You can find the catalogue of optional courses for first-year free choice credits in the curriculum of your degree programme. Optional courses start two weeks after the beginning of the second semester and last totally 12 weeks; 4.5 hours a week are dedicated to lectures, which take place on Wednesday and Friday afternoons.
Each course has approximately 150 places, except for courses capped to a limited number of students for the use of equipped classrooms.
A certain number of places (10% of available places) is reserved to Architecture students.
Five places in each course are reserved to foreign mobility students, if there are any.
You can choose your optional course from the catalogue of FREE CHOICE CREDITS – FIRST YEAR only:
- if it is your first year of enrolment
- if you have passed Mathematical Analysis 1 during the winter examination session of your first year
In this case you will be able to choose your optional course on your personal portal ("Fill in your PSP and APSP" section) from 1stto 5th March 2019.
If you did not pass Mathematical Analysis 1 in the winter examination session, you must take the remedial course in second semester. In this case you will choose your optional course (free choice credits) starting from the next academic year.
If you are a part-time student, you can choose your optional course only if you passed Mathematical Analysis 1 during the winter examination session, and you had purchased the optional course credits (free choice credits - first year) when you enrolled at Politecnico and created your APSP.
How to choose your optional course
- log into your personal page of the Teaching Portal – choose the section: Compila Piano Carriera e Carico Didattico / Fill in your PSP and APSP;
- select your courses and rank them in order of preference, by either using the arrows located on the side of each course, or by dragging and dropping them in the desired position;
- confirm your choice to complete this operation.
A message will be displayed on the screen (Scelte effettuate in precedenza/Choices previously made).
The order of preference can be modified by logging into this page again until the closing date for the choice of optional courses (deadline: 5th March 2019).
Ranking list and course allocations
At the end of the examination session of the first semester, the Division of Student Affairs draws up a merit ranking list based on the results obtained by every student in the exams. This ranking list is used to assign optional courses to students.
The ranking list is created on the basis of students’ scores. Every student is assigned a score, which is calculated by multiplying the number of credits of Mathematical Analysis 1, Chemistry and Computer Science by the grade obtained in each exam.
Students will be allocated their optional course following the order established in the ranking list and taking into account the preferences expressed by every student , until all places are occupied.
When several students with the same position on the ranking list choose the same optional course, but available places are not sufficient to satisfy all the requests, the course will be offered to the students who have the highest number of exams passed with honours; subsequently, the remaining places will be randomly assigned on the basis of a computerized draw.
At the end of this process residual places can be offered to latecomers. For this reason if you did not choose your optional course within the deadline, you can go to the Office of Student Services (at Cittadella Politecnica -1st floor) from 15th to 22nd March 2019 and check if there are any residual places.
Special cases
Optional course allocations are made in consideration of the students’ participation into special degree programmes/projects and their profiles:
- student of the Bachelor’s degree programme in Automotive Engineering entirely taught in English will be granted a place in the Automotive Evolution course, if this was selected as their first choice;
- applicants to the Italian-Chinese Campus Project must choose their optional course following the standard procedure; nevertheless, if they are selected for this project, they will be automatically allocated the Chinese language course, instead of their chosen optional course;
- students studying at any SDSS (Strutture Decentrate di Supporto agli Studenti / Decentralized Facilities for Student Support) will be granted a place for the streaming course, if this was selected as their first choice. In particular: for students of the Biella SDSS campus, will be granted a place for the Technological laboratory for the textile industry, provided that they have selected it as their first choice. This is because this course is delivered at the Biella campus;
- students enrolled in a Bachelor’s degree programme entirely or partially taught in English (first year) will be granted a place in one of the courses taught in English, if they were selected as their first choice;
- part-time students who are allocated an optional course must pay the fee for the corresponding number of credits by 8th March 2019. Failure to pay this fee will cause the cancellation of the course from the Annual Personal Study Plan.
Communications to students
A message will be sent to your institutional mailbox at the end of optional course allocations - at least two days before classes start. Please check which course you have been allocated a place for. Course schedule and classroom information will be available on your personal page of the Teaching Portal.