These are some of the most commonly asked about topics. Questions regarding preparation for your defense and graduation can be found under Graduation Deadlines and FAQs (under PhD program and Master’s Program) on our website.

If you have additional questions, please see the Academic Program Administrator at Latrobe 201W or via Teams.

PhD Program Frequently Asked Questions

STAFF INSIDE THE DEPARTMENT:

Academic Program Administrator

  • Any questions you have concern about
  • Employment and payroll
  • Registration
  • Requirements and graduation

Sr. Administrative Coordinator

  • Key Distribution
  • Reserving rooms for class, lab, and group meetings
  • Purchasing of supplies and equipment
  • Travel reimbursements
  • Coordinate shipments and deliveries
  • Arranging meetings with the Department Head

If you feel overwhelmed by the workload and/or stress related to health/family/personal concerns, and you feel you need additional help, Johns Hopkins offers a multitude of resources for help.

Sometimes, there is a need to find someone to listen, so please stop by the office and talk to any staff member who is available to listen. Sometimes it helps, but if that is not enough, please visit these pages for information and hours:

EMERGENCY HELP

In case of emergency:

OTHER HELP

Well-Being

Check out the Student Wellness page, which offers support and services in seven key areas of wellness: emotional and mental health, physical health, finances, professional life, spiritual health, sexual health, and social well-being.

Get Personal Help

  • Homewood Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs
    • Get help with academic and life issues like mental and physical health, financial hardships, interpersonal conflict, advising concerns, coursework and research performance, and visa concerns.
    • The Homewood Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs Emergency Fund provides limited short-term financial assistance to currently enrolled graduate students and full-time postdoctoral fellows experiencing financial hardships.
  • Office of Student Life – for information on services, offices, events, and student groups
  • Ombuds Office – confidentially and informally raise any concern involving Ph.D. students and postdoctoral fellows, assist in conflict resolution, and provide feedback on problematic trends and systemic issues. Schedule a consultation here.
  • Office of Student Disability Services – to get help with a physical or mental incapacitation, no matter how minor.
  • Counseling Center – to get help with any emotional concerns, when feeling overwhelmed, and when needing mental health support in a caring environment.

Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity

The following courses are required for ALL graduate students:

  • CaSE Graduate Seminars (4 total)
  • EN.500.603 Academic Ethics
  • Responsible Conduct of Research (AS.360.625)
  • 560.836/835 Graduate Research with a section related to your advisor

Registration requires that your Faculty Advisor releases the Advising Hold in SIS. Please meet with your advisor, if you have not already, to discuss classes you would like to register for and release the hold in SIS. Additionally, please review your transcripts in terms of missing grades. Please contact the instructor to get it corrected.

The expectation is that all students enrolled in a residential program will be on campus, and the Whiting School Homewood campus programs will primarily offer in-person courses and research activities.

  1. The Whiting School of Engineering (WSE) mandates a credit minimum for graduate full time status:
    • Fulltime WSE PhD students have to be enrolled in a combination of WSE classes and/or research for a total of 20 credits per semester (fall/spring). It means that if a fulltime PhD student is taking a 3 credit course in combination with research, the research credits (EN.560.835/836 Graduate Research) should be 17, etc. Please keep in mind that the research credits can always be adjusted as courses are dropped/withdrawn.
    • Fulltime WSE Master’s students will be enrolled in a combination of classes and/or research for a total of 9-10 credits a semester (fall/spring).
  2. Visit Registration Instructions and Registration Remedies to answer many of your questions regarding the registration process
  3. Review our requirements to the PhD program and MSE program. Also, please note that all courses must be at the 600- or 700- level and be approved by the advisor
  4. Graduate courses offered by our Department (https://sis.jhu.edu/classes/):

You can find all JHU courses in SIS and in the Academic Catalogue.

Please note:

  • EN refers to courses offered in the School of Engineering.
  • The three-digit number after EN is the department number (EN.560 is CaSE).
  • The three-digit number after the department number is the course number (xxx.600-xxx.899 – graduate courses).

xx.xxx.600-899 is what you should enroll to.

 

These forms can be downloaded from the Registrar’s website. Scroll to “Term Dates & Deadlines” for more instructions.

Qualified students may request to take courses at other divisions of the university by completing an Interdivisional Registration (IDR) Form and obtaining the appropriate approvals. Once you have obtained all approvals, please submit the form via SEAM’s online form.

General IDR Rules & Restrictions for All Divisions:

  • Enrollment approval is based upon seat availability with the host division.
  • It is the student’s responsibility to obtain permission of instructor and/or advisor, if required.
  • Your program may limit the number of IDR credits you can earn. Check with your specific program.
  • Degree seeking students must submit the completed IDR form to their home Registrar’s Office, unless otherwise noted.
  • Part-time graduate students are charged the host division’s tuition rates. Credit limits may apply.

NOTE: There is a lifetime limit of 6 IDR courses at EP.

You can find additional information on the Registrar’s website.

It is possible that courses you take during the summer semester can be counted toward your degree requirements, however, you must first clear this with your advisor.

NOTE: Funding provided by the department or university does not cover the cost of summer courses, and you will have to pay for these courses out of pocket. There are no exceptions.

PhD students are required to be enrolled in Summer for Graduate Research course for 9 credits at no cost. This course must be graded (please follow up with your advisor about this).

