Enrollment Policies

Instructional Materials/ Laboratory Fee policies and procedures are set by the campus (see here). 

UCSD cannot guarantee the avoidance of conflicts between courses students may want to take concurrently.

Scheduling conflcits can sometimes, but not always be avoided within the department. However, schedule conflicts can rarely be avoided between departments. 

Although WebReg will allow a student to enroll in courses that conflict in any way, the campus considers it the student's responsibility to avoid doing so, as it may compromise academic success.

Students can contact individual instructors to see if they are willing to grant accommodations for conflicts, but neither the campus nor the department is authorized to ask the professor to do so. 

Students must adhere to policies and timelines related to final exams. 

We DO NOT permit late adds for undergraduate students. Undergraduate student requests needing department review and/or processing AFTER the close of business (4pm) on the last day of the standard enrollment period (i.e. Friday of week 2 for FWS; Friday of week 1 for summer session 1 & session 2) are considered late adds and will be denied.

Auditing at the sole discretion of the instructor, and must be requested and approved in writing (email request and email approval is fine) covering weeks 3-10 (unauthorized attendance during this period constitutes a violation of Academic Integrity). If the instructor approves your request to audit their course and the instructor wants to allow you to see their Canvas information, the instructor must log onto Canvas and follow these instructions to add you as an observer (the Department cannot grant you access). Auditors, please keep in mind that auditing does not make you eligible for enrollment; auditing does not make you enrolled or waitlisted for the course and you WILL NOT receive credit for the course, even if you choose to audit for the entire term and/or to complete work for the course. Auditors, please also keep in mind that you are NOT permitted to take exams in the course, nor be present in the classroom during any exams (this would be a violation of Academic Integrity).

Note: Any available tentative instructor assignments for the academic year may be viewed on our tentative annual schedule of course offerings. However, please note for every term, summer included, that instructors may be hired/assigned right up until the first day of the term. As instructors are hired/assigned, their names are added to the online schedule, so you'll need to check the schedule regularly to see when the instructor has been hired/assigned.

Yes, campuswide, prereqs can and do change over time and the UCSD catalog includes the following above each department's course listings: "All courses, faculty listings, and curricular and degree requirements described herein are subject to change or deletion without notice."

The UCSD catalog does not publish in sync with the quarterly schedule, and so most prereq changes will appear in WebReg before they appear in the UCSD catalog.

Upcoming changes to PHYS course prereqs will be noted on this webpage so that students can plan ahead, so students are strongly encouraged to check this webpage regularly to have as much advance notice as possible for planning upcoming courses. 

Prerequisites are enforced by the Department (individual instructors cannot waive them). Policies are strictly enforced without exception.

Either P/NP or letter-graded courses can be used towards prerequisites, no matter your major/minor/college. But in cases in which the course is double counting as a prereq AND a major requirement, your major dept. gets to decide whether you can take the course on a P/NP basis (our dept. only gets to decide this if you are a physics major). In cases in which the course is double counting as a prereq AND a minor requirement, your minor dept. gets to decide whether you can take the course on a P/NP basis (our dept. only gets to decide this if you are a physics minor). In cases in which the course is double counting as a prereq AND a GE requirement, your college gets to decide whether you can take the course on a P/NP basis. In cases in which you are a non-major, you want to take the course for P/NP grading, and the course is a prereq for a core UD physics course you want to take, see policies for courses restricted to Physics Majors.

Prerequisites are enforced by the Department (individual instructors cannot waive them). Policies are strictly enforced without exception.

Here at UCSD, prereqs belong to the courses themselves and not to any major / minor / GE / professional school / grad-prep program, etc., so there may be situations in which you will need to take courses that are not part of your major/minor/GE/med/grad-prep program/plan if they are listed as prereqs for courses that are part of your major/minor/GE/med/grad-prep program/plan. This particular policy applies to all UCSD courses, not just to physics courses.

Prerequisites are enforced by the Department (individual instructors cannot waive them). Policies are strictly enforced without exception.

