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New Grad Onboarding

After You Arrive

Husky Card & Building Access

Pick up your Husky Card on the ground floor of the Odegaard Undergraduate Library. Check the Husky Card Services webpage for operating hours before you arrive. This should be done before orientation and after you arrive in Seattle. Doing so before your tour / check-in will also make things a good deal easier, as we can provision your Husky Card for CSE facilities access right when you arrive! Your Husky Card will be your key to the University, so getting this done as your first action item on campus is helpful.

Bring a photo ID with you. Your Husky card (after you obtain it) needs to be enabled for access to the Allen & Gates Center after hours, the graduate student mailrooms, the photocopy rooms, etc., so when you pick up your hard keys (2) be sure your card is also activated. If you need to request activation this can be done at the Allen Center front desk or by emailing cardkey@cs.washington.edu.

Picking Up Your Keys In September

Key Pick-up Location: CSE 101, Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering. (map)
Hours: Monday – Friday, 9am-12pm and 1pm-4pm 

Key pick-up and group tours occur from 9/4/24 to 9/17/24. Tours are not mandatory, but certainly helpful and will help get you all squared away for seamless operation by New Grad Orientation. The tour schedule is provided below, please sign up for the group tour for the date and time that works best for you!

  • M/W/Th – 1:00PM to 1:45
  • T/Th – 9:30AM to 10:15

Each Ph.D. student is assigned space in a shared graduate student office, workroom, or research lab. For your reference, your assigned location is listed in myCSE.

Immunization Documentation

Prior to arriving on campus, students must provide vaccination information through all the forms on this page.

Employment Paperwork

Once your Workday profile is updated by payroll, keep an eye out for emails from Workday. Be sure to complete your onboarding tasks in Workday as soon as possible, including “Complete Your Form I-9”. Per federal law, your I-9 must be completed in Workday no later than 3 business days after your first day of work. This includes meeting with a payroll staff member in-person in order to verify your employment documentation. Allen School payroll staff will email students directly with specific dates and times for this in-person meeting. Questions about payroll paperwork can be directed to the CSE payroll at payroll@cs.washington.edu.

International Students

  1. After you arrive in the U.S., you are required to complete an online post-arrival check-in with the International Student Services Office to register your visa, I-20, etc. 
  2. Start your application for the Social Security card. You are eligible to apply 10 days after arrival in the U.S. International Student Services (ISS) will give you instructions. The Social Security Number/card is absolutely required for anyone employed in the U.S.

If you have any questions about these procedures, please don’t hesitate to ask!

The Husky Card (UW Student ID)

THESE INSTRUCTIONS ARE FOR CURRENT UW PH.D. STUDENTS ENROLLED IN THE COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING PROGRAM.

You can pick up the Husky Card as soon as you arrive on campus. The Husky Card is the UW student ID card with photograph and student number on the face. The card contains a RFID chip with info connected to you.

Here are some of the uses of the Husky Card:

  • Card key for after-hours access to the Allen Center and Gates Center; also to labs. After obtaining your card, if you are a CSE student you can get it activated by emailing operations, please include your student ID number in the email.
  • Bus pass that you tap on a reader as you enter the bus.
  • Cash card for food service on campus; parking in the Montlake lot.
  • Free access to the Intramural Activities building (IMA), AKA the gym.
  • Checking out books from the library.
  • Discounts at University District businesses.

And much more!

Direct Deposit

Unless you love to pick up checks and go to the bank to deposit them, you will want to set up Direct Deposit.

There are two kinds:

  1. Direct Deposit of your salary or stipend to your personal bank account. Once your RA/TA/fellowship is entered into the UW Payroll system, you will be able to access Workday, our payroll system Don’t worry if it doesn’t work immediately–it takes a while to enter all the new graduate appointments, especially in fall quarter. Follow the instructions in Workday to set up your direct deposit. Until you are able to set this up, you will be emailed when checks are ready for pick-up in the Allen School main office.
  2. Direct Deposit of funds entered in your Student Account to your personal bank account: Enrollment Confirmation Deposit refund, special cash awards and payments. This is also done in MyUW, but in the student account section. 

Until you are able to set this up, you will be contacted by Student Fiscal Services asking where to send the check/pick up the check. Your first check will be available on October 10 for the previous half-month (Sep 16-30). The second check of the month will be available on October 25 for Oct 1-15. This continues on the 10th and 25th of each month until June 25 for June 1-15. If you have a summer appointment, 10th and 25th again. Most summer appointments end on Aug 31, so your last check for the summer is Sep 10 and no check on the 25th–this sometimes surprises students.