Spring 2020 Graduate Course Updates

Updated April 6, 2020

Graduate course enrollment is limited, at first, to CSE graduate students. Once all of our graduate students have had the opportunity to express interest in a class and enroll, we will begin releasing seats for non-CSE graduate student enrollment. Once all of the interested non-CSE graduate students have had the opportunity to enroll, any available seats will be given to undergraduate students and concurrently enrolled UC Extension students.

Please monitor your @ucsd.edu email address for course clearance information or course updates DAILY.

Please take a few minutes to carefully read through the entire following important announcement from the CSE department. You may have heard about the recent decisions from the UC San Diego Divisional Academic Senate to adopt one-time exceptions regarding S/U grades, as well as extending several deadlines. Details can be found here.  

The main changes are:

S/U Grades

• Graduate students will be able to select S/U grades through the end of the 10th week.
• The Senate Council allows academic units (Departments) to relax course- and program-specific letter-grade requirements; indeed, the Senate Council encourages that these requirements be relaxed.
• Instructors may not require that students enroll on a P/NP or S/U basis in courses that currently allow letter grades.

Deadlines

• The deadline for both undergraduate and graduate students to add a course is extended from the end of the second week of instruction to the end of the third week of instruction (Graduate students may still add courses up through Week 10, with departmental approval)
• The drop deadline, without a W, is extended to the end of Week 5.    
• The deadline for graduate students to drop a course or all courses, with the assignment of a W grade(s), is the end of the ninth week of instruction (no change).
• A graduate student may petition to drop a course or withdraw from the University for emergency reasons after the end of the ninth week of instruction and before the end of the tenth week of instruction. For such petitions, approval may be granted by the Dean of the Graduate Division.

In addition to the Temporary Changes to UC San Diego Senate Regulations Relating to Grading Options and Enrollment Deadlines, the Department of Computer Science & Engineering PhD Program will allow courses for the degree requirements to be taken S/U for Spring 2020 only.  In other words, degree requirement courses in which students receive a "Satisfactory" may count towards the fulfillment of that requirement, even though that course is not taken for a letter grade.  This exception will be in effect for Spring 2020 only, for all CSE graduate major codes CS75, CS76, CS78, and CS81.  Please note that anything below a B- is considered a "No Pass," so in the event you receive the equivalent of a "C+" or lower and you take the course S/U, you will not receive credit towards that specific degree requirement.

 
Additionally, before you decide on completing your Spring 2020 courses for S/U, be sure to consider your personal situation and whether it will negatively affect any financial aid, VA benefits, scholarships, job applications, course motivation, etc. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Julie Conner at conner@eng.ucsd.edu for PhD matters or the Master's Advisors at cse-ms-advisors@eng.ucsd.edu for MS matters.

Enrollment & Waitlist Policy

• In general, graduate students have priority to add graduate courses; undergraduates have priority to add undergraduate courses.
• Read your @ucsd email. This is how we contact you to tell you if you were cleared to add a course. If you do not enroll by the deadline indicated in your clearance email, you will lose the seat!
• CSE graduate students will request courses through the Student Enrollment Request Form (SERF) prior to the beginning of the quarter. When the window to request courses through SERF has closed, CSE graduate students will have the opportunity to request additional courses through EASy. CSE students should NOT use the WebReg waitlist as a way of indicating their desire to enroll in a class unless it is listed as the primary enrollment method in the table below. 
• Priority enrollment is given in the following order:
  1. CSE PhD students
  2. CSE Master's students
  3. CSE BS/MS students
  4. Non-CSE graduate students (from WebReg waitlist)
  5. EASy requests from graduate students
  6. EASy requests from undergraduate students
  7. Concurrent (UC Extension) students
• Satisfying the prerequisites for all courses is recommended, however, not every instructor will enforce the prerequisite. Please check our Current Courses & Preparation by Course page for specific information about how to prepare for this quarter's courses.
• For course enrollment requests through the Enrollment Authorization System (EASy), please allow up to five (5) business days to process your request. If you are a CSE graduate student who submitted an EASy request, you will need to be enrolled in less than 12 units to receive priority enrollment.
• Students who have been accepted to the CSE BS/MS program who are still undergraduates should speak with a Master's advisor before submitting requests through the Enrollment Authorization System (EASy).
• Sorry, no swaps. CSE courses are too full to allow "swaps." Be sure to enroll in or waitlist the section time you plan to attend and whose final exam you can attend.
• CSE does not use add/drop cards - please do not contact instructors for enrollment approval. The add/drop card process has been replaced by the Enrollment Authorization System (EASy).
• We do not release names of instructors until their appointments are official with the University. If you see that a course's instructor is listed as STAFF, please wait until the Schedule of Classes is automatically updated with the correct information. The Student Affairs staff will not be able to let you know who is teaching.
• In general, CSE graduate student typically concludes during or just before the first week of classes. Clearance for non-CSE graduate students will typically occur during the second week of classes. If space is available, undergraduate and concurrent student enrollment typically occurs later in the second week of classes. If you are still interested in adding a course after the Week 2 Add/Drop deadline, please submit a "Late Add" EASy request to indicate your desire to enroll. These requests will be reviewed by the instructor and may be approved only if you have been actively engaged in the course. 

Non-CSE Majors

• Non-CSE graduate students should use WebReg to indicate their desire to add a course. If space is available after the list of interested CSE graduate students has been satisfied, you will receive clearance in waitlist order. If there is a different enrollment method listed below for the class you're interested in, please follow those directions instead.
• Undergraduates outside of CSE who want to enroll in CSE graduate courses should submit an enrollment request through the Enrollment Authorization System (EASy).

Non-CSE Courses

Each department handles course clearances for their own courses. Please contact the respective department for course clearance to ECE, COGS, Math, etc.

Undergraduate Students

Undergraduate students who wish to add graduate courses must submit a request through the Enrollment Authorization System (EASy). Requests to enroll will be reviewed by the instructor after graduate students have had the chance to enroll, which is typically by the beginning of Week 2. Depending on the demand from graduate students, some courses may not open to undergraduates at all. Seats will only be given to undergraduate students based on availability after graduate students enroll. Enrollment in graduate courses is not guaranteed. Please check your EASy request for the most up-to-date information.

Undergraduate Courses

Graduate students who wish to add undergraduate courses must submit a request through the Enrollment Authorization System (EASy). Prerequisite clearances and approvals to add will be reviewed after undergraduate students have had the chance to enroll, which is typically after Friday of Week 1. Seats will only be given to graduate students based on seat availability after undergraduate students enroll. Enrollment in undergraduate courses is not guraranteed. Please check your EASy request for the most up-to-date information.