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Future Students

Non-Major Course Registration

Petition Criteria & Process

Students who are not in the Human Centered Design & Engineering Program at UW Seattle who wish to take a 300- or 400-level majors-only course should fill out the non-major course registration petition linked below. To give HCDE students first priority for these courses, non-major course registration petitions are not reviewed until ~2 weeks before the quarter starts. We often have more requests than we can accommodate, so we strongly recommend that students petitioning to register for an HCDE course sign up for other classes as a backup.

Bear in mind that it is not our goal to fill majors-only courses to their maximum capacity. Rather, our primary concern is maintaining the quality of our program for our current majors. They benefit from smaller class sizes, where they can get closer attention from instructors and teaching assistants and engage in better in-class discussions. An instructor's desired class size is often substantially below the maximum possible class size, so course enrollment numbers alone are not necessarily an indicator that we have capacity to admit additional non-majors to a course.

Please review the list below for additional factors to note regarding our non-major course registration petition process.

  1. Permission to take a majors-only course does not grant or imply admission to the Department now or at any future time.
  2. Students cannot use these courses towards a degree in Human Centered Design & Engineering unless they are admitted to the Department.
  3. Students who have not taken a majors-only course will have priority over students who have.
  4. Students who are pre-majors and have admission prerequisites and/or general education requirements left to take will not have priority for a majors-only course.
  5. Non-matriculated students will only get their non-matriculated registration forms signed after we have approved their petition. If you are also trying to register as a non-matriculated student, please note this when filling out the petition. If selected for a spot in an HCDE course, non-matriculated students can contact the HCDE BS adviser for help with the required forms from the UW Non-Degree Enrollment Office.
  6. Non-majors who are selected for a space in a majors-only course will be contacted by the second day of the class regarding steps to register for the course. We do not admit students to our courses after this point or after the Late Add Period has begun, and we do not have the capacity to contact students who are not selected for a space in our courses.
  7. We do not have capacity at this time to consider students from self-sustaining programs. Those students are not allowed to petition for HCDE courses. Please contact your program adviser if you are unclear whether this restriction applies to you.
  8. If you have questions about the non-major course registration petition process that are not answered on this page, please contact our BS adviser.

The non-major course registration petition for Spring 2023 is now open. If any majors-only HCDE courses are scheduled for Summer 2023, Summer courses will be added to the petition on May 18. Please check back here then.

Non-Major Course Registration Petition »

Current HCDE Students

Current HCDE students should not use this petition. HCDE undergraduates should review our Group Code Registration Policy for information about registration for HCDE classes as an HCDE major and sign up for seat notifications via Notify.UW for courses that are full.

Beginning in Period 2 registration, if there is still space available in a 400-level HCDE course, HCDE graduate students may email their graduate adviser and CC the HCDE BS adviser to inquire about registering for the course. They should include information in that email about how they have met the course prerequisites, if any. After the student’s graduate adviser has confirmed whether the course is applicable to any graduate degree requirements and whether the course is appropriate for their degree level, the BS adviser can then assist HCDE graduate students in registering for the course.