Course Waivers: Petitioning
If you took graduate-level courses at another university that are equivalent to one of our own, you can apply for a course waiver. This allows you to count the course towards your coursework requirements, including meeting the breadth group requirements. You can receive a maximum oftwo waivers: one to meet a breadth requirement prior to the qualifying evaluation, and one to meet a CSE++ requirement course after your General Exam.
- Compare your transcript to our courses.
Here's a list of our breadth courses and a list of what qualifies as a CSE++ course. There is also a list of course descriptions. - Gather your materials.
We'll evaluate every waiver request. However, successful waiver requests frequently include a course URL, a syllabus, the name of the instructor, the department and institution. Make sure to have your course materials available before leaving your current school to include in the petitions when you prepare them. The more information you can submit for a petition, the better. The course must be passed with a grade of 3.4 (B+) or equivalent. Ungraded courses are not accepted (with exceptions for the COVID-19 period). - Submit your waiver petitions by September 1.
You will need your CSE NetID and password to submit a petition. Please submit no more than three waivers. You will be permitted to submit more if your waivers are denied, but please limit your initial waivers to your best 3 matches. This saves everyone time and labor.
NOTE: if your graduate level courses were taken at the University of Washington, you do not need to submit a petition.
Please read the instructions before filling the form out and don't hesitate to ask questions. The goal of the petition is to show that the graduate course you took is of a similar enough nature and rigor as our required courses or non-required courses, so as much information as you can provide is very important. The courses do not need to be identical to those in our curriculum.
For Ph.D. students entering Autumn 2023: Due to COVID-19, if you have grades of CR on your transcript for courses that otherwise would have been graded we can make the following accommodations to the usual graded requirement:
- Self-assess and tell us whether you believe you grade would have been at a B+ level or above
- Include in your petition, via Google Docs or other easily accessible link, examples of your best work in the course -- whether it is a project report, graded assignment, etc. plus AN EXPLANATION FOR THE EVALUATOR of what the challenges were for the assignments and how these challenges were addressed by you.