Advisor Changes
M.S. students who are interested in changing their advisor may do so by submitting an Change of Advisor form to the ECE Office of Graduate Student Affairs. The form will require the signatures of the student’s current and proposed advisor.
Ph.D. students who are considering a change of advisor are encouraged to meet with the ECE Office of Graduate Student Affairs before proceeding, as doing so could alter the status of their funding.
Area Changes
Students who would like to change their ECE Department area may do so by submitting a Change of Advisor form, with an advisor from another area as their proposed advisor. If their advisor is active in more than one ECE area, the student may have them sign under both the “Current” and “Proposed” advisor sections, with their current and proposed areas listed under the appropriate sections of the form. Upon this change, students will be responsible for meeting the course requirements of their new area.
Filing Fee
The Filing Fee allows M.S. Project, M.S. Thesis, or Ph.D. students to pay a reduced fee so that they may file their dissertation during a given quarter without the need to register and enroll. While in Filing Fee status, students may lose access to certain services available to registered students. Additionally, the student must have advanced to candidacy by the quarter prior to the term that they expect to be in Filing-Fee status.
Detailed information on eligibility, procedures, and services can be viewed at UCLA’s Graduate Education Filing Fee page.
M.S. Students must complete the following to be in Filing Fee status:
- Submit a draft of the project or thesis, and a timeline of their work, from the initial stages to their proposed date of completion. These should be uploaded to the ECE MS Filing Fee Box folder.
- Submit the Online Filing Fee Application at least 5 business days before the application deadline. Keep in mind, the Vice Chair, thesis committee members (if applicable), and our office need to approve your application; therefore, it is recommended that you submit your application before the deadline so that we can approve in a timely manner.
The document file names should be in the following format:
-
“[Quarter] Filing Fee DocumentType_Last Name, First Name” (e.g. Spring 22 Filing Fee Draft_Bruin, Josie ; Spring 22 Filing Fee Timeline_Bruin, Josie)
*The online form is currently under construction for Winter 2022/Spring 2022. You will need to submit a paper form (found on the application page) to our office, eerequest@seas.ucla.edu, at least 7 business days in advance of the deadline. The Department Chair’s signature should be left blank, our office will collect the signature.*
Students on the Capstone – Courses option, or M.S. students who intend to continue directly into the Ph.D. Program are not eligible to use the Filing Fee.
Ph.D. Students must complete the following to be in Filing Fee status:
- Submit the Online Filing Fee Application at least 7 business days before the application deadline. Keep in mind, your doctoral committee and our office need to approve your application; therefore, it is required that you submit your application before the deadline so that we can approve in a timely manner.
*The online form is currently under construction for Winter 2022/Spring 2022. Therefore, you will need to submit a paper form (found on the application page) to our office, eerequest@seas.ucla.edu, at least 7 business days in advance of the deadline. You will need to collect the signatures of all of your doctoral committee members before submitting the paper form to our office.*
Individual-Studies Units
With their advisor’s permission, graduate students who need to enroll in additional units may enroll in 2 to 12 or 2 to 16 units of their advisor’s section of the appropriate EC ENGR 590-Level seminar below:
| Course Number | Course Title | Number of Units | Variable Units for: |
| ECE 597A | Preparation for M.S. Comprehensive Examination | 2 – 12 | M.S. Students on the Project or Courses Option |
| ECE 597B | Preparation for Ph.D. Preliminary Examinations | 2 – 16 | Ph.D. Students who have completed their M.S. Degree, but have not passed the Ph.D. Preliminary Examination |
| ECE 597C | Preparation for Ph.D. Oral Qualifying Examination | 2 – 16 | Ph.D. Students who have passed the Ph.D. Preliminary Examination, but that have not passed their Oral Qualifying Examination |
| ECE 598 | Research for and Preparation of M.S. Thesis | 2 – 12 | M.S. Thesis Students |
| ECE 599 | Research for and Preparation of Ph.D. Dissertation | 2 – 16 | Ph.D. Students who have passed their Oral Qualifying Examination |
It is highly recommended that students determine their advisor’s expectations for enrollment in their individual-studies section. Failure to do so may result in an unsatisfactory grade.
It is important to note that none of the 590-level seminar courses, with the exception of ECE 598, may count toward the course requirements of any degree program. These seminars are only for students who must meet a unit minimum for purposes such as maintaining a full-time enrollment or a Graduate Student Researcher (GSR), Reader, or Teaching Assistant (TA) position.
ECE 598 is strictly for students completing an M.S. thesis. In addition to the 8-unit minimum required for their degree requirements, M.S. thesis students are allowed to enroll in more than that amount during any given quarter for additional units. For MS thesis students, ECE 598 and ECE 597A are mutually exclusive.
In the event that a student’s current advisor does not approve of their enrollment in an individual-studies section the student may wish to consider changing advisors.
Tenth-Week Deadlines
Graduate students are responsible for knowing the date of the tenth week deadline each quarter. It is by Friday of Week 10, at 5:00 p.m. that students must finalize any course enrollments, course drops, or unit changes for a variable-units course. After this date, all study lists are effectively permanent and will appear on a student’s transcript.