WSE policy does not permit students to choose their committee members or contact prospective members, prior to confirmation of the committee (which is coordinated by the Academic Program Administrator). You and your advisor may discuss possible members whose research is related to yours, but your advisor has the final decision and only he/she may email the Academic Program Staff to name the proposed committee members and suggest a suitable time for the exam.

  • The Academic Program Staff will then contact each person on the proposed committee to coordinate a date and time. You will be notified when the exam has been scheduled.
  • Once the exam is scheduled, you may at that time contact committee members but only for the purpose of sharing your research.
  • Do NOT email the Academic Program Administrator the names of your proposed committee members. Again, this must come from your advisor.
  • The chair of the committee is always an outside (of the department) member and will be selected by the Associate Vice Dean for Graduate Education and Lifelong Learning. To ensure your committee can meet in the even the chair is unable to attend at the last minute, it is strongly suggested that the second outside member or the outside alternate be of the Associate Professor rank or above.

You should make an appointment with the Office of International Services.  Optional Practical Training (OPT) may be an option that is available to you.

Stipend/Salary

All WSE PhD students receive financial compensation via either salary or stipend. Please refer to your appointment letter for the annual salary/stipend information.

Pay Statements

Your pay statements are available in Employee Self-Service (ESS) which is part of the Human Resources/Payroll system that allows you to view your personal and payroll data and easily make changes. It’s a convenient, secure, user-friendly resource that you will be able to access online through myJHU. Using ESS, you can:

  • View your pay stub(s)
  • Sign up for direct deposit
  • Make changes to your tax withholding forms
  • Update your address
  • Add a nickname to your personal information

To access ESS:

  • Go to my,jh.edu and sign in with your JHED ID and password.
  • Select the “HR” tab and then the “ESS” tab.
  • Sign in again with your JHED ID and password.
  • Select the “Payroll Info” tab and you will see the pay statement.

Taxes

For information on taxes, including deductions and filing taxes, visit these pages:

Personal Data

Please let the Academic Program Coordinator know of any changes in contact information, i.e., if you’ve moved, changed your contact phone number, etc. This information must also be changed in 2 separate places:

  1. Through SAP’s Employee Self-Service (ESS) which you will find on your myJHU portal webpage. This data feeds into the payroll system.
  2. You must ALSO change your personal information in SIS. These two are completely separate systems.

There is a requirement to complete and submit the pre-entrance forms. Please visit Primary Care to answer many of your questions.

Reimbursement

Johns Hopkins University launched SAP Concur Expense system to provide simpler processes for requesting expense reimbursements:

  • Direct requests must be submitted within 90 days (after 90 days, expenses will be paid to the purchaser as a payroll supplement instead of reimbursement and will be subject to payroll taxation).
  • Trainings are linked to “Training Materials” page.
  • Questions? – Contact the Administrative Coordinator or Concur Admin.

Orders

  • Send a web link (preferably Amazon) with the item you would like to purchase to Administrative Coordinator
  • Also include the Budget number and approval from advisor

Shipping

Items being delivered to the department must be shipped to:

  • Johns Hopkins University
    Civil and Systems Engineering Department
    3910 Keswick Road, Baltimore MD  21211
    ATTN:  Latrobe 201 CaSE

Packing Slips

To comply with federal and JHU auditing policies we are required to collect and file all packing slips from items purchased by our department. The packing slip is our proof the item was received.

Make sure you give the packing slip to Administrative Coordinator.

Deliveries and Mail

  • You have a personal mailbox on the 3rd floor.
  • Interoffice and postal mail are delivered daily, usually in the early afternoon. The front office staff will distribute the mail to mailboxes the same day or early the next morning.
  • Packages larger than the mailboxes will be stored in Latrobe 201 and recipients will be notified. They should not be picked up until the packages are checked in with the staff member.

If your air conditioning (AC) or heat isn’t working, if you find a leak, or your restroom is in need of custodial services, send Administrative staff an email. Specify the problem and what room(s) is/are affected. Staff will put in a service request and someone from Facilities will be dispatched to look at and repair the problem.

My.jh.edu is your primary tool and the library for all related JHU services. This will answer almost ALL of your questions about networking, printers, software, drivers and more. Students are instructed to report computer problems through IT-Help. Choose “I want to” and then “Report a problem.”

  • Departmental supplies (kept mostly in the kitchen/copy/mail room) are not available for students. You are responsible for providing your own supplies. On occasion, instructors may ask a student to acquire pens, markers, erasers, chalk, etc. Please seek assistance from the Sr. Administrative Coordinator and inform Sr. Administrative Coordinator that you are collecting supplies on behalf of the instructor.
  • Copy paper – One exception is paper. If you need paper for a printer used here at the office, you are welcome to take paper from the cabinet under the mailboxes in the Faculty & Staff Break Room.

Students should see the Sr. Administrative Coordinator to obtain office or desk keys or card-key access. In the event of lost or stolen keys, please notify the office immediately. There is a $10 deposit for all office (door) keys. There is a $5 deposit for all desk keys. These deposits will be returned to you when you return your keys.

Access to Latrobe 3rd floor

  • Doctoral students have 24/7 access to the 3rd floor programmed into their J-Cards.
  • If you need access to any of the labs which are locked with card-key readers, please see the Sr. Administrative Coordinator and bring your J-Card to record the number on the card. Please have your Lab Safety Clearance Form signed to receive lab access.

Lab access is only granted to those who are required to work in the lab. Please check with your advisor.