The following information is for the 2024-2025 academic year only.

This page includes a list of upper-division courses from other departments that can be counted as either CSE Electives or Technical Electives. Please refer to your appropriate Degree Program for maximum Technical Elective credit. Technical Electives cannot be used as an UD CSE Elective.
For Computer Science (CS26) majors following CS26 major requirements from FA22 or before, all CSE Electives or Technical Electives must be 4 or more units.
PLEASE NOTE: CE majors (CS25) admitted FA24 and later may only use 8 units of courses outside of CSE/ECE to fulfill major requirements.

Students may not receive duplicate credit for equivalent courses. The UCSD General Catalog should be consulted for equivalency information and any restrictions placed on the courses. Additional restrictions are noted below. Any deviation from this list must be petitioned.

For Degree Audit inquiries, contact the Virtual Advising Center. The courses listed below may not automatically populate in the correct area of your degree audit after you enroll. If this happens, please submit a VAC message request, and the CSE Advisors will manually update your degree audit for you.

CSE does not manage enrollment for courses in other departments. Unless you are told otherwise by someone in the respective department, students should assume they will need to meet all prerequisites before being allowed to enroll in any course listed below.

****STUDENTS MUST MEET ALL COURSE PREREQUISITES IN ORDER TO ENROLL****

For CSE Prerequisites, granting exceptions to prerequisites is rare and requires documentation of extenuating circumstances. CSE does not manage enrollment for courses in other departments. Students should assume they will need to meet all prerequisites before being allowed to enroll in any course listed below. Please contact the appropriate advising department via the Virtual Advising Center for questions about course prerequisites.

Please note: All major requirements must be taken for a letter grade and passed with a C- or better, including Technical Electives. The only exceptions are: CSE 197, CSE 198, and CSE 199.

CSE ELECTIVES

Computer Science and Engineering

Any upper-division CSE course between CSE 100-190, 193, 194 that is not being used for another major requirement (and is taken for a letter grade and passed with a C- or better) may be used towards an upper-division "CSE Elective".

Please see your CS 25 Degree Program page for approved elective options and policies.
Please see your CS 26 Degree Program page for approved elective options and policies.
Please see your CS 27 Degree Program page for approved elective options and policies.

Cognitive Science

COGS 108 - Data Science in Practice (4)

COGS 109 - Modeling and Data Analysis (4)

COGS 118A - Supervised Machine Learning Algorithms (4)

COGS 118B - Intro to Machine Learning II (4)

COGS 118C - Neural Signal Processing (4)

COGS 120 - Interaction Design (5)

COGS 121 - Human Computer Interaction Programming Studio (4)

COGS 122 - Startup Studio (4)

COGS 123 - Social Computing (4)

COGS 124 - HCI Technical Systems Research (4)

COGS 125 - Advanced Interaction Design (4)

COGS 126 - Human-Computer Interaction (4)

COGS 127 - Designing Human-Data Interactions (4)

COGS 181 - Neural Networks/Deep Learning (4)

COGS 185 - Advanced Machine Learning Methods (4)

COGS 186 - Genetic Algorithms (4)

COGS 187A - Usability and Information Architecture (6)

COGS 187B - Practicum in Professional Web Design (4)

COGS 188 - Artificial Intelligence Algorithms (4)

COGS 189 - Brain Computer Interfaces (4)

Please use the UC San Diego EASy Course Pre-Authorization Forms for COGS course clearance.

Data Science

DSC 102 - Systems for Scalable Analytics (4)

DSC 120 - Signal Processing for Data Analysis (4)

Design

DSGN 100 - Prototyping (4)

Economics

ECON 172A - Operations Research A (4)

ECON 172B - Operations Research B (4)

Education Studies

EDS 124AR - Teaching Computation in the Digital World (4)

EDS 124BR - Teaching Computational Thinking for Everyone (4)

Electrical & Computer Engineering

*Starting FA 24, CS25 majors only can use ECE 100-199 to count towards their 40 units of upper division electives.*

All other majors can only use the following unless otherwise noted:

ECE 111 - Advanced Digital Design Project (4)

ECE 140A - The Art of Product Engineering I (4)

ECE 140B - The Art of Product Engineering II (4)

ECE 148 - Introduction to Autonomous Vehicles (4) may be used as a CSE Elective for CS25 and CS26 Majors ONLY; all other majors FA 23 and prior may use it as a Technical Elective.

Engineering (Global Ties)

ENG 100D/ENG 100L: Principles of Team Engineering: globalties.ucsd.edu

Students may use up to 8 units of ENG 100D/ENG 100L courses towards upper division CSE Elective credits (as part of the 8 units maximum of CSE 198/199/199H Special Studies courses allowed). You are NOT able to take ENG 100D twice.
Students must take ENG 100L twice (2 units each time) to receive credit for upper division CSE Elective (not exceeding the 8 units of CSE 198/199/199H Special Studies courses); students may not combine this course with another 2 unit or 6 unit course.
Students may request to have their degree audit updated by contacting the Virtual Advising Center.

