Declarations are made through ASK. The following steps describe the process. There is an FAQ at the bottom of the page. (Advisors, your FAQ is here.)
Understanding The Requirements
Before you declare, look at the course requirements. Useful documents include:
- The high level description of our concentrations:
- The requirements pages for CS (same info as the bulletin, but formatted differently)
- The CS Concentration Handbook, which lists allowable substitutions, courses from other departments that count towards a CS concentration and other policies for concentrators.
The "Professional Track" requires you do complete (and write about) internships in addition to your coursework requirements. The professional track designation does not appear on any official documents. It's main benefit is for international students who wish to do internships under CPT. The track offers no benefits (other than more paperwork) for domestic students.
Steps To Declaring
See Brown's tutorial on declaring for detailed instructions.
CS does not require you to meet with an advisor before declaration.
Approval does not mean that you are now required to complete the listed courses. You may change the courses (and pathways) used in your declaration at any time until part way into your last semester. Approval means "if you finished the listed courses, you would satisfy the concentration requirements". Students change their minds and revise their declarations all the time. The point of approving something now is to make sure that you understand the concentration requirements and have a tentative plan that you have discussed with an advisor.
Getting Help
If you have questions, you can:
- post to the CS Ed Advising Board, where you can ask general questions about declaring, requirements, and other CS advising matters (both undergrad and Masters). You can also search for answers to similar questions from other students
- email cs-dus@brown.edu, which reaches the CS Director of Undergrad Studies (Prof. Kathi Fisler) and the CS Undergraduate Support Coordinator (Laura Roqueta). Kathi and Laura both monitor that inbox. We vastly prefer that you email this address rather than Kathi and/or Laura individually so we can manage threads, info, and workloads between us.
FAQ About Declaring
The answers to many of these pertain to declaring pure CS, as opposed to a joint concentrations. If you have questions that are not answered in this FAQ, post on the CS Ed Advising Board (general questions) or email cs-dus@brown.edu with individual questions.
Do I have to identify an advisor before declaring?
You may identify your own advisor if you wish, or you can let us assign you an advisor. If you don't list a preferred advisor, we will match you up with someone appropriate (based on a combination of your interests and the existing advising loads of the faculty). Even if you list a preferred advisor, we may need to assign you to someone else based on how many advisees your requested advisor is able to take on at the time you declare.
Professor X agreed to be my advisor, but they aren't listed
Email cs-dus@brown.edu as soon as you declare, and we can set that up. If you have an email confirming that your advisor has agreed, forward it as part of your email.
Can I drag a course into more than one requirement in the program plan?
Your capstone may be used both in the capstone space and as another requirement.
If you are using the 2020 requirements, you may use an intermediate course both in the pathway requirements and in the intermediate course section.
I planned my courses around the old requirements, and I don't see how to fit them into the new requirements. What should I do?
Students who were enrolled at Brown prior to Fall 2024 may still graduate under the 2020 requirements, though we prefer that you use the new ones. If you feel you need to graduate under the 2020 requirements, start a declaration, save it, but don't submit it. Then email cs-dus@brown.edu and we will switch your declaration to the old requirements.
I've already taken 22, which doesn't seem to fit into joint-CS requirements. What do I do?
It becomes one of your courses to graduate from Brown, just not a concentration course.
There's a course in another dept that I want to use as a CS 1000-level course. What do I do?
Check the concentration handbook to see whether we have already made a decision on that course. If the course isn't listed as either approved or rejected, email cs-dus@brown.edu with a link to the syllabus so we can review it.
I dragged a course into my program plan but the icon for that section didn't turn green. What happened?
There are several possibilities:
1) Perhaps you put the course in the wrong box.
2) You are substituting a course for the one that is formally in the requirements (such as using Math 100 for the Calc Prerequisite). Your advisor will have to check these manually.
3) There are a couple of courses for which the name of the course is slightly different across the two databases used to populate ASK information. The green icons check both course number and title, so these courses don’t appear satisfied. Your advisor will inspect these cases manually.
Why do some areas say “0-2 credits”?
Our requirements need to count intermediate courses in two places: the intermediate courses requirements, and the pathway requirements. The “0-n” configurations in the pathways are what let us record the same course two places, while only counting it once (in the intermediate courses section) towards your total credits. The same issue applies to the ScB capstone course.
What is "sifting mode"? Can I edit my program plan in that mode?
Sifting mode hides all requirement areas that are not being used in your current declaration. This helps hide all the pathways that you are NOT completing, for example. Unfortunately, (a) you can’t change the sifting mode while you are in Program-Plan edit mode, and (b) if sifting mode is on, you can’t add courses to requirements that you weren’t already using (in other words, sift is fine for reading but interacts poorly with writing). The ASK development team acknowledges that there are issues here that they need to fix.
I'm considering study abroad. How do I handle that in my declaration?
AB students may transfer up to two study-abroad courses to the concentration; ScB students may transfer up to three. Actual transfers get approved by Tom (as Director of Undergraduate Studies). When you fill out your declaration, take your best guess at courses you will take at Brown or transfer from elsewhere (you can always update your courses as your study abroad plans take shape). You can add a comment to your declaration about your study-abroad interests. We strongly urge you to review planned course transfers with your advisor and/or the Director of Undergraduate Studies before you leave, so that there are no surprises when you seek concentration credit upon you return.
I have a question that isn't covered here or in the concentration handbook...
Post to the CS Ed Advising board or Email cs-dus@brown.edu with your question.