If a prereq is missing (eg. not taken, F grade, NP grade, Incomplete "I" grade), you cannot proceed with your proposed enrollment(s). Instead, you must complete the missing prereq with a qualifying grade and, thereafter, you can use it toward your proposed enrollment. If you enrolled based on UCSD work-in-progress, please note the following:

If you fail (NP grade), drop, or have an incomplete grade for a prerequisite, and do not remove yourself from courses that require it in the next term, the Registrar’s Office will automatically drop you during the “Missing Pre-Req Check,” which runs before the end of week 2. Students with Incomplete grades must resolve the incomplete and have the grade posted before the check. If the grade is posted after you've been dropped but before the end of the standard enrollment period (i.e. the end of week 2), you can attempt to re-enroll through WebReg (existing waitlists cannot be bypassed). You cannot attempt to re-enroll beyond the standard enrollment period (see Late Adds).

Prerequisites are enforced by the Department (individual instructors cannot waive them). Policies are strictly enforced without exception.

Planned / Waitlisted courses at UCSD do not count towards prereqs, not even via an EASy request.

Enrolled courses at UCSD (but not UCSD Extension) are considered in-progress and these couses automatically count as prereqs in WebReg when you enroll in a physics course for a subsequent term – no EASy request is required. For example, enrolled summer session 1 courses automatically count as prereqs when enrolling in summer session 2 and Fall term through WebReg – no EASy request is required.

Prerequisites are enforced by the Department (individual instructors cannot waive them). Policies are strictly enforced without exception.

To use a non-UCSD course (including concurrent enrollment courses taken through UCSD Extended Studies) or exam as a prerequisite for a UCSD Physics course, follow this process:

✅ If the non-UCSD course or exam already appears on your UCSD record:
Complete Step 1 only, then proceed to WebReg once your request is approved.

❌ If the non-UCSD course or exam does NOT appear on your UCSD record:
You must complete Steps 1–2–3 exactly as outlined below.

Prerequisites are enforced by the Department (individual instructors cannot waive them). Policies are strictly enforced without exception.

The core upper-division physics program, which is made up of courses in the Physics 100, 105, 110, 120, 130, and 140 series, is based on prior completion of the entire PHYS 4 series (i.e. 4A-B-C-D-E) and is restricted in the course registration system to students currently majoring in physics. Non-majors who are interested in taking a core UD physics course must complete the prereqs as listed and then use EASy to request preauthorization to enroll. These requests will typically be held until shortly before the start of the term, as the department and campus assess instructional resources and space utilization.

In rare cases, substitute prereqs may be used when requesting preauthorization to enroll in a core UD physics course:

• ECE 107 (B+ grade or higher) may be used in place of PHYS 100A and/or 100B (e.g., for PHYS 130A/B requests, assuming PHYS 4A-B-C-D-E, MATH 18, and MATH 20A-B-C-D-E have already been completed)
• Combo of ECE 35, 45, 65 (B+ grades or higher) may be used in place of PHYS 120 (e.g., for PHYS 122, 124 requests)
• Combo of MAE 105, 107 (B+ grades or higher) may be used in place of PHYS 105A (e.g., for PHYS 105B requests, assuming PHYS 4A-B-C-D-E, MATH 18, and MATH 20A-B-C-D-E have already been completed)

Prerequisites are enforced by the Department (individual instructors cannot waive them). Policies are strictly enforced without exception.

General Information: Graduate-level physics courses are designed for graduate-level students who are pursuing a PhD in physics. Most graduate-level physics courses assume prior completion of the entire undergraduate physics curriculum and this is why most of graduate-level physics courses do not have any prereqs listed. The Department requires physics graduate courses to be taught at a level and pace consistent with the graduate program curriculum. The content and pace of physics graduate courses will not be changed/altered to accommodate undergraduates. If you are seeking to enroll in a graduate-level physics course, your academic record should display that you have the appropriate academic background and preparation for the course. There are unique requirements to enroll in particular The requirements to be approved to enroll in specific graduate-level physics courses are as follows:

1st-Year CORE Graduate Courses (PHYS 200A, 201, 203A, 210A, 212A): Students who have achieved grades of A-, A, or A+ in the UD courses on these topics (i.e. PHYS 100A-B, 105A, 110A, 130A) can undertake the Diagnostic Exam offered in summer. If you qualify, you must contact PHYSICS through VAC within one week of spring grades being posted to sign up for the exam. The exam will be issued remotely in July. Success on this exam will enable students to pursue enrollment in the corresponding graduate-level course provided they meet the subject-specific requirements equivalent to those expected of graduate students and space permits. Please note that graduate-level core courses cannot replace UD core courses for the major requirements. 

