Frequently Asked Questions

• Advising
• ALEKS Exam
• College of Science and Mathematics vs College of Management for the IT Major
• College of Management Courses for College of Science and Mathematics Students
• Commencement
• Computer Science Minor for IT Students"
• Degree Audit
• IT Courses for Freshmen
• Math Courses Needed for IT Degree
• Statistics Courses for IT Majors
• Programming Courses
• Transferring to IT from CS
• Free Software for Students
• Math 134
• Maximum Credits for a Semester
• MSIS 110
• Pass/Fail
• Permission Numbers
• Professional Electives
• Registering for a Course
• Registration Holds
• Withdrawing from a Course
• Seminar Courses
• Tracks
• Business Intelligence Electives
• Waiting Lists
• Winter Session

Advising

• Every student in the College of Science and Mathematics has an advisor
• To remove your advising hold, you need to speak with your advisor
• Some advisors insist on meeting their advisees
• Some advisors will remove an advising hold after an email exchange
• You can find your advisor by logging on WISER and clicking on the advisor icon
• To email your advisor, click on Details

ALEKS Exam

• In order to place into a Math course, you must get a certain on the ALEKS exam

  Course	Minimum Score	Title	Details
  Math 114Q	40	Quantitative Reasoning	Successful completion of this course meets the prerequisite for Statistics, but NOT for Precalculus.
  Math 115	44	College Algebra	Completion of this course with a B or better meets the prerequisite for Statistics or Precalculus
  Math 125	51	Introductory Statistics	This course does NOT meet the prerequisite for Precalculus or Calculus
  CS 105	51	Introduction to Computer Concepts
  Math 129	59	Precalculus for Management and Social Science Students
  Math 130	59	Precalculus
  CS 110	Introduction to Computing	59
  IT 114	Introduction to Java - Part 1	59
  Math 134	Managerial Calculus	66
  Math 135	Survey of Calculus	66
  Math 140	Calculus I	74
  Math 145	Calculus I for Life and Environmental Sciences	74

• When a student takes the ALEKS exam they get a code
• The code allows them take the exam 3 times
• The code is only good for one year
• After that, they must apply for a new code
• To get another code a student must contact the Testing Center Office, uac.testing@umb.edu
• The score on an ALEKS exam is only good for one year

College of Science and Mathematics vs College of Management for the IT Majo

• The IT program is a joint effort of two departments in two different colleges
  • Management Science and Information Systems Department in the College of Management
  • Computer Science Department in the College of Science and Mathematics
• The courses a student has to take for the major are the same for both colleges
• The requirements for other courses differ between the two colleges
• Students in the College of Management must take a number of business courses in addition to their IT courses
• Students in the College of Science and Mathematics must take Math 135
• College of Management students only need to take Math 134 which is slightly easier
• Students in the College of Science and Mathematics must fulfill the Writing Proficiency Requirement
• College of Management students need to take a business writing course instead
• To see which College is best for you, go to the Degree Audit and run "What If" audits on the degree program of each college

College of Management Courses for College of Science and Mathematics Students

• If WISER will not let you register for a course taught by the College of Management, fill out the Undergraduate Registration Request form

Commencement

• Commencement is a ceremony held in May of each year
• Commencement is not the same thing as graduation
• Students officially graduate when all degree requirements are met
• Students my participate in commencement if
  • They have graduated in the previous Fall semester
  • They have completed all requirements for graduating at the end of the Spring semester
  • They are on track to graduate at the end of the coming summer

Computer Science Minor for IT Students

• The requirements for the CS Minor are The requirements of the CS Minor are the following: 1. CS 110, MATH 140, CS 210, CS 220, CS 240, and CS 310
  2. One CS elective at 300- or higher levels
  3. A minimum GPA of 2.0 of these courses is required
• Students interested in apply should fill out the major/minor declaration from and send it to Prof. Ming Ouyang, at Ming.Ouyang@umb.edu.

Degree Audit

• The Degree Audit is your best source of information about your graduation status
• There are two ways to vies your Degree Audit
  • PDF
  • HTML
• The PDF version of is very hard to read because shows everything
• The HTML version is easier to use
• It shows you broad groupings like Information Technology Core and Professional Elective Requirement
• To see the details of each group you click on it to expand it
• Unfortunately PDF is the default
• To see the HTML version you must click on Advanced Settings and chose HTML

IT Courses for Freshmen

• All freshmen should take IT 110, which is the first course for the IT major
• All students in the College of Science and Mathematics need to take either Math 135 or Math 140 before they graduate
• Math 140 is the Calculus class that Mathematics majors must take before they graduate
• Most IT majors take Math 135
• In order to take any math course at UMB, you must take the ALEKS exam
• The results of this test will tell you what math course you can take
• Most IT students find that they have to take Math 130, and sometimes Math 115, before taking Math 135
• All IT majors need to take a statistics course
• See the ALEKS Exam section of this document

