Undergraduate Programs

The Office of Undergraduate Academic Advising and Student Services under the Undergraduate Programs Office is a one-stop shop for your needs. From transfer orientation, to holistic academic advising, and graduation parties, our work spans the entire cycle of a student's time in the Department of Computer Science.

We encourage you to peruse our pages to learn more about the team, see current news and events, and review detailed information curated to support both our current students and future students.

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Planning for a Transition To Computer Science

At Virginia Tech, students must submit an application in HokieSpa to change their major or add an additional major to their academic record. This application is only open three times each academic year. The current application cycle closes on May 21st, and if the application is approved, students will be notified May 22nd. The application cycle closes after Spring 2025 grades post on May 17th, so that that semester's courses and GPS can be included in the application review.

Students wanting to change or add a major in Computer Science, Data Centric Computing or Secure Computing will need to meet all change of major course requirements, and have a minimum GPA of 3.0 for guaranteed admission. Students with a GPA of 2.8 or higher are also encouraged to apply if they have all course requirements met.

The application is submitted to and reviewed by the College of Engineering's Academic Affairs Office, who outlines the process, requirements, and deadlines on their Change of Major website.

Students that wish to add a minor in Computer Science and/or Human Computer Interaction should submit their application in HokieSpa during the open application cycle. The current cycle ends on May 21st.

To add either minor, students must be in a current, degree-granting major (not in General Engineering). This means that a student in General Engineering would submit two applications during the open cycle: one to change their major to a degree-granting major, and a second to add the minor(s). Even if all requirements are met, the minor application will not be approved if the major application is not.

The application is submitted to and reviewed by the College of Engineering's Academic Affairs Office, who outlines the process, requirements, and deadlines on their Minors website.

Advising

Once the change of major process is complete, students with an approved application will be added to their new major or minor and a new advisor assigned. Notifications to students will go out on May 22nd, and the new advisor assignments should be visible in Navigate on May 23rd. In CS, all students are required to meet with their advisor during their transition to their new major, then each semester thereafter until degree completion.

CS is aware that there is a quick turnaround between the change of major dates and the end of Fall 2025 enrollment on May 30th. All new students will receive mesaging from the Department with course information and advising information on May 23rd. The CS Department will also be offering "open hours" via zoom (click on dates to join session) on May 27th from 1:30pm-3:30pm and May 28th from 10:00am-12:00pm, to ask general questions about courses to help students get situated before add/drop closes. Finally, each student will receive a welcome message from their new CS advisor detailing advising options and how to get scheduled. We expect that student will want to see their advisor as soon as possible and we will do our best to accommodate all our new students through messaging, open hours, and one-on-one advising.

Course Registration and Force/Add Requests

We encourage students to become familiar with CS Course Information and Registration/Force-Add policies and procedures to be ready when registration becomes available. Only students currently declared in the CS, DCC, and SC majors will be able to enroll in CS 1944, CS 2104, and CS 2505. Additionally, only students officially declared in the CS minor can enroll in CS 2505 if not in CS, DCC, SC or other programs for which CS 3114 is required for the degree.

Newly admitted freshmen planning for Computer Science will begin their academic career in General Engineering under the College of Engineering (COE),. During the summer, beginning in June, new students will complete orientation with their General Engineering advisor virtually. The orientation will include reviewing acceleated credits like AP and IB, discussing course requirements, acllimating to campus and many other topics.

Students will receive an email from the COE Academic Affairs Office in May to provide information about what new students can expect as they prepare to start their journey at VT. A wealth of information about what to expect as a new student at Virginia Tech in the College of Engineering can also be found on COE's Orientation website.

Students will transition to Computer Science or other College of Engineering no sooner than the end of their first semester as coursework and a GPA of 3.0 at Virginia Tech is required before a major can be changed. This process is very straightfoward and is detailed here.

Students that are coming to Virginia Tech from a different post-secondary institution are categorized as transfer students and will work directly with CS advisors during their orientation process.

