The University of Michigan is home to a large collection of strong graduate programs. There are renowned faculty teaching courses all over campus. Students are encouraged to explore interests outside of Mechanical Engineering. The Rackham Graduate School maintains a list of all graduate degree programs and courses offered on the Programs of Study website. Students should also consult the website of the academic department where the course is being offered.
ME Course Information. The courses offered by the Mechanical Engineering department can be found in three places: (1) the Rackham Graduate School website, (2) the College of Engineering website, and (3) the ME Department website. All locations should include the same information.
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Registering for Classes: Waitlists, Overrides, Auditing, and Withdrawing
The Office of the Registrar maintains deadlines and resources relevant to course enrollment. Current students will have the opportunity to register for the upcoming term during the last month of the semester. You should be particularly mindful of deadlines for dropping and adding classes, withdrawing from classes, and for payment of fees. Typically the drop/add deadline will be three weeks after the first day of class.
Students at the University of Michigan register for classes using Wolverine Access. Before the start of registration, the Registrar’s Office will release the course offerings for the term. These courses will now appear in Wolverine Access. At this point, students are able to start “Backpacking.”
“Backpacking” is a common term at the University of Michigan. Backpacking is similar to a shopping cart for online buying. You have the ability to store all of the classes you might be interested in taking during the term. Then after further deliberation, you can purchase (a.k.a. register) your courses.
The resources below are helpful in determining which classes might be a good fit for you:
An electronic permission is required to register for any class that is full and has a waiting list or that has specific enrollment restrictions. If Wolverine Access denies a request to register because an electronic permission is needed, an error message will appear that says an instructor or departmental permission is required. If this occurs, please contact the student services staff in the department, school, or college that is offering the class which needs a permission to register. Each department or school/college has its own procedures for granting permission, but ME students are welcome in most courses around the University.
Please note that it may be necessary to wait until the first class meeting (which should be attended) to obtain permission from the instructor to register. The Academic Services Office (contact [email protected] and [email protected] ) can only give electronic permission to register for Mechanical Engineering courses.
Wolverine Access allows students to put themselves on waiting lists for full classes. If you are able to successfully get on the waitlist, you do not need to notify anyone of your desire to take the class. Once a class fills and a waiting list is generated, the class does not re-open automatically if seats become available. Open seats are filled with students from the waiting list in order of need. Students on the waiting list will receive an Electronic Override (“Class Permission”) email granting permission to register if seats become available.
Once an electronic override notification email has been received, it is still necessary to register for the class using Wolverine Access. In order to use the Override, a student must first drop the waitlisted course from their backpack and then re-add the course the same as before, except the Class Permission will then be active and will allow the student to successfully register.
At the beginning of each semester, there is a drop/add period (the first three weeks of classes) during which students are allowed to register through Wolverine Access without penalty. Deadlines are set University-wide by the Office of the Registrar, please refer to their “Student Registration Deadlines” on the Academic calendar for specific dates.
After the drop/add deadline, students can still use Wolverine Access to drop or add courses, however it will be considered a “late-drop” or “late-add.” When a student attempts to late drop/add they will see a prompt asking them if they wish to continue. After saying yes, the instructor will receive an automated email to approve or decline the request followed by the Graduate Coordinator receiving an automated email to approve or decline the request. A “late-drop” will result in the student receiving a “W” grade on their transcript (for withdraw). There is no way to remove this “W” from the transcript. A student can withdraw from a class up until the last day of classes though we encourage to do so as soon as they have intent to withdraw.
With permission of the advisor and the course instructor, a student may enroll in a course as a visitor (auditor) rather than for credit. A notation of “VI” appears on the transcript when the course is completed successfully. After a grade has been issued, a course may not be changed from letter grade to visit (audit) status, or vice versa. A visit (audit) will not be counted toward degree credit requirements.
In order to audit the class, a student needs to email the course instructor for permission. Once received they should forward that permission to [email protected]. The ME ASO staff can then update the grading status.
Any graduate-level Mathematics or Statistics course may satisfy a math requirement. Any 400 level or above Math or Stats course will satisfy a math requirement. Check the Math and Stats Department websites for more election options.
