Petition for Non-Majors

Visit an Information Session! Dates are posted online.

Paul G. Allen Center.

Upper-Division admission deadline is 1st of February for spring quarter admission and 1st of July for Fall admission.

[Advising Calendar]

Please note: Due to *very limited* space in 300-level classes, we no longer accept petitions from non-majors who want a 300-level course unless they have specifically been instructed to petition by an advisor. We will continue to accept petitions for 400-level major's courses, but we anticipate that we will have limited enrollment of non-majors in all CSE majors courses.

Students who are not majors in the computer science or computer engineering programs who wish to take a CSE-majors-only course may fill out a petition. However, such petitions are only granted if there is a compelling, extraordinary reason for the student to take the majors-only class. In particular, the appearance of available space is not a compelling reason. It is not our goal to fill majors-only courses to their maximum capacity. Rather, our primary concern is maintaining the quality of our program for our current majors. They benefit from smaller class sizes, where they can get closer attention from instructors and teaching assistants, engage in better in-class discussions, and the like. So the desired class size is often substantially below the maximum possible class size.

    1. Permission to take a majors-only course does not grant or imply admission to the Department now or at any future time.
    2. Students cannot use these courses towards a degree in Computer Science or Computer Engineering unless they are admitted to the Department.
    3. Students denied admission to Computer Science or Computer Engineering on two or more separate applications must speak with a CSE adviser before petitioning for a majors course. Students who have been denied from CSE two or more times and who do not have a clear recommendation to take a majors course may not be considered.
    4. Students who have not taken a majors-only course will have priority over students who have.
    5. Students who are pre-majors and have prerequisites and other requirements left to take (e.g. physics, calculus, chemistry) will not have priority for a majors-only course.
    6. Petitioning students must attend the course they are petitioning for and sign their name on the instructor's overload sheet, if applicable. If you do not attend class, your petition can be denied.

The online petition to request a space in a CSE major's course generally opens up at end of the regular registration period for each quarter and is due during the week prior to the first day of class.

The Autumn 2013 petition will open on Monday, September 2nd and close on Thursday, September 19th at 5:00pm.

Petition decisions are typically made during the first full week of the quarter, and we'll notify students of decisions by email.

After you have filled out the petition, if you are not a current UW student you must turn in a copy of your unofficial transcripts via an email attachment to ugrad-advisor[at]cs[dot]washington[dot]edu to complete the process. If you are also trying to register as a non-matriculated student, you must complete required forms from the UW Non-Degree Enrollment office.

Last changed Fri, 2013-06-21 10:26