How to declare a Computer Science major, a modified major involving Computer Science, a Computer Science minor, or a Digital Arts minor
You need to list courses in specific terms. The courses you list should be all those for the major and minor—courses you have taken, courses you are currently taking, and courses that you will take in the future—and only the courses for the major or minor (we don't need to see Writing 5, for example). Every course you list must be listed in the current ORC or have been listed in the ORC at the time you took it. (Students have been known to list nonexistent courses.)
Make sure that you list courses in the correct terms. For courses you have taken, you can look up when you took them. For courses that you will take in the future, consult the Upcoming Class Schedule page on the Computer Science website for our most complete schedule. If you are listing courses for terms after those listed on that page, take the last year of the schedule and project it forward one year; it will probably be around 80% correct.
The courses you choose must conform to the requirements for the major, modified major, or minor as laid out in the ORC. You may use certain courses in Mathematics as one elective in the standard Computer Science major, but only with the permission of the Computer Science Undergraduate Program Director. For a modified major involving Computer Science, all courses in the Computer Science side must be listed as COSC courses. For a Computer Science minor, all courses must be listed as COSC courses.
Check the course prerequisites in the ORC for each course you include. Make sure that either you take the course prerequisites before taking the course, or that you obtain permission from the course instructor in advance to waive a prerequisite.
Although the Registrar does not require you to include the prerequisites for the major, modified major, or minor in the list of courses, we ask that you include these prerequisites in the list. You must also include your culminating experience in the list. The culminating experience is two consecutive terms in your senior year of COSC 98.01 and COSC 98.02 or of COSC 99.01 and COSC 99.02.
There are three modified majors involving Computer Science that are prespecified in the ORC:
- Computer Science modified with Engineering Sciences
- Computer Science modified with Digital Arts
- Engineering Sciences modified with Computer Science
For these three modified majors, you do not need to supply a rationale. For all other modified majors, regardless of whether Computer Science is the primary part or the secondary part, and regardless of what the other department requires, you must provide a rationale that discusses the reason for your modified major and discusses how each of the major courses—in both the primary and secondary parts—fits into the overall plan.