Substitutions for Math Courses
The following courses can be used to satisfy the math requirement in place of math or statistics.
Other classes not listed here may be petitioned to count for math credit. Students can submit a petition here to the ME Graduate Chair for review. Students are able to petition up to two exceptions as part of their degree requirements.
The ME department recognizes the value of intellectual breadth in graduate education and the importance of formal graduate study in areas beyond the student’s field of specialization. Cognate courses are those that are in a discipline or area different from a student’s field of study but are related or connected with some aspect of this field.
More specifically, cognates are graduate level courses and may be taken within the College of Engineering or in other STEM departments on campus. For example, acceptable departments are Mathematics, Statistics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, etc. The minimum acceptable grade for a cognate course is a B-. If the course is not a graduate level STEM course, then the course must be petitioned to the Academic Services Office to count toward the cognate requirement. The following are approved as cognates:
The following DO NOT fulfill the cognate requirement by policy and will require a petition:
Students can submit a petition here to the ME Graduate Chair for review. Students are able to petition up to two exceptions as part of their degree requirements.
In order to facilitate graduate students planning their coursework for the academic year, a tentative list of graduate level courses to be offered in the upcoming academic year is below. Please note that while we make every attempt to offer the courses listed below; due to unforeseen circumstances, we can not guarantee a course will be offered. A longer description of the courses can be found on the ME Courses page.
| Fall 2024 | Winter 2025 |
| MECHENG 401 – Statistical Quality Control & Design | MECHENG 406 – Biomechanics for Engineering |
| MECHENG 424 – Engineering Acoustics | MECHENG 433 – Advanced Energy Solutions |
| MECHENG 438 – Internal Combustion Engines | MECHENG 440 – Intermediate Dynamics and Vibrations |
| MECHENG 440 – Analytical Product Design | MECHENG 458 – Automotive Engineering |
| MECHENG 452 – Design for Manufacturability | MECHENG 461 – Automatic Control |
| MECHENG 461 – Automatic Control | MECHENG 511 – Theory of Solid Continua |
| MECHENG 489 – Sustainable Engineering and Design | MECHENG 524 – Advanced Engineering Acoustics |
| MECHENG 501 – Math Methods in ME | MECHENG 538 – Advanced Internal Combustion Engines |
| MECHENG 505 – Finite Element Methods in ME | MECHENG 539 – Heat Transfer Physics |
| MECHENG 515 – Contact Mechanics | MECHENG 543 – Analytical and Computational Dynamics |
| MECHENG 519 – Theory of Plasticity | MECHENG 558 – Discrete Design Optimization |
| MECHENG 520 – Advanced Fluid Mechanics I | MECHENG 560 – Modeling Dynamic Systems |
| MECHENG 527 – Multiphase Flow | MECHENG 564 – Linear Systems Theory |
| MECHENG 530 – Advanced Heat Transfer | MECHENG 567 – Robotic Kinematics & Dynamics |
| MECHENG 541 – Mechanical Vibrations | MECHENG 568 – Vehicle Control Systems |
| MECHENG 542 – Vehicle Dynamics and Automation | MECHENG 569 – Control of Advanced Powertrain Systems |
| MECHENG 553 – Microelectromechanical Systems | MECHENG 570 – Fundamentals of Defects in Materials and Applications of Atomistic Modeling |
| MECHENG 557 – Front-End Design | MECHENG 586 – Laser Materials Processing |
| MECHENG 561 – Design of Digital Control Systems | MECHENG 599 – Foundations in Design Theory |
| MECHENG 564 – Linear Systems Theory | MECHENG 599 – Data Driven Methods for Control Systems |
| MECHENG 599 – Fundamentals of Renewable Energy Processes | MECHENG 599 – Radiative Transfer |
| MECHENG 599 – Applied Optimal Control | MECHENG 599 – BioInspiration |
| MECHENG 599 – Cellular Engineering | MECHENG 623 – Hydrodynamic Stability |
| MECHENG 599 – Introduction to Nanofabrication | |
| MECHENG 599 – Lithium Battery Engineering, Life and Management |