• Please note: If a student has already completed the entire Bachelor of Science in Physics and remains enrolled at UCSD at the undergraduate level, they may submit a preauthorization request in EASy for 1st-Year CORE Graduate Courses. These requests will be considered on a space-available basis, and such students are exempt from the diagnostic.

Non-core Graduate Lecture Courses: Students seeking to enroll in non-core graduate lecture courses are expected to have a strong academic background, demonstrating mastery of relevant undergraduate content and overall readiness for more advanced study. Students must wait until all grades for the current term have been finalized and then submit a preauthorization request through EASy. The instructor and Department will review the student's past coursework and grades and then determine whether or not to endorse the request.

Note re. Conjoined Courses: Undergraduates are only permitted to enroll in the undergraduate side of the class during the undergraduate years.

Seminars (eg. courses numbered PHYS 250-260): Undergraduates attend without enrolling (see events).

Prerequisites are enforced by the Department (individual instructors cannot waive them). Policies are strictly enforced without exception.

None at this time.

Campuswide, the Enrollment Authorization System (EASy) is used exclusively to submit, review, and process requests for permission to access a UCSD course that a student cannot automatically access through the enrollment system.

For example, if you completed a prerequisite outside of UCSD and it's not yet posted to your UCSD record, use EASy to request preauthorization to enroll. Be sure to include a transcript with your request so we can verify completion.

Prerequisites are strictly enforced; you cannot use EASy to request a waiver of prereqs. See the policies on missing prereqs.

The Physics Department will not review enrollment authorization requests outside of EASy. No exceptions.

Before submitting an EASy request, check our other policies on this website to ensure you only submit a request that is eligible for approval.

⚠️ ATTENTION UCSD STUDENTS ⚠️

The EASy preauthorization process w/ transcript verification is intended to allow UCSD students with external coursework to enroll while their transfer transcripts are pending processing by Admissions. It is a temporary measure, not intended for repeated use by students who fail to submit transcripts or follow up with UCSD Admissions about transcript posting in a timely manner.

UCSD Admissions has confirmed that there is sufficient time between terms for transcripts to be recieved and transfer coursework to be posted to student records. Therefore, there is no need for students to use EASy for course preauthorization based on prereqs taken outside of UCSD term after term.

EASy can be used for a maximum of ONE term (excluding summer) to be preauthorized for enrollment in physics courses.

After that term, to use your coursework from outside of UCSD, the student will be required to complete the following steps to continue using those courses for enrollment in physics in future terms (we will not approve EASy requests for students who do not get their missing coursework posted after one term):

1. Have their transfer coursework officially posted to your UCSD record by UCSD Admissions.

2. Have their equivalencies posted by the respective academic department

3. Proceed directly to WebReg to enroll/waitlist their proposed PHYS course.

📌 If you haven’t already sent your transcript or score report to UCSD Admissions, do not delay—send it immediately to ensure your record is updated. We strongly recommend sending transcripts electronically through Parchment, if possible, as this is the quickest way to send transcripts and helps ensure they are received. For questions about transcript posting, you must contact the appropriate office:

• If you are in your first term at UCSD or haven't yet started your first term at UCSD, contact: admissions@ucsd.edu
• If you have already completed your first term at UCSD, contact: academicrecords@ucsd.edu"

📌 Once posted, confirm that your course equivalencies appear in the "Transfer Approx" column of your Academice History Report. If they do not, contact the appropriate academic department through VAC to request that your missing equivalencies be added.

📌 Once your transfer coursework and equivalencies have been posted to your UCSD record, you will be eligible to use WebReg to seek enrollment in our course during the standard enrollment period. Existing waitlists and enrollment deadlines cannot be bypassed. 

Prerequisites are strictly enforced; you cannot use EASy to request a waiver of prereqs. See the policies on missing prereqs.

If all prereqs are taken at UCSD, WebReg will automatically recognize them during the enrollment process, including work in progress. However, please note that "waitlisted" or "planned" UCSD courses (e.g., for summer) do not count as meeting prerequisites (e.g., for fall). For more on this topic, see policies for prereqs that are planned/waitlisted. 

If one/more prereqs are taken outside of UCSD and they are not yet posted to your UCSD record, you must adhere to the Policies for Prereqs Taken Outside of UCSD and complete the 3-step process therein. No exceptions. 

With the exception of PHYS 191, we will not approve requests for students to bypass the upper division standing requirement for a physics course. 

If many seats are available, we may approve requests from non-senior level students to enroll in PHYS 192 courses.

If many seats are available, we may approve requests from non-first-year students to enroll in PHYS 87 courses.

If many seats are available, we may approve graduate students who meet the listed prereqs to enroll in lower division and upper division courses. 

See policies for undergraduates seeking to take graduate level classes.

Requests for UD courses restricted to physics majors MAY have additional requirements, such as specific grade/GPA requirements, unique processing times, etc. See the Prerequisites section, above, for more information. 

 We will not approve your request if you are already enrolled in the course.

You must select the "Unit Limit Exception" request type to have a Unit Limit Exception request considered. 

The Registrar’s Office has indicated that they cannot add students to course waitlists. Therefore, we will not approve a Unit Limit Exception request under the following circumstances:

• The course is full at the time we review the request.
• The course has seats available but has an unprocessed waitlist.
• The course has 5 or fewer available seats (since it could become full before the request is fully reviewed).

If a physics course you want to take is full or has 5 or fewer available seats, do not submit an EASy request for a Unit Limit Exception—it will not be approved. Instead, follow these steps:

1. Go to WebReg and drop one of your enrolled courses that still has many seats available.
2. Add or waitlist the physics course that is full or has 5 or fewer available seats.
3. Submit a Unit Limit Exception request for the course you dropped.

If the section of aphysics course you want to take has 6 or more seats available, you can submit a Unit Limit Exception request on/after the first day of instruction for the term. Unit Limit Exception requests can take at least 5 business days to be fully processed by all required reviewers. Only the Registrar’s Office has the authority to add a student to a course that would put (or keep) them above 22 units. As a result, they are the final reviewer of Unit Limit Exception requests.

Once you’ve submitted your EASy request, you can track its status by viewing the "Status History" at the top of your EASy request.

Note:

• Rush processing is NOT available. Requests are typically processed within 5 business days , excluding weekends, breaks, and holidays (view the campus calendars).

• Responding to status inquiries delays processing times. We appreciate your patience as UCSD personnel works efficiently to review all requests.

Follow-up Actions Based on Request Status

View the "Status History" at the top of your EASy request to see who currently has your request. If your request has been in one of the following stages for more than 5 business days (excluding weekends, breaks, and holidays), here’s what to do:

• Pending Instructor Review: Contact your instructor for an update.

• Pending Department/Program Approval: Reach out to the department/program via VAC for an update.

• Pending Scheduling of the Section: Contact the Registrar’s Office for an update.

• Pending Registrar's Approval: Contact the Registrar’s Office for an update.

We DO NOT permit late adds. Undergraduate courses/requests needing department review and/or processing AFTER the close of business (4pm) on the last day of the standard enrollment period (i.e. Friday of week 2 for FWS; Friday of week 1 for summer session 1 & session 2) are considered late adds and will be denied. 

 in Physics, a student is only eligible for Credit by Exam for a physics course if:

• They have taken and passed an approved equivalent of our course outside of UCSD and it is deemed by UCSD to be a university-level course but not one that is UC-transferable (eg. courses taken at universities outside of the U.S. that the UC-System does not recognize). If the course is UC-transferable but has been denied equivalency, you are not eligible for Credit by Exam.

Please note the following regarding Credit by Examination in Physics:

• Approval for Credit by Examination in Physics is at the discretion of the Department after proof of eligibility has been determined. To prove eligibility for Credit by Exam in Physics, you must submit a physics course equivalency request with a complete syllabus from the university level course(s) you took outside of UCSD that Admissions was unwilling to post to your UCSD record. Please Note: High school courses do not qualify for university credit and therefore cannot qualify you for Credit by Exam in Physics. To earn university credit based on high school coursework (eg. AP courses), you must take and pass AP, IB, or A-Level exams and earn qualifying scores. Coursework that has been successfully transferred to UCSD with course equivalency/exemptions cannot qualify for other equivalencies/exemptions via Credit by Exam. No exceptions.
• Exams take place during finals week, only.
• You can only attempt to test out of physics lecture courses.
• You can only attempt to test out of a physics course if you have already satisfied all of the prereqs for the course (you cannot test out of a course if you are currently taking the one/more of the listed prereqs or if you haven't yet successfully completed all listed prereqs).
• You cannot have already received a grade or a W in the course you want to test out of.
• You cannot currently be enrolled in the course you want to test out of.
• You must be in good academic standing to attempt a course via Credit by Exam.

You must request and attend a physics advising appointment no later than week 8 of the regular academic term (or week 3 of the summer session) to go over exam details and to process the required Credit by Exam form (if approved for Credit by Exam, we will draft and process the form and we will route the form to your college). DO NOT attempt to sign up for Credit by Exam for a physics course or fill out the Credit by Exam form with a physics instructor.

Students seeking to enroll in a UCSD Physics course via Concurrent Enrollment must adhere to the prerequisite policies and protocols outlined above. Please note that EASy requests may be held until after the standard enrollment period for UCSD students ends, as priority enrollment is given to continuing UCSD students.

Extended Studies enrollment closes on Friday of week 3. Only Extended Studies students who have been approved via EASy and who have paid for the course and gotten officially enrolled by Extended Studies are permitted in the classroom beyond week 3. Those found out of compliance will be reported to the Academic Integrity office.

Specific Concurrent Enrollment guidance is provided by Extended Studies (see here).

Undergraduate Special Studies courses are those numbered 97, 98, 99, 99H, 197, 198, 199, and 199H. 

The campus has policies on Undergraduate Special Studies classes that can be found here. Departmental policies and protocols for Undergraduate Special Studies classes can be found here. 

All requests to enroll in Physics Special Studies courses must be submitted through the Enrollment Authorization System (EASy) (undergraduate requests must be submitted no later than Friday of week 1 of the term in which you want to enroll). Students should submit their EASy only after they have met with their proposed faculty supervisor and obtained their approval for the project (click here for contact info. of all PHYS faculty).

Students should follow the instructions below to properly complete their Special Studies request in EASy. 

Quarter: Select the term you want to enroll in the special studies course (you must submit a new request for each course each term). 

Request Type: Select Special Studies (do not select "Preauthorization")

Department/Program: You must select the department your faculty supervisor is in. If the faculty member is in another department, then you will need to proceed with the request in the manner deemed appropriate by the department offering the course as opposed to the remaining instructions below. 

Course: Select the special studies course you want from the list. 

Instructor: Select the faculty member who has agreed to work with you. 

Section: In most cases, you will not have to enter anything in this field. If you do, then there is likely to only be one option you can select. 

Grading Option: In most cases, you will not have to enter anything in this field. If you do, then there is likely to only be one option you can select.  

Requested Total Number of Units: Select the number of units you would like to earn for the selected class. If this option is not available and your request is approved, you may select the number of units you would like to earn when you enroll via WebReg. Keep in mind:

• Each unit consists of 3 hours of work per week and 10 hours of research over the course of the quarter. The number of units you request should typically be based on the average number of hours you plan to commit to the course weekly throughout the term).

Number of units previously received for this project: Tally and list the number of units you’ve received from this course (count prior terms and the current term, if you’re enrolled in the course in the current term).

​​​​Prerequisite coursework or knowledge for this project: Indicate any past courses, knowledge, skills, and/or abilities their faculty supervisor has said is necessary to prepare for the project. 

Nature and frequency of contact (hours per week): Spell out how they will divvy up the use of the minimum weekly contact hours for the course. Hours may be spent reading, researching, writing, meeting with the professor and/or group members, or there may be other activities. Here are two examples of what a student might write in this section for a 4-unit Special Studies course (notice that each activity type and corresponding hours are always spelled out, as required for PHYS requests):

• 1hr reading, 2hrs meeting w/ prof/group, 8hrs research, 1hr write-ups
• 8hrs research, 1hr meeting w/ prof, 1hr reading, 2hrs writing

Means of Evaluation (paper, final, etc.): Report how your faculty supervisor has indicated they will determine whether or not you have passed the class. The instructor may require written coursework (eg. weekly write-ups, paper(s), etc.), one/more presentations, completion of an exam, and/or something else. Be sure to get your faculty member to clearly indicate the criteria that will be used to evaluate you when it’s time to enter grades. 

Proposed plan: Draft a 5-7 sentence description of their research or readings project.

Supporting documentation: For students applying for PHYS 199H: Attach your completed Physics Honors Program Application packet. For all other Special Studies courses, you do not need to attach anything to your request.

Please see the Special Enrollment Policies effective SP20 through SP21, only