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How to Declare your Major/Minor

To declare your CS Major, Modified Major, or Minor, you need to use Dartworks. The general guide is here, and for further clarity, we have outlined below a series of steps specific to CS courses.

Step-by-step Procedure to Declare Major/Minor

  1. First, chart out a plan listing relevant courses you would like to take in each of your Dartmouth terms.

    • Relevant courses are the CS courses that would satisfy the requirements depending on whether you plan to be a CS Major, Modified Major, or Minor.

    • At times, a MATH course may need to be added (eg, if it's a third elective, or if it's a required prerequisite to some other course)

      We recommend you talk with the Undergraduate Program Director to get the best advice on which courses may be best aligned for you.

      This link lists some upcoming classes, but not too far in the future. Make sure you consult this when making your plan. If this information isn't available for the term you are listing, then you can propose any existing courses for a future term, especially if it has been taught in the recent past.
       

  2. As you are charting this plan, make sure you satisfy the prerequisites for each course.  Don't plan to take a course X without having fulfilled its prerequisites. The "prerequisite network" for most CS courses is provided here. Some CS courses can have a MATH prereq, so make sure you have taken them, or have credit for them.
     

  3. Once you have this plan in front of you, go to DartWorks to declare the major. Fill up only the CS courses and all the CS courses that are required for your requirement. So, for example, 

    • You are a prospective CS Major.  Then you should have 13 courses listed (2 prereq+ 9 courses + 2 culminating experience), and if you have credit for the prerequisites, it must be mentioned as a note below your plan.

    • You are a prospective CS Modified Major with X where CS is the primary part. Then please list only the 10 courses listed. There shouldn't be any courses from major X listed, since you are submitting to the CS Department. You will submit a different plan to the X-department/major, which approves "X" as the secondary component.

      If you are planning to take a topics course (49/69/89), make sure to mark the .XX. For example, COSC 49.08 or COSC 69.13.
       

  4. Once you do this, the plan comes to the Undergraduate Program Director of the CS Department, and they will either approve it (Hooray!), or deny it and ask for more information, or point to some issues in the plan. Common issues include not enough courses, prerequisites missing, courses not offered in the term planned, courses from other majors included in the plan, etc.