Major Declaration Appeal Process

Appeals are for continuing students who:

  • are over the limit of non-passing grades for their major
  • are not meeting the GPA for their major
  • are in their 6th quarter and have not completed all their major qualification courses

Baskin Engineering majors can appeal in fall, winter, and spring quarter. There is no review of appeals in summer.

Please review all tabs below for important information regarding the appeal process.

Major qualification requirements:

View the Major Qualification requirements.

To begin the major appeal process, please review the instructions under the Review of Baskin Engineering Major Qualification below.

Spring 2024 major qualification review will be from Monday April 1, 2024 through Monday April 22, 2024


Expand All
Review of Baskin Engineering Major Qualification

Log into MyUCSC and submit the Petition for Major/Minor via MyUCSC as soon as you have met major qualification requirements and/or reach your declaration deadline quarter, whichever comes first. 

  • If you are not yet logged into MyUCSC, the petition can also be accessed by going to MyUCSC and navigating to the Student Homepage and selecting the Undergraduate Student eForms tile > Petition for Major/Minor.

If your request is unable to be processed via eForm on MyUCSC, please complete this form.

Major qualification will be reviewed starting the first day of instruction through the first two and half weeks of the quarter.

After submitting the Petition for Major/Minor via MyUCSC it can take up to 10 business days to receive a response. The response will be an email from our office indicating that your petition has been processed and informing you of your next steps.

If an appeal is required, this email will include a PDF copy of your MQV form. At this point you will be directed to submit an appeal via the google form provided in the email. For more information about the attachments needed, please proceed to the next areas.

Academic Planning Form

Please submit an Academic Planning Form detailing your academic plan through completion of the major. The Academic Planning form does not need to be signed by an advisor prior to submission.

Tips for creating your major academic plan:

  • Cross off all courses you have completed with a passing grade on a major curriculum chart and continue to cross off courses as you add them to your plan.
  • Refer to the Course Offerings resources below. In cases where future course offering information is not available, we suggest that you plan your schedule at UCSC based on this year’s course offerings and continue to check the websites to ensure your courses will still be offered as planned.
    • Baskin Engineering course schedule: This is the place to find out when courses are being offered and their planned instructors.
       
    • UCSC General Catalog: This is the place to find detailed course descriptions and course prerequisite information for all. Please note that the information regarding which quarters a class is offered may not be accurate in the General Catalog. The course schedule website and other department websites will have more accurate and up to date information.
       
    • For major courses outside of Engineering, please refer to each department’s website:
    • The information on these sites is maintained by the departments and is subject to change. We expect that you continue to visit the sites to confirm that the departments still intend to offer courses you plan to take in the quarters in which you planned to take them. For the BE site, course information for the next academic year is generally posted each year in late Winter or early Spring quarter.
  • It is strongly recommended that you do not schedule more than two major courses per quarter when possible. This is intended to give yourself the time to manage your workload and be successful, as well as to ensure you are getting the most out of your classes.

If you would like your Academic Plan reviewed before submitting your appeal, you can speak to a peer adviser during their open hours.

Unofficial Transcripts
  • Students appealing Applied Math, Computer Science, Technology and Information Management, or Electrical Engineering are required to submit unofficial UCSC transcripts. Please review these instructions for accessing and downloading your student advising summary
  • All students appealing need to submit unofficial transcripts for any major related coursework taken at an institution other than UCSC. If you have not taken major related coursework at another institution, this does not apply.
Statement of Appeal

A Statement of Appeal should be 1-2 pages and must include your Name, Student ID, number of quarters completed at UCSC, and academic level by units (ex. Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior). Appeal statements should use formal and polite language. The statement should focus on individual circumstance, not the professor or the course structure of major classes.

Statements should also include information about why you were unable to meet the criteria to declare. The statement of appeal is the place to advocate for yourself to the department. If applicable, your statement should include: 

  • Addressing any factors that contributed to any non-passing grades in major classes.
  • If you were experiencing person issues involving health or mental health, injury, work obligations, family crisis, etc. that may have affected your academic performance.
  • Explanation detailing how you plan to successfully complete the remaining program’s graduation requirements.
Additional Attachments (Optional)

Students may upload additional documentation to the major appeal form. If you have multiple items, please consolidate them into one PDF file.

  • Documentation related to extenuating circumstances
  • Letters of Recommendation or Support
  • Snapshots of progress and in-progress major coursework
  • Any additional documentation students would like the department to review
Submission/Results/Next Steps

Appeals are reviewed on a rolling basis and students should expect the departments to take two to four weeks to review the appeals.

Results:
Once a decision has been made, the Baskin Engineering Advising Office will send students an email with the Department’s decision. 

Approved Appeals Next Steps:
Students whose appeals are approved will be emailed with information on the next steps to finish the declaration process (receiving an approved appeal does not automatically mean that you are declared). Please note that approved appeals are only valid for the quarter they are submitted.

Conditional Appeals Next Steps:
Students may be issued conditions on their appeals. Once a student has met their conditions, they will be eligible to declare the following quarter if the conditions are met.

Denied Appeals Next Steps:
Students whose appeals are denied will receive an email from an advisor with next steps.

Last modified: Mar 25, 2024