courses that can be taken at other universities.

Exchange Programs

LSU has been actively promoting having students study abroad for one or more semesters. Exchange programs broaden students exposure to and understanding of other cultures, which is critical in our increasingly global economy. Please see http://ocs-web2.ocs.lsu.edu/apa/ for more details on these opportunities and how to arrange them.

Transfer Students

To be considered for admission the College of Engineering, transfer students must have earned a 2.5 GPA for all college-level course work attempted as well as all other college admission requirements. The calculation is made using LSU's system of counting all attempts at all courses, even if your former institution used another system, such as replacing grades in repeated courses. The catalog allows the Dean to grant admission in exceptional cases if the GPA is below a 2.5, but above a 2.0. Upon written request, the Dean will evaluate an applicant's entire academic record and may grant admission to the College.

The transfer process is a multi-step process:

1. First apply and have your transcripts sent to LSU.

2. Attend a Transfer Student Orientation (you will be assigned an orientation date once you are accepted to LSU).

3. Once you arrive at LSU, LSU Admissions will evaluate your coursework taken at other institutions to determine if they can be accepted at LSU.  This process does not evaluate whether courses are equivalent to existing courses at LSU (exception: other higher education institutions in Louisiana have established equivalency relations with LSU for many courses).

4. Transferred courses are then evaluated by specific programs (Physics transfer courses would be evaluated by Physics for example) and by the IE Undergraduate Coordinator to determine equivalence to existing LSU courses required by the IE program.  Substitutions are then made for courses deemed equivalent.

Student's contemplating transferring often would like an idea of what might transfer before applying to or arriving at LSU. While an official evaluation cannot be made until you are accepted and arrive at LSU, it is recommended that you contact the IE Undergraduate Coordinator (see "Contact Us" link for contact information) to get an idea of which courses will likely transfer and apply to the IE program. To see course equivalencies for Louisiana Colleges and Universities, see the Louisiana Board of Regents Master Articulation Matrix.

Advising Process

The College of Engineering has a formal advising process designed to keep students on track in the curriculum and help them resolve any problems they encounter.

Once a student formerly enters Industrial Engineering (generally at the end of their freshman year), they are assigned a faculty advisor. They will need to meet with their advisor each semester prior to registration (a registration block is placed making advising mandatory).

Students - including freshman not yet in the College of Engineering - can also see the IE Undergraduate Coordinator at any time with advising questions.

For questions about humanities, please see one of the College of Engineering counselors (in 3403 PFT Hall). They stay up to date on the latest approved courses and rules.

For questions on course transfers, course substitutions, prerequisite waivers, and for Senior Checkout, see the IE Undergraduate Coordinator.

The "Advising FAQ" link at the top of this page contains a good deal of additional useful information about advising and advising-related issues.

Meeting Graduation Requirements

In addition to advising, the College of Engineering has a procedure called "Senior Check-Out" which is designed to assure you meet graduation requirements. The check-out procedure occurs early in the semester prior to the semester in which you anticipate graduation. You will be contacted by the College of Engineering to initiate the check out process. See the IE Undergraduate Coordinator for this procedure and NOT your assigned IE faculty advisor.