Math Courses Needed for IT Degree

• For College of Science and Mathematics students the Quantitative Reasoning requirement is Math 135
• For College of Management students the Quantitative Reasoning requirement is Math 134
• You CAN take Math 135 Pass/Fail
• Students can take the ALEKS exam 5 times
• To get another set of chances to take the exam you must contact the Testing Center Office, uac.testing@umb.edu
• A score of 66 will place a student into Math 135
• The Math Department will not accept a high school math course in place of Math 135 or Math 140 without an AP Calculus score
• If you have taken both Math 134 and Math 135 you cannot count the credits earned from Math 134 toward the 120 credits needed to graduate

Statistics Courses for IT Majors

• All IT majors have to take one statistics course
• That course can be any of the following

  Course	Name	Prerequisites
  IT 111L (MSIS 111L)	Managerial Statistics	MATH 129 or MATH 130, or appropriate ALEKS score
  ECON 205	Statistical Methods	ECON 101 or 102 and MATH 114Q or MATH 115 (or placement into Math 129 or 130)
  MATH 125	Introductory Statistics	Math Placement Test or MATH 114Q or 115 or 129 or 130 or 140
  PSYCH 370	Statistics	PSYCH 100 or 101 and MATH 114 or MATH 115 or placement into MATH 125
  SOCIOL 350	Elements of Social Statistics	SOCIOL 101 and MATH 114Q or 115 or equivalent MATH level

Programming Courses

• Every IT major must take two programming courses
• Unless they are in the Information Architecture track, it is recommended that they take
  • IT 116 - Introduction to Scripting
  • IT 117 - Intermediate Scripting
• These classes are taught in Python, which is a popular scripting language often used by IT professionals
• Students in the Information Architecture track must take IT 114 - Introduction to Java - Part 1
• If a student is not in the Information Architecture track, it is recommended that they do not take IT 114, since most IT students find Java difficult, and most IT professionals do not use Java in the course of their career
• In addition to IT 116, IT 117 and IT 114 any of the following programming courses can be used as one of the two programming courses required for the IT degree
  • CS 108 - An Introduction to Computation with Python
  • CS 110 - Introduction to Computing
  • CS 210L - Intermediate Computing with Data Structures
  • CS 240 - Programming in C
  • MSIS 310 - Client/Server Programming

Transferring to IT from CS

• In order to change your major from CS to IT you must fill out the Major, Minor, Concentration Declaration Form Undergraduate which you will find in the CS office
• Once you have filled out this form, put it in my mailbox
• If you want this change of major to take place as soon as possible, have me sign the form and take it to One Stop
• There are two IT courses which are the prerequisites for many other courses
• The first is IT 110, but if you have taken some CS courses I can waive this requirement
• You must also take one of the statistics courses listed here
• If you wish to take additional courses take any of the 200 Level courses listed below
• They are all required for the IT major
  • IT230: Relational Databases
  • IT240: Web Fluency
  • IT244: Introduction to Linux/Unix
  • IT246: Introduction to Networks
  • IT285: Social Issues and Ethics in Computing
• You must take two programming courses for the IT degree
• If you have already taken and passed two CS programming courses, you have satisfied this programming requirement
• If you have only taken CS 110 you will need another programming course
• You cannot take IT 116 or IT 117 for this second course since they are taught in Python, the same language as CS 110
• Instead you will have to take either IT 114 or MSIS 310

Free Software for Students

• VMWare

Math 134

• Math 134 cannot be used as a prerequisite for Math 135 or Math 140 because because it does not cover trigonometric functions
• A student who has taken Math 134 and qualifies for Math 135, must take Math 135R
• Enrollment in Math 135R is by permission of the department
• Math 135R covers the same material as Math 135 but is only 1 credit

Maximum Credits for a Semester

• The maximum number of credits you can take in a regular semester is 17
• The maximum number of credits you can take in summer courses for the whole summer is 17
• 12 credits is considered full time
• To take more credits you must appeal for a credit overload to Undergraduate Studies
• If you have a GPA of at least 3.0 there is a good chance it will be approved

MSIS 110

• An IT major cannot register for MSIS 110 because it is very similar to IT 110, but easier
• If a student's Degree Audit currently lists MSIS 110 as a Professional Elective, they will not be allowed to keep that credit as a Professional Elective
• No IT student can use MSIS 110 as a Professional Elective after Spring 2017

Pass/Fail

• A student can take one course per semester Pass/Fail
• A maximum of 8 courses can be taken Pass/Fail
• If you take a course Pass/Fail you do not receive a letter grade
• Instead you receive a grade of Pass or Fail
• We do not recommend taking a course Pass/Fail since it does not look good on your transcript
• You CANNOT take any course required for the IT major Pass/Fail
• You CAN take Math 135 Pass/Fail
• You CANNOT take a Professional Elective Pass/Fail
• ANY course that is not a requirement for the IT major can be taken Pass/Fail
• If you are taking a course Pass/Fail and pass it will have no affect on your GPA. If you take it and fail your grade will be F and it will lower you GPA.