Orientation for newly admitted students beginning in Summer 2025 is ongoing and students have already been contacted. For newly admitted students beginning in Fall 2025, students will be contacted the week of June 2nd by the College of Engineering (COE)'s Academic Affairs Office to welcome students and detail what they can expect over the summer. An additional message from the CS Department will follow with specific information about advisor assignments, orientation procedures and to generally welcome students to our programs. Orientation for newly admitted students beginning in Fall 2025 will start June 11th and continue through the summer.

CS' orientation is meant to be engaging, informative and beneficial for each student to provide detailed information so that each student can put their best foot forward. During orientation, students will meet with a CS advisor one-on-one to discuss their individual transfer credits, class schedule and other questions and concerns. To begin preparing for the transition to Virginia Tech and the CS Department, students are encouraged to check out our newly created Resources for Students Transferring to Virginia Tech.

Changes to the Computer Science Capstone Course and Requirements-Fall 2025

What is a capstone course?

A capstone course:

Requires synthesis and integration of knowledge and skills acquired across the curriculum to solve a significant open-ended problem.
Provides a significant design experience in developing a solution, including the examination of multiple design alternatives, with justification for the final path taken.
Uses teamwork.
Requires significant written, oral and visual deliverables, including a summative report and presentation.
Includes multiple reflection activities, perhaps repeated periodically, e.g., individual reflective writing assignments, design or code reviews, group or individual peer reviews.
Includes an evaluation or assessment activity to gauge the merit the solution.

Students choose from one of ten themed capstone course options with themes ranging from computer security to software engineering and many things in between. At least 3-4 semesters prior to enrolling in a capstone, students selected capstones that met their interest and planned their CS electives to coincide with any prerequisite coursework for their preferred capstone. When enrolling for the senior year courses, students would attempt to get into their preferred capstone with varying level of success.

What is not changing?

There will always be enough seats for all graduating students to enroll in a capstone to meet their degree requirements.
Students will still have to course request a capstone.
Students enrolled in multiple capstones will be dropped from the extra course(s).
Graduating seniors in their final semester will have priority in capstones should we ever need to utilize a manual enrollment model managed by the Department.
Students have the option to move between capstones as long as there are open and available seats.
Students in the HCI minor will continue to enroll in CS 4774- HCI Design and will need to meet all of the associated prerequisites.
The capstones will be taught by engaging, excited faculty with projects that will engage students at different levels of technical prowess.

Below is an outline of the capstone sections, as well as information regarding the types of projects included in each course, and information about the instructors. This should assist in making informed, practical decisions about your capstone option enrollment.

CRN	Days/Times	Instructor	Course Information
83579	Tuesday & Thursday, 2:00pm-3:15pm	Dr. Pinar Yanardag	INFO
83582	Monday & Wednesday, 4:00pm-5:15pm	Dr. Wu-chun Feng	INFO
83585	Tuesday & Thursday, 11:15am-12:05pm*	Dr. Sally Hamouda	INFO
83586	Monday & Wednesday, 4:00pm-5:15pm	Rich Charles	INFO
83589	Monday & Wednesday, 2:30pm-3:45pm	Scott McCrickard	INFO
83587	Tuesday & Thursday, 5:00pm-6:15pm	Antuan Biyalik	INFO

Next, students should:

Check your course request results. Do you have a section of CS 4624 on your schedule?
- If not, please review the course options and make selections. Add/drop will not be complete until August 2025, so students will have time to make adjustments t to their schedule.
If you are a CS/DCC.SC major with an HCI minor, you need to be enrolled in a one of the CS 4624 capstone sections. Only enroll in CS 4774 if your major it outside of the CS Department.
Review your schedule, and determine what, if any, changes need to be made when add/drop open at 7:00am on Friday, April 25th.
Again, breathe deeply and try not to spread misinformation.
Refer back to this website for the latest information and meet with your advisor as needed.

The capstone is changing because we listen to our students. We recognize that while immensely useful, the original model could benefit from refining in its offerings, projects, delivery, and enrollment. These changes will enhance what and how you learn.

Although students will no longer need to align their CS elective course options toward a specific capstone, students are still highly encouraged to think about the areas of CS they want to explore and select electives to help them build that body of knowledge.

