Welcome new Allen School Undergraduate Students!
We are thrilled to have you join the Allen School community! To get you set up in the major as smoothly as possible, students need to complete the steps below.
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Step 1) Admissions Offer
- To accept our offer of admission, continue reading!
- To decline our offer, email ugrad-adviser@cs.washington.edu. Include any information you wish to give about your decision (i.e., choosing another major).
- If you’re undecided about declaring a CSE major and need more time, email ugrad-adviser@cs.washington.edu ASAP to let us know.
Step 2) Complete the New Student Survey
Admitted Current UW Students should fill out their New Student Survey using their UW email address by 11:59 PM PST on Friday, February 28, 2025.
If you need more time or want to discuss your options, please email ugrad-adviser@cs.washington.edu.
Step 3) Attend the Allen School Orientation
Please do not email advisers to talk about course selection or planning until after you attend an Allen School orientation session.
The Allen School orientation is an opportunity for new students to connect with the Allen School advising team to learn more about Allen School resources and opportunities as well as address any registration or course planning questions that you may have.
We will have one in-person orientation on Tuesday, March 4 from 3:30 – 5 p.m. in Gates Commons (CSE1 691) and one virtual orientation on Thursday, March 6 from 3:00-4:30 PM on Zoom.
Please register for orientation by completing the New Student Survey. If you can’t make either orientation date, note that in the survey and we’ll contact you to arrange an alternate orientation time.
Step 4) Changing Your Major
We will begin processing change of major requests for pre-major and extended pre-major students in batches beginning February 17. This is a manual process done by the Registrar, so we won’t know exactly when majors will be changed after we send in our request. Students who complete the survey after the deadline will be coded into the major as soon as possible after that.
Students who are already declared into another major, Engineering Undeclared students and Robinson Center students who have completed their CADRs will need to have Change of Major paperwork submitted. We get this information from the New Student Survey and will submit the paperwork to your other major for a signature within 2 business days of your filling out the survey.
Robinson Center students who have not yet completed their CADRs can accept our offer but cannot change their major until CADRs are complete. Robinson Center students who have not completed their CADRs will need to add codes to register for majors-only courses. You can email ugrad-adviser@cs.washington.edu and include the CSE course(s) with SLNs you are interested in taking along with your student number.
New Transfer students will automatically be coded as a CS or CE major upon entry into the university.
Step 5) Set up a CSE Account
You will be able to access your CSE computer account (@cs.washington.edu, aka “@cs” or “CSE NetID”) after your major has officially been coded as CS or CE. Your CSE NetID will be the same as your UW NetID.
After setting up your account, you will receive your CSE NetID and initial password to your current/updated mailing address. If you have problems or questions setting up your account, email Support.
Please read the UW/Allen School Lab Policies. This is what you agree to when you accept our offer of admission and receive a CSE computer account.
Your CSE account gives you access to storage for your course and research work. It also gates many of the “internal only” distributions. If you plan to TA in the fall, the TA scheduling coordinator will ask you to register on the CSE TA web tool. You’ll get an email explaining this before TA sign-up starts.
You also have a UW account (@uw.edu, aka “uw” or “NetID”). You’ll need this account to:
- Access MyUW, to register for classes and access other university tools
- Access online resources and software (like your Zoom account)
- Receive official emails from the other departments at the university
- Opening files shared with “any UW student” through Google
Step 6) Registration
- Review our Degree Planning & Requirements page for detailed registration information!
- You can register for open CSE classes after your major is changed. For full courses, watch the time schedule and plan to attend the first few days of the quarter even if you are not yet registered. You can also sign up on the UW’s Notify system to be notified when space becomes available.
- You are not required to take CSE courses in your first quarter as a CSE major, and class space may be limited by the time you register. Please be flexible in planning your schedule.
- Also check out our teaching schedule and our student resources page, which has in-depth 300- and 400-level course guides!
Additional Onboarding Information
- Allen School advisers are happy to talk with you individually after you have completed an orientation.
- Need help with your CSE account? You should receive an email with information on how to set up your CSE computing account. If you have trouble, first visit the Support web page, then ask fellow students. If you are still unable to access your account, contact the CSE Support staff.
Helpful Quick Links
- Allen School Current UW Admit Resource Sheet with LOTS of useful links, including the rest on this list.
- CSE Curriculum & Requirements
- CSE Time Schedule
- ugrad-adviser@cs.washington.edu: General email address for CSE advising questions
- CSE Undergrad Advising Calendar: View upcoming events and our drop-in advising hours each quarter
- CSE Undergrad Advising: Connect with our advising team including staff and peer advisers through drop-in advising or by appointment
- Navigating CSE Guide (CSE login required): Guide developed by Allen School student leaders to introduce incoming students to Allen School resources.