Permission Numbers

• To learn how to use a permission number go here

Professional Electives

• A course required for the IT major or a track cannot be used as a Professional Elective
• The Degree Audit lists a number of possible courses as Professional Electives
• If you want to take a course not on the list of Professional Electives, I can write an Exception
• If you are not sure of what track to pursue, try taking the introductory course for each track
• These courses can be used as Professional Electives
• You cannot use MSIS 110 as a Professional Elective

Registering for a Course

• Some IT courses require a certain number of credits to register
• If you are currently taking enough courses to put you over the limit you will have to wait to the end of the semester to register for the course, unless you get permission from the instructor
• A UBM we have staggered registration
• This means that students who have accumulated 90 credts can register for courses before anyone else. Then students with 60 credits, and so on.
• If you are trying to register for an IT course taught by the CS Department and are having trouble, send me an email with
  • Your student ID
  • A description of the problem
  • Screenshots of any error messages you received from WISER
• If you are trying to register for a course taught by the MSIS Department in the College of Management and are having trouble you must fill out this form
• No CS Department staff member can register a student in a class taught by an instructor in the CS Deparment

Registration Holds

• A student can see what holds they have to remove before registering in WISER
• You should see a Holds button when you log into WISER
• If you click on that button you will see a list of all your registration holds
• Each of these items will have information on what you need to do to remove it
• The hold labeled ORI is an Orientation Hold and can be removed by attending an orientation session
• All new students must attend an orientation session

Repeating a Course

• You can repeat a course but only once for a given course
• You can NEVER take a course 3 times
• This may be done only 4 times
• In other words, you repeat up to 4 different courses

Withdrawing from a Course

• For instructions on how to withdraw from a can be found here
• An advising hold does not have to be removed before you can withdraw from a course
• After the withdrawal date has passed, the only way to withdraw from a course is to appeal to Undergraduate Studies for a waiver of the deadline
• This is not likely to be granted
• The only other alternative is to withdraw from all courses
• This can be done right up to the last day of classes
• When you withdraw from a course, your transcript records a W even if you take the course again
• There is no limit to the number of withdrawals a student can have
• Withdrawing from a course does not affect your GPA
• Withdrawing from a course may affect your financial aid

Seminar Courses

• Seminars are specially designated courses that require significant writing
• A student who transfers with more than 30 credits doesn't need to take the First Year Seminar
• The First Year Seminar has two options
  • 2 2 Credit courses
  • 1 4 Credit course
• For students in our College the First Year Seminar is the Freshman Success Seminar
• The Intermediate Seminar course must be chosen from a list of courses
• All these courses are specially designed 200 level courses
• All these courses have G after their course number

Tracks

• A student should pick a track once he or she has 60 credits
• Majors and tracks don't appear on the diploma
• Tracks are listed on the transcript
• To take more than one track you fill out the same paperwork as to declare a track or major
• To find the form you need to change your track go to https://www.umb.edu/registrar/forms/undergraduate
• Then scroll down until you see a link labeled General Program Add/Change
• Click on this link and follow the instructions

Unix Lab Hours

• The as CS Labs can be accessed 24 a day
• But the doors are closed when operators are not present
• You you can ask Campus Security to open the door if you name is on the door
• The names on the door are students who have run the apply program for a course this semester

Business Intelligence Electives

• All IT majors taking the Business Intelligence Track must take one of the following

  Course	Name	Prerequisites
  IT 360	Enterprise Software	IT 110 and 60 credits
  IT 428	Information System Security	IT 110 and 60 credits
  IT 456	Information Storage and Management	IT 110 and IT 230 or MSIS 411
  IT 460	Integration Methodologies and Tools	IT 110 and 60 credits
  IT 461	Systems Analysis and Design	IT 110 and 60 credits

Waiting Lists

• When the enrollment for a course has reached capacity ...
• you can be admitted to the waiting list
• The policies for admitting student from the waiting list ...
• depends on the Department offering the course
• In the CS department, the decision is up to the instructor
• An instructor may give you a permission number ...
• which you can use to register for the course
• If you have trouble using the permission number ...
• speak to a staff member in the CS Office
• The MSIS Department has a different procedure
• MSIS instructors cannot admit students from the waiting list
• When a registered student does not show up for class ...
• the student on the top of the waiting list is admitted

Winter Session

• No IT courses are offered in the Winter Session
• This is true for courses offered by both the CS and MSIS departments