Undergraduate: Petitions in Physics

• General information regarding

  Petitions in Physics

  The Undergraduate Student Petition is the most common petition students will use in Physics. Students usually use this petition to:

• • Request for Physics course equivalency (aka "Transfer" credit). Refer to Question 2 (Q2) on the Transfer Courses page.
  • Request to use a course towards a major requirement that is not automatically allowed (i.e. programming course, upper division elective, etc.). For Physics majors only.
  • Request to repeat a course for a third time.
  Completing a Petition in Physics
  1. Download and print the Undergraduate Student Petition
  2. Read the instructions at the top of the form and check the appropriate box.
  3. Fill in the personal information section. Be sure to include your UCSD email address on the form.
  4. Complete the "If UCSD course" lines only if the course you are requesting a review of is a course that you took at UCSD. Otherwise, leave these lines blank.
  5. In the "REQUEST" section, state your specific request:
     Examples
     • "For Phys. 210, which I took at Newton College, to count as Phys. 2A at UCSD."
     • "For the combination of Phys. 211 and Phys. 212, both of which I took at Bohr's College, to count as Phys. 2B and 2BL at UCSD."
     • "For Phys. 213, which I took at Bohr's College, in combination with Phys. 195, which I took at Rutherford College, to count as Phys. 2C and 2CL at UCSD."
     • "For MAE 8, which I took at UCSD, to count towards the programming requirement for my physics major."
     • "I request permission to repeat Phys. 2D for a third time."
     • For MAE 160, which I took at UCSD, to count as a restricted elective for my physics major."
     • "For Phys. 210, which I took at the Univ. of Scottsdale through EAP, to count as Phys. 110A at UCSD."
     • "For my A-Level credit to count as Physics 1A at UCSD."

  6. In the "REASON FOR REQUEST" section, provide a justification for your request:
     Examples
     • "The breadth, depth, and scope of Phys. 210 matches Phys. 2A at UCSD."
     • "MAE 8 appears on the list of approved courses for the Programming Requirement on the UCSD Physics Department website."

  7. Sign and date the form.
  8. Attach a copy of the complete course syllabus for each course you want reviewed. Note: Course descriptions from a school’s website or catalog are not sufficient for this review. If you cannot locate the syllabus from the time when you took the course you will need to contact the school where you took the course and obtain a copy of the syllabus to submit with your petition. For A-Level Credit, submit a copy of your exam scores instead of a syllabus.

  Submitting Petitions in Physics
  
  Petitions should be submitted to the Undergraduate Advising Office, located in Mayer Hall Addition, room 2581. If the office is closed when you arrive, simply slide your petition packet under the door. In these cases, someone will contact you via the Virtual Advising Center (VAC) to confirm receipt of your materials the next time the office is open. Only complete petition packets submitted by NOON on Wednesday will make it into the same week's review.

  Incomplete Petition Packets submitted to Physics
  
  Incomplete petition packets will be returned to the student, unprocessed.

  The Review Process in Physics
  
  Petition reviews occur on Thursdays each week and students are notified of the results the following day via an email sent to their UCSD email address.

  • Original copies of approved petitions will be sent to the appropriate campus office, as needed, or will remain in the Department for records purposes. Updates to student records are completed prior to notification of the results of the petition. Students can see record updates on their Academic History report on Tritonlink as soon as they receive their notification email and the Degree Audit will automatically update itself within 72 hours after the academic record is updated.
  • Original copies of denied petitions will remain in the Department for records purposes.

  Have a question about Physics course equivalency credit that is not addressed in the FAQs above? Please contact the Staff Undergraduate Advisor through the Virtual Advising Center (VAC). The Undergraduate Advisor will no longer respond to student emails sent to her email addresses (tmoore@physics, advising@physics, anm025@ucsd, amoore@physics, etc.). Access the VAC at: http://vac.ucsd.edu/.