As of course request and add/drop for the Fall 2025 semester, students will notice the following changes:

All capstone courses for CS/DCC/SC majors will be listed as CS 4624-Multimedia/Hyptertext. This is a placeholder number to ensure that course request and add/drop are not interrupted. This placeholder course number also ensures that your DARS does not go cattywampus while some backend logistics are being sorted.
Moving forward into the fall semester, CS 4094: Computer Science capstone will be the standard course number and will meet the capstone requirement for all CS/DCC/SC majors.
For CS/DCC/SC majors, as of Fall 2025 to enroll in a CS Capstone will require passing grades in CS 2506 and CS 3114.
Students are not restricted to capstones based on the CS electives they have taken and have the option to move between capstones without fear of not meeting a prerequisite specific to a CS elective.
As all capstone prerequisites for CS 4624 are the same, there should be no need for force/add requests. Force/add requests based on capacity will not be accepted nor approved and faculty cannot grant permission to override class capacity.

Flexibility in course scheduling both in terms of selecting CS electives but also in choosing a capstone.

Ability to explore a new topic/focus of CS.

Tangible and practical experience through hands-on activities.

Completion of a professional artifact, such as an app, model, or research paper, to utilize when applying for career opportunities.

Opportunities to identify problems and solutions that matter to you and work on them under faculty supervision, guidance and support.

The project becomes the most important part, not the elective taken and/or nuanced skill set.

Each capstone will have similar grading standards and no course will be "easier" than the other in terms of how hard or easy the assignment deliverables are graded.

What the Department will do:

Reach out to Fall 2025 graduating students directly.
Provide transparent, timely information as it becomes available.
Update this website regularly with any changes and new information.
Ensure that DARS are correctly processing and updating capstone changes so that your path to grauation is not interrupted.
Listen to and consider your feedback.

Please know that we do not make these changes lightly and have thought them through in detail. We encourage you to read back through the details above carefully and reach out to your CS advisor as needed.

Registration and Support Updates: Substitutions, Equivalencies, Force/Add Request, and Teaching Assistants

Starting Summer 2025, VCCS’s CSC 215 Computer Systems will no longer be a direct equivalent to VT’s CS 2505. In order to receive credit for CS 2505, students will need to take CSC 215 AND CSC 205 Computer Organization.

Moving forward, current Virginia Tech students who take these courses at a VCCS institution beginning Summer 2025 or later, will receive the following:

only CSC 205 = CS 2XXX (3)
only CS 215 = CS 2XXX (3)
both CS 205 + CS 215 = CS 2505 (3) + CS 2XXX (3)

Beginning Fall 2025, there are changes to course substitutions to meet the prerequisites for CS 2114: Software Design and Data Structures and/or MATH 2534: Discrete Math.

The following courses will be accepted as meeting the course prerequisite:

CS 1064: Introduction to Programming in Python + CS 2064: Intermediate Programming in Python (grade of C or higher)
CS 1114: Introduction to Software Design (grade of C or higher)

The following courses taken at Virginia Tech and/or transferred into Virginia Tech will not be accepted as meeting theCS 2114: Software Design and Data Structures and/or MATH 2534: Discrete Math course prerequisite.

CS 1054: Introduction to Programming in Java
ECE 2514: Introduction to Computational Engineering

How Will This Impact Registration?

Current Students: If your major is already officially declared in one of our degree programs in Computer Science, Data Centric Computing, Secure Computing, or our Minor in Computer Science, this change will not impact you. If a passing grade was achieved in CS 1054 or ECE 2514 before your major was officially declared (or your minor was added), your previous coursework will be honored. To be enrolled, you will have to request a force/add to be added to CS 2114 and/or MATH 2534, if needed.

Future Students- Internal Changes of Major Already at Virginia Tech: If you intend to major in one of our degree programs in Computer Science, Data Centric Computing, or Secure Computing, or our Minor in Computer Science, and your major is officially changed as of Summer 2025 or later, you will be required to take one of other approved prerequisite courses or take the Credit by Exam (CBE) in CS 1114 and/or CS 2114).

