AOE Advising Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

2026-2027 AOE Advising FAQs

August 2026:

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Question: I’m a sophomore and can’t find an open spot in AOE 2054. What should I do? 

Answer: AOE 2054 Electronics for AOE is now being offered in both fall and spring. If you are a sophomore in FA 2026 with a plan to graduate in SP 2029 or later, you should take AOE 2054 in either FA 2026 or SP 2026. Waiting until spring is fine! It is also fine to take PHYS 2306 in either of these semesters as well. Ideally, you should have both of these courses completed by the end of this academic year.

Note - If you still need AOE 2054 and plan to graduate before SP 2029, you must take AOE 2054 in FA 2026 to stay on track. Contact your academic advisor for assistance! 

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Question: I’m a sophomore and supposed to take AOE 2074 this year, but I see that the CS prerequisite for this course has changed. What should I do if I took one of the old prerequisite options?

Answer: AOE 2074 Data and Algorithms for Aerospace and Ocean Engineers (formerly Computational Methods) has undergone updates. As part of this process, the CS prerequisite for this course has changed. Previously, students had a choice of CS 1044, CS 1064, or CS 1114. Now students must take CS 1064.

If your official VT Catalog Year is 2025-2026 or earlier, we will honor the old CS prerequisite options for AOE 2074. Request a force-add for AOE 2074 and include a note that you took the old prerequisite. Find the AOE force-add request form here: AOE Force-Add Requests | Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering | Virginia Tech.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Question: I want to get credit for undergrad research/independent study. How do I sign up?

Answer: Instructions and links to follow can be found on the COE “Experiential Learning” webpage: Experiential Learning | Engineering | Virginia Tech. Signing up is a 2-step process. First the faculty member offering the opportunity must submit the “Instructor Request Form.” Once the opportunity is approved, you can request it using the “Student Request Form.” 

The forms close on the last day to add classes for the term. You must fill out the “Student Request Form” by the deadline. It may take several days for you to see the course appear on your schedule.  

Before signing up, you need to have arranged an opportunity with a faculty member. Keep in mind that independent study/undergrad research done under an AOE course designation (i.e. AOE 2974/4974/2994/4994) in A-F grade mode can count towards general technical elective credits. Experiential learning done under a different department’s course designation and/or in pass/fail grade mode cannot count towards general technical elective credit.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Question: Am I able to earn credits for my extracurricular engineering design team?  If so, how do I sign up?  

Answer: This depends. Some extracurricular engineering design teams offer credits and others don’t. Ask your team’s faculty advisor if this is an option for your team.

In the past, design team credits were typically given as “independent study”. Starting in FA 2026, “Design/Competition Team” is its own category of experiential learning credit (2934/4934). Sign up by following the steps outlined here: Experiential Learning | Engineering | Virginia Tech. Design/competition team credit can count towards general technical elective credits only if done under an AOE course designation (i.e. AOE 2934/4934) in A-F grade mode.