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New Majors Orientation

New Majors Orientation

Welcome, new Allen School Undergraduate students! We are thrilled to have you join the Allen School community!

This webpage is intended for all new students, including first-year, transfer, and current UW students, to help you have a successful undergraduate experience. To ensure that your setup goes as smoothly as possible, all students must follow the tasks listed below.

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First-Year Students
Transfer Students
Current UW Students
Additional Information
Helpful Quick Links

First-Year Direct to Major (DTM) Students

Direct to Major (DTM) students are typically students who are in high school, including students dual enrolled at a community college through Running Start, but it can also include students who have graduated from high school but have not completed any additional college coursework since graduating

Students who apply through this pathway can be admitted either as Direct Admits or as Pathways for Inclusive Excellence (PIE-A) students, which includes both the Allen Scholars & STARS programs. Students are considered automatically for PIE; there is no separate application beyond the UW freshman application.

Step 1) Accept Your Offer of Admission and Pay Your Enrollment Confirmation Deposit (ECD) 

To accept your offer of admission, visit the Office of Admissions Must Do page

Step 2) Reserve a Spot for Advising & Orientation (A&O)

To reserve a spot for A&O, visit the First Year Programs page

A&O is your introduction to the Husky Experience and is three parts. You will meet with Allen School advisers during A&O Part 2 to register for classes. You won’t be able to register until this time. Please do not email advisers to talk about course selection and planning or schedule an advising appointment until after you attend A&O Part 2. Our advising team cannot meet with you until after A&O, and your questions should all be answered during A&O Part 2 and Part 3.

Step 3) Set up a CSE Account

You will be able to access your CSE computer account (@cs.washington.edu, aka “@cs” or “CSE NetID”) before the start of your first quarter at the Allen School. Please wait to be notified that these accounts have been created before contacting advising or CSE support. 

After setting up your account, you will receive your CSE NetID activation instructions, which will be emailed to your current email address on file. Your CSE NetID will be the same as your UW NetID. If you have problems or questions in activating your account, please email support@cs.washington.edu

Please read the UW/Allen School Lab Policies and UW Appropriate Use 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 be a 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 the TA sign-up starts.

You also have a UW account (@uw.edu, aka “uw” or “NetID”). You’ll need this account to:

  1. Access MyUW to register for classes and access other university tools
  2. Access online resources and software (like your Zoom account)
  3. Receive official emails from the other departments at the university
  4. Opening files shared with “any UW student” through Google

Step 4) Complete the Rest of Your Must Do Items

To complete the rest of your remaining steps, visit the Office of Admissions Must Do page.

Step 5) Send Final Transcripts and any Other Exam Scores (AP/IB/Advanced Levels)

Request official transcripts and other exam scores be sent to the Office of Admissions by July 15. For more information, visit the Office of Admissions Must Do page.

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Transfer Students

Transfer applicants are students who are currently or were previously enrolled at a college other than the University of Washington’s Seattle campus after high school. Running Start students who are currently in high school and/or did not continue with college after high school graduation are not considered transfer students.

Step 1) Accept Your Offer of Admission and Pay Your Enrollment Confirmation Deposit (ECD) 

To accept your offer of admission, you must complete the Transfer New Admit form, as well as visit the Office of Admissions Must Do page.

Step 2) Reserve a Spot for Advising & Orientation (A&O)

To reserve a spot for A&O, visit the First Year Programs page

A&O is your introduction to the Husky Experience and is three parts. You will meet with Allen School advisers during A&O Part 2 to register for classes. You won’t be able to register until this time. 

Please do not email advisers to talk about course selection and planning or schedule an advising appointment until after you attend A&O Part 2. Our advising team cannot meet with you until after A&O, and your questions should all be answered during A&O Part 2 and Part 3.

Step 3) Set up a CSE Account

You will be able to access your CSE computer account (@cs.washington.edu, aka “@cs” or “CSE NetID”) before the start of your first quarter at the Allen School. Please wait to be notified that these accounts have been created before contacting advising or CSE support. 

After setting up your account, you will receive your CSE NetID activation instructions, which will be emailed to your current email address on file. Your CSE NetID will be the same as your UW NetID. If you have problems or questions in activating your account, please email support@cs.washington.edu

Please read the UW/Allen School Lab Policies and UW Appropriate Use 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 be a 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 the TA sign-up starts.

You also have a UW account (@uw.edu, aka “uw” or “NetID”). You’ll need this account to:

  1. Access MyUW to register for classes and access other university tools
  2. Access online resources and software (like your Zoom account)
  3. Receive official emails from the other departments at the university
  4. Opening files shared with “any UW student” through Google

Step 4) Complete the Rest of Your Must Do Items

To complete the rest of your remaining steps, visit the Office of Admissions Must Do page.

Step 5) Send Final Transcripts and any Other Exam Scores (AP/IB/Advanced Levels).

Request official transcripts and other exam scores be sent to the Office of Admissions by July 15. For more information, visit the Office of Admissions Must Do page.

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Current UW Students

Current UW applicants are students who are already enrolled at the UW’s Seattle Campus.

UW-Bothell and UW-Tacoma students are considered transfer students.

Step 1) Accept Your Offer

  • To accept your offer of admission, complete the New Student Survey using your UW email address by 11:59 PM PST on Friday, February 28, 2025
  • To decline your offer, email ugrad-adviser@cs.washington.edu. Include any information you wish to provide about your decision (i.e., choosing another major).
  • If you’re undecided about accepting your offer of admission and need more time, email ugrad-adviser@cs.washington.edu to let us know.

Step 2) 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, please note that in the survey, and we’ll contact you to arrange an alternate orientation time.

Step 3) Update 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 4) Set up a CSE Account

You will be able to access your CSE computer account (@cs.washington.edu, aka “@cs” or “CSE NetID”) before the start of your first quarter at the Allen School. Please wait to be notified that these accounts have been created before contacting advising or CSE support. 

After setting up your account, you will receive your CSE NetID activation instructions, which will be emailed to your current email address on file. Your CSE NetID will be the same as your UW NetID. If you have problems or questions in activating your account, please email support@cs.washington.edu

Please read the UW/Allen School Lab Policies and UW Appropriate Use 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 be a 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 the TA sign-up starts.

You also have a UW account (@uw.edu, aka “uw” or “NetID”). You’ll need this account to:

  1. Access MyUW to register for classes and access other university tools
  2. Access online resources and software (like your Zoom account)
  3. Receive official emails from the other departments at the university
  4. Opening files shared with “any UW student” through Google

Step 5) Register for Classes

  • 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!  

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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.

Resources for Undocumented Students

The UW and the State of Washington welcome and support undocumented students of all ethnicities and nationalities. Services and resources available to undocumented students include:

Additional information:

Students may also refer to the Advising page for additional resources. 

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