Future Students- External Transfers to Virginia Tech: Students transferring from certain VCCS institutions may take an updated version of CS 1054 as part of their coursework prior to transferring to Virginia Tech. When transferring that credit to Virginia Tech, the new version of the course should equate as commensurate to CS 1114 and meet the prerequisite for CS 2114 and/or MATH 2534.

Next Steps: Current Virginia Tech Students planning to take any of these courses outside of Virginia Tech are encouraged to confirm approved substitutions and approved credits before enrolling to ensure that you receive the credits and meet prerequisites as intended.

Force/Add Requests

Force/Add Course Availability

Some CS courses are already open to maximum capacity on the timetable and do not have additional space for force-adds. Those courses are not included on the CS force-add form. Students should monitor drop/add regularly for an opening in the course.

If you are a student outside of the CS/DCC/SC Major or CS/HCI Minor who is facing a registration error for a CS course that is required for your major/minor, please contact csundergrad@cs.vt.edu.
Students not facing registration errors, but simply want to enroll in a course that has reached enrollment capacity, should continue to monitor the drop/add system for an opening if the course is not included on the force-add form.
Force/adding is not an option to enroll in courses for which a student does not yet meet the requirement such as courses that are major and/or classification restricted. This includes requests from students planning to change their major that want to enroll in courses restricted by major as well as students that want to enroll in junior or senior level courses but have not yet earned enough credits.

Force/Add Form Semester Information

Summer 2025 & Fall 2025

The force/add request form is open and will close in July 2025. Fall 2025 opening and closing dates are TBD.

For Summer 2025, generally students should not need to force/add courses with few exceptions. As Summer is considered one term, if a student wants to take subsequent courses in Summer I and Summer II at Virginia Tech, they will likely need to request a force/add for the Summer II course.

Force/add requests will not be accepted for courses with no available seats. Once the course is full, it is full even though the course is online. These courses are available to be force/added. If a course is not on the list, it is not available to be force/added. If you think this is in error and a course should be on the form, please contact csundergrad@vt.edu.

CS 2104: Introduction to Problem Solving in Computer Science
CS 2114: Software Design and Data Structures
CS 3744: Introduction to GUI Programming
CS 3604: Professionalism in Computer Science
CS 4604: Introduction to Database Management

Not all force/adds for CS courses/courses required for CS students go through the CS Department. For examples, please see below.

CS 3654: CMDA
CS 2164: Political Science (contact course instructor for force/add)
CS 4164: BIT/Pamplin
CS 5000 course level and above: CS Graduate Programs Office
MATH 2534, 2204, 2114, 3134: Mathematics

This information is a snippet of the information specific to force/adds requests in Computer Science. For additional details, please visit the Class Registration and Force/Add section of our CS Students site. To learn more about the force/add process for different programs across the University, review the Student Advising information.

The Computer Science Department at Virginia Tech Undergrad Teaching Assistant (UTA) program provides undergraduates the opportunity to help their peers learn from them. CS UTAs hold office hours, work side-by-side with GTAs in course labs, monitor online course forums and carry out other related duties. UTAs gain valuable professional experience for their future career.

Qualifications and Requirements

Must have a desire to help your fellow Hokies.
Must be a currently enrolled student at Virginia Tech. (Do NOT apply if you are NOT enrolled!)
Fall and Spring UTA positions are a maximum of 10 hours a week.
Must be able to work up to ten hours a week. (These roles are hourly wage positions.)
Must have performed well in the course for which you are applying defined as at least a B. The higher the grade the better the chance to be assigned to a course.
For UTAs, you must have previously completed and performed well in any CS-major course for which you are applying for a UTA position. (This requirement does not apply to non-major courses.)

Reasons for Ineligibility

Any sanction for a violation of the Va Tech Honor Code
(If you have a VT Honor case pending you are ineligible to apply for a UTA position.)
A grade less than a C in the class you are requesting.

How to Apply

Applications for Summer and Fall 2025 are currently being accepted. Please reach out to DirAcadOps@cs.vt.edu with questions.