Steps to Declare
Step 1:
Before coming in to declare, you need to complete the following steps:
- Get a printout of your unofficial transcript from Axess.
- Find a new advisor within the CS department. You do not need any
paperwork from this advisor; just make sure that he or she has agreed to be
your advisor. For more information about this step, see the
Choosing an Advisor page. Keep in mind that you are free to change your
advisor at any time. Many people put off declaring until the very last minute
because they don't feel like they know who they want as an advisor. It's
perfectly fine to declare early with an advisor you do know (maybe a lecturer
or a professor in a field you might be interested in) and then switch to another
advisor later if you find that your interests have changed.
- File a Major Declaration Request on Axess. In order to do this, go to Axess
and click on Declare Major/Minor. When you have to choose a major, choose CS
(CSE majors - you should choose Engineering, and when when it asks you for a
field of study, choose CSE). You do not have to worry about the question about
honors; just answer yes or no depending on what you think you might do. When
you have finished this step, Axess should say that your major declaration is pending.
- Print and Fill out a CS/CSE Declaration
Form.
The Course Advisor cannot declare you unless you complete all of these steps
before coming in. It is not possible to be automatically assigned to an advisor
because we want you to choose one for yourself. Keep in mind that once you
come in to declare with the Course Advisor, it can still take up to 2 weeks
for your declaration to go through. Also note that the Course Advisor does
not have Office Hours during finals week, over break, or over the summer,
therefore you cannot declare during those times. Please plan accordingly!!
Step 2:
When you have finished all of the above you should come see the Course Advisor
during his office hours (you do not need to make
an appointment). At that meeting, he will:
- Take your unofficial transcript and declaration form.
- Take your picture for the CS/CSE undergraduate picture board.
- Give you an @cs email alias which is good for life!
- Give you an account on the CS department machine named
Xenon.
Step 3:
Once you come in and see the Course Advisor, it can take up to about 2 weeks for
your declaration to process. About 2 weeks after you declare, you should be sure
to do the following:
- You should have started to get mail from the bscs@cs and
students@cs mailing lists. These are the main mailing lists for the
department and they see a fair amount of traffic. These
announcements should forward to your Stanford account soon after
you declare. If you are not receiving mail from the list, email
advisor@cs.
- Receiving cs email does not mean your declaration went through yet.
In order to officially check, log in to Axess and check that you appear
as a CS major. If you do not (and it’s been at least two weeks), then
email advisor@cs to let the Course Advisor know.
- Once your declaration has gone through on Axess, you should try to
ssh into xenon and verify that your account was created. If not, you
should email action@cs to find out what happened.
- Last but not least, go to the
Faculty
Advisors page, find your advisor, and click on his or her Advising Group
link. Verify that you are listed on the page and that your graduation
year is correct. If you are not listed, email stager@cs and ask her to
change your advisor to be the correct one. If your graduation year is
incorrect, you should use Pedit to change your profile (for info on how
to use Pedit, see the Xenon page mentioned above). If you are not
listed correctly on this page, you will not be on your advisor’s mailing
list and will miss out on advising group activities, so please check to
see that you are listed in the right group.
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