UW CSE Community College UW CSE 142 Certification Procedure

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Certifying Courses for UW CSE 142 Transfer Credit

At a workshop in May 1996, faculty involved in the teaching of introductory Computer Science courses at UW-Seattle and the state's community and technical colleges collaboratively devised a procedure by which individual community and technical college courses can be approved for automatic transfer as CSE 142 credit at the UW.  In collaboratively defining this certification process, the participating faculty were exclusively focusing on serving the needs of students transferring from community and technical colleges to UW.  In 2001, the CSE 142 and CSE 143 courses were redesigned to use Java.  Transfer policies were reviewed, another meeting with community college instructors was held in November, 2001, and procedures have been somewhat revised.

It is recognized that colleges organize their curricula in different ways.  Courses may be offered in various academic departments.  At some schools the introductory material might be spread over more than one course.  Differences of this sort should not discourage colleges from seeking transfer credit.

Requests should include all of the following for each course to be reviewed:

• Name of community college
• Contact person (including name, phone number, e-mail address, and US mail address)
• Course name, prefix, number, and catalog description; and the quarter and year when the course was first offered in its present form
• Expected frequency of offering and expected enrollment
• If available: estimated number of expected transfer students, and expected number who may be interested in a Computer Science or Computer Engineering major at UW-Seattle
• Course materials, identifying the quarter and instructor which the materials represent:
  • a course syllabus, including name, author, and edition of textbook, hardware platform(s),  software tools (such as compilers) used, overall objectives, and topics covered
  • a set of all assignments and exams
  • URL of course website, if available

Additional supporting materials may be submitted when available, but are not required.

As noted above, a course does not have to duplicate CSE 142 as taught at UW-Seattle.  However, a course taught in Java, with coverage, rigor, and assignments similar in nature to that of CSE 142, will be the best preparation for those students whose goal is further computer science coursework at the UW.

Obviously, individual students vary greatly in their ability to adapt quickly to a new environment. An essential part of the transfer process is individual counseling at the community colleges for students transferring to UW.  In particular, transfer students will want to weigh the choice of repeating CSE 142 at the UW or moving directly to CSE 143.  Since CSE 142 transfer credit does not in itself ensure adequate preparation for success in the UW's CSE 143, students should be advised to compare their experience with that of the UW's CSE 142 before making a decision.

If you have questions or need further information, please contact the UW CSE Undergraduate Program Advisor.  For more detail about the UW's course equivalency policies and procedures, see the User's Guide maintained by the Registrar.

	Computer Science & Engineering University of Washington Box 352350 Seattle, WA  98195-2350 (206) 543-1695 voice, (206) 543-2969 FAX [comments to ugrad-advisor]