Linguistics

LIGN 165 - Computational Linguistics (4)

LIGN 167 - Deep Learning for Natural Language Understanding (4)

Mathematics

MATH 114 - Introduction to Computational Stochastics (4)

MATH 155A - Geometric Computer Graphics (4)

MATH 170A - Introduction to Numerical Analysis: Linear Algebra (4)

MATH 170B - Introduction to Numerical Analysis: Approximation and Nonlinear Equations (4)

MATH 170C - Introduction to Numerical Analysis: Ordinary Differential Equations (4)

MATH 171A - Introduction to Numerical Optimization: Linear Programming (4)

MATH 171B - Introduction to Numerical Optimization: Nonlinear Programming (4)

MATH 181D - Statistical Learning (4)

MATH 187A - Introduction to Cryptography (4)

MATH 189 - Exploratory Data Analysis and Inference (4)

Music

MUS 171 - Computer Music I (4)

MUS 172 - Computer Music ll (4)

MUS 177 - Music Programming (4)

Visual Arts

VIS 141A - Computer Programming for the Arts I (4)

VIS 141B - Computer Programming for the Arts II (4)

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TECHNICAL ELECTIVES

Starting Fall 2024, Technical electives will not be an option for any newly admitted majors in the CSE department. Technical electives are only approved for: FA22 CS26 majors and prior; FA23 CS25 majors and prior; and FA23 CS27 majors and prior.

*Please review your Degree Program checklist and connect with CSE Advising in the VAC if you have questions about CSE Electives and/or Technical Electives for your degree program.*

Computer Science and Engineering

Any upper-division CSE course between CSE 100-190, 193, 194 that is not being used for another major requirement (and is 4 units and taken for a letter grade) may be used towards an upper-division CSE Elective or Technical Elective for Bachelor's Art/Bachelor's Science in Computer Science and Bachelor's Science in Computer Engineering programs.

Students may use 12 units of CSE 190 toward CSE elective credit. CSE 190 topics may vary from quarter to quarter. May be repeated for credit max 3 times (maximum of 12 units; assuming courses taken for a different topic).
Students may use 4 units of CSE 197 toward CSE elective requirements.
Students may use 8 units of CSE 198 or CSE 199 or CSE 199H towards CSE elective requirements. Additional units of CSE 198/199 may be approved via petition.
Undergraduate students may use CSE graduate-level courses towards their major or minor requirements, but may need a petition if they have taken the equivalent/similar undergraduate course. Undergraduate students must get instructor's permission and departmental approval (EASy request) to enroll in a graduate course.
CSE 291's are topics courses and are counted as part of the maximum of three CSE 190's allowed for CSE major electives/technical electives.
CSE 109, taken for 2 units + P/NP grading option, is not eligible to fulfill a CSE Elective/Technical Elective.

Cognitive Science

Any 4+ unit COGS upper-division courses 100-189.

Students may not receive credit for both CSE 151A and COGS 188
Students may only receive credit for one of the following: CSE 151B, CSE 154, or COGS 181
Students may not receive credit for both CSE 170 and COGS 120

Communication

COMM 105G - Computer Game Studies (4)

COMM 106I - Internet Industry (4)

Data Science

DSC 102 - Systems for Scalable Analytics (4)

DSC 120 - Signal Processing for Data Analysis (4)

Design

DSGN 100 - Prototyping (4)

Economics

ECON 100A - Microeconomics A (4)

ECON 100B - Microeconomics B (4)

ECON 109 - Game Theory (4)

ECON 110A - Macroeconomics A (4)

ECON 110B - Macroeconomics B (4)

ECON 113 - Mathematical Economics (4)

ECON 120A - Econometrics A (4)

ECON 120B - Econometrics B (4)

ECON 120C - Econometrics C (4)

ECON 121 - Applied Econometrics and Data Analysis (4)

ECON 171 - Decisions under Uncertainty (4)

ECON 172A - Operations Research A (4)

ECON 172B - Operations Research B (4)

ECON 178 - Economic and Business Forecasting (4)

Credit will be given for only one of the following: ECE 109 or Math 183 or Econ 120A.

Education Studies

EDS 124AR - Teaching Computation in the Digital World (4)

EDS 124BR - Teaching Computational Thinking for Everyone (4)

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Any 4 unit ECE upper division courses 100 to 194, and ECE 196

Students may not receive credit for both: CSE 123 and ECE 158A, or CSE 143 and ECE 165.

Credit will be given for only one of the following: ECE 109 or Math 183 or Econ 120A.

Engineering (Global Ties)

ENG 100D/ENG 100L: Principles of Team Engineering: globalties.ucsd.edu

Students may use up to 8 units of ENG 100D/ENG 100L courses towards upper division CSE Elective/Technical Elective credits (as part of the 8 units maximum of CSE 198/199199H Special Studies courses allowed). You are NOT able to take ENG 100D twice.
Students must take ENG 100L twice (2 units each time) to receive credit for one elective credit [Technical Elective or upper division CSE Elective (not exceeding the 8 units of CSE 198/199/199H Special Studies courses)]; students may not combine this course with another 2 unit or 6 unit course
Students may request to have their degree audit updated by contacting the Virtual Advising Center.

Linguistics & Literature

LIGN 110 - Phonetics (4)

LIGN 111 - Phonology I (4)

LIGN 120 - Morphology (4)

LIGN 121 - Syntax I (4)

LIGN 130 - Semantics (4)

LIGN 165 - Computational Linguistics (4)

LIGN 167 - Deep Learning for Natural Language Understanding (4)

LIGN 170 - Psycholinguistics (4)

LIGN 175 - Sociolinguistics (4)

LTCS 180- Programming for the Humanities (4)

Mathematics

Any 4 unit Math upper-division courses 100-194.

All CSE majors may not receive Technical Elective credit for: MATH 168A-B, MATH 179A-B, MATH 184, MATH 184A-B.
Students may not receive credit for both CSE 167 and MATH 155A
Students may receive elective credit for only one of the following courses: CSE 164A, MATH 174, MATH 173, PHYS 105A-B, CENG 100, MAE 107. No credit for any of these courses will be given if MATH 170 ABC is taken.
Credit will be given for only one of the following: ECE 109 or MATH 183 or ECON 120A.
Students can only use MATH 109 as a Technical Elective, if they enroll in this course after completing CSE 20.

Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering