Minor in Computer Science & Software Engineering (CSSE)

The CSSE minor provides students from non-technical disciplines a supplement to their major with a practical set of courses focused on information technology, computer science, and software engineering. This minor will help prepare you for a variety of industrial, government and business positions involving computation and process management.

Courses for the CSSE minor are programming-intensive and require a strong foundational knowledge of programming skills to be successful.


Declaring the minor

The CSSE minor has the following prerequisites before it can be declared:

  • Grade of 2.7 or higher in Computer Programming I
  • Grade of 2.5 or higher in Computer Programming II

PrerequisitesUW BothellUW SeattleUW Tacoma
Computer Programming I and IICSS 142 and 143 (Java)

or

CSS 132 and 133 (C++)
CSE 122 and 123TCSS 142 and 143

This equivalency guide is subject to change. Please refer to the UW Equivalency Guide for verification.

Skills labs. The skills labs for UW Bothell’s prerequisite lectures (CSSSKL 132, 133, 142, 143) are not themselves prerequisites for the CSSE minor, but the lectures require concurrent enrollment in the labs.

The prerequisites must be completed (not in-progress) before declaring the minor. Once you have completed the prerequisites, contact the academic advisor for your major at any time to declare the minor.


Program requirements

Minimum credits and grades

  • A minimum of 30 credits must be earned for this minor.
  • A minimum of 15 credits used for this minor must be taken at UW Bothell, which means that a maximum of 15 credits may be taken elsewhere (including other UW campuses).
  • Each course must be completed with a grade of 2.0 or higher unless otherwise noted.

Core requirements (20 credits)

  • [Prerequisite] Grade of 2.7 or higher in Computer Programming I
  • [Prerequisite] Grade of 2.5 or higher in Computer Programming II
  • CSS 342: Advanced Data Structures, Algorithms, and Discrete Mathematics I
  • CSS 360: Software Engineering

Elective requirements (10 credits)

You must complete a selection of “CSS” elective coursework, meeting the following criteria:

  • You must take at least 10 credits (usually two courses)
  • At least 5 credits must be 300-level or higher
  • The remaining 5 credits must be 200-level or higher

Restrictions

  • Students in the Computer Science & Software Engineering (CSSE) and Applied Computing majors may not earn this minor due to the overlap in content.
  • No student may receive more than one of the CSSE or Information Technology minors due to the overlap in content.
  • Students in a Business major or minor may not use CSS 301 (Technical Writing) or CSS 350 (Management Principles) as an elective.

Registration

Important: Due to high demand for CSS courses, we cannot guarantee that there will always be space available for CSS minor students. Registration for students in minors is restricted until close to the beginning of each quarter.

To ensure you have the best chance of taking the courses you need, we strongly recommend completing the registration request form.


Petitions

Computing-related courses that are not included on the elective list are considered on a case-by-case basis. If you have a syllabus, letter from the instructor, or other detailed description for the class you wish to use as an elective, you may submit a petition to request for the course to count.