Students

Click here to see how VIP courses count towards your engineering degree

Check out one or more VIP teams:

There are many ways to learn about a particular VIP team, but sometimes it’s hard to know what to ask and how to ask it. So, depending on your preferred way of communicating, you can:

Reach out directly to the team adviser

1. Go to Teams page and review your options.
2. Click on the team name to go to that team's page.
3. At the bottom of the page, you will see the professor’s name and contact info.
4. Click on the email address of one of the team leads and send an email simply expressing your interest.

It’s best to review all the teams that sound interesting. Contact all the teams you think are interesting and go talk to the faculty lead and the students. Feeling comfortable with yourself (that you’ve chosen something that truly interests you) and the team (demonstrate an inclusive environment) can be very important in the long run.

Remember: VIP is a long-term prospect, not a one-semester experience.

If you prefer a less direct route

We’ve created an online contact form; you can use this form as many times as you want, to reach out to the VIP teams you are interested in. This form essentially leads you through the process of introducing yourself and telling the team lead about your interests, the skills you bring or would like to develop, and even some of the more abstract reasons the team sounds appealing to you.

It's still a good idea that, once you introduce yourself to the professor, you meet and talk and also try to meet the team.

Congratulations, you’re accepted!

The VIP team is a course where participation is limited to the number of people necessary for the project or appropriate for the lab space. So, we set the size of the class to zero and you have to request a “size” override.

By giving you an override into the class, we ensure that you and only you (or, of course, anyone else who has an override into the course) can register for this course.

Find out what section the team you’ve selected is; you can get this information from the professor (but honestly, we don’t pay attention to things like that), or find it yourself (proving that you will do well on this team).

So, now you know that Dr. Barua’s VIP team is ENGR 497, Sections L37 and L38.

• Section L37 is a one-credit course: if this is your first VIP, you need to register for that one.
• Section L38 is a 2-credit course. Yes, that is the maximum number of credits you can register for.

All engineering majors require that you take at least four VIP credits in order to use those credits towards graduation.

You are ready to (over)ride:

Use the online override request form to get an override for the section of the VIP class, ENGR497 for your VIP team. Here is what happens to your request:

Register for the course

Use the add/drop section on eServices to register for your section of ENGR497 – this is the only way you can use your override to register for the class

More Questions?

If you have questions or concerns about the VIP program, contact the director of VIP@VCU.

If you have questions about the registration process, contact the College of Engineering Student Services.