Frequently Asked Questions

Undergraduate students are required to seek advisement prior to obtaining D-clearances. Students can receive advisement by going to the ISE Student Services Office, GER 247 to schedule an appointment, or by contacting Jessica de la Cruz-Gonzalez at (jvdelacr@usc.edu). Students should review their STARS reports prior to seeking advisement. STARS reports are available on OASIS. Graduate/Masters students must seek advisement from Mary Ordaz at (mordaz@usc.edu). Student should make appointments with their advisor well in advance of their registration appointment time. Students can make appointments by calling the ISE Department at (213)740-4893 or emailing isedept@usc.edu

Operations Focus: Deals with planning and scheduling production activities, developing quality assurance procedures, designing facilities, and improving production systems. You learn to define problems in operations, identify causes, and develop solutions. Can be applied to all sectors of the economy.

Information Systems Focus: Deals with design and use of software tools (databases) that store information vital to business activities. Example: Amazon.com customer records and recommendation systems. Prepares you to work as liaison between business managers and software development engineers. You learn to identify business processes that rely on access to information, and to determine requirements for computer systems that store and retrieve the information. You will learn to build small information systems yourself. For larger systems, you will act as the customer representative to the software engineers.

Undergraduates are assigned to Jessica de la Cruz-Gonzalez, who is available at GER 243. You may also talk to departmental faculty if you would like additional advice on career paths and electives. Graduate/Masters students are assigned to Mary Ordaz (mordaz@usc.edu) for advising. Students are strongly encouraged to see their advisor each semester, and must see their advisor for approval of electives, pre-requisite courses, or any deviation from program requirements. Students may contact advisors at (213)740-4893 or email isedept@usc.edu

Based on our initial review, you have not satisfied the program pre-requisites listed in the Masters Program Handbook (pdf). Upon your arrival at USC, we will make a more thorough review to determine which, if any, pre-requisite courses you will need to take at USC as part of your degree program. While these pre-requisites may reduce your flexibility when choosing electives, they usually do not require a longer then normal program. Pre-requisites are most stringent for the M.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering. If you do not have an undergraduate degree in this area, you may want consider another major, such as the Master's in Engineering Management or the Master's in Operations Research Engineering, both of which have fewer pre-requisites. Students wishing to change majors can usually be accommodated.

In the admissions process, we determined that your undergraduate GPA or GRE scores are below the department's minimum standards. Because you otherwise show promise, you have been admitted to the program. However, admission is conditioned to your performance in the first 6 units completed at USC in your first semester. If, for some reason, you are unable to attain a GPA in excess of 3.0 in the first 6 units the department will consider remedies, which may include discontinuation from the program. However, discontinuation has been rarely used in the past.

A registration hold or restriction will prevent a student from enrolling in classes. Registration holds may be issued by various departments on campus, such as the American Language Institute (ALI), Office of Collections, or Admissions. You may check for any restrictions by going to OASIS. The student will need to contact the department from which the restriction was issued to resolve the hold or restriction.

If a course has a "D" designated after the 5-digit class number (such as 35100D), departmental clearance ("D-clearance") is required prior to registration. Students must request D-clearance for such courses through the online queue system. When a seat becomes available in a D-designated class, the student at the top of the queue is automatically notified through the student's USC email that D-clearance has been granted, allowing for that student to register using Web Registration. It is then the student's responsibility to go on Web Registration to schedule and register the cleared course. Detailed D-clearance instructions (PDF)

D-clearance queuing system website: https://myviterbi.usc.edu

A petition for a waiver of prerequisite coursework is available to students who have previously completed a course prerequisite, but the coursework is not currently reflected in their USC record. Students will be unable to register for the advanced class if they have not had their submitted petition approved, even if granted D-clearance. When a student is requesting D-clearance for a course that has prerequisites, the student must complete the part of the D-clearance online application asking how the prerequisite was fulfilled. Petition forms, available from GER 247, must be submitted in person with an original course syllabus. All petition submissions are subject to faculty review before approval- it is recommended that a student submit the petition as early as possible to ensure that there is enough time for the petition to be evaluated. Approvals are made on a case by case basis.

Undeclared undergraduate students must go to the School of Engineering Student Affairs Office, RTH 110, for advisement. Students already in a major should obtain a "Change/Addition of Major, Minor, or Degree Objective Form from RTH 110 or the SAS Lobby, and seek advisement from the prospective major department. If the student is admissible to transfer, the form can be approved by the prospective department. All international students regardless of major and admitted graduate students not in ISE must submit a Graduate Application to change majors. Graduate students already in a major within ISE can submit the "Change/Addition of Major, Minor or Degree Objective" form directly to the department. The ISE Graduate Committee will review the student's request to change major as if he/she is reapplying to the department.

Undergraduate students will receive a Degree Deficiency Summary Report by email from the advisor. Students should compare the information on the Deficiency Summary Report with a current STARS report. Both of these reports are available on OASIS.

Graduate students will submit a completed Application for graduation AFTER you register for your final semester but BEFORE the deadline to register and add or drop a course. The department will send an email each semester with the deadline. Check the current schedule of classes for exact dates. https://viterbigrad.usc.edu/academic-services/graduation-checklist/