Course Substitution Requests

What is a course substitution?

Any student who is deviating from courses that are listed in the degree planner will need to petition for a course substitution request. This course substitution request will allow you to ask your Curriculum Advisor for permission to deviate from the degree planner. Your primary M.S. advisor will contact you with the outcome of your request(s) and let you know when the degree audit has been updated, if applicable.

Please note that we cannot provide any predictions on the likelihood of approval for specific substitutions.

Students may submit a maximum of (3) course substitution requests during their entire program and only (2) approved substitutions may be counted toward their degree requirements. Any additional requests will not be reviewed, so please submit requests carefully and only after thoughtful consideration.

Students who began the program before FA25 and are following an earlier degree planner may use newly added courses from the current degree planner toward their original degree requirements. These courses will be automatically approved and will not count toward the (3) request course substitution limit.

2024-2025 Computer Engineering (EC79) students are exempt from this policy due to the nature of their course setup. Please refer to the EC79 tab on this page for details.

Course substitution requests cannot be processed during a student’s graduating quarter. Please plan ahead and submit any requests in advance so they can be reviewed and processed before your final quarter. Requests submitted during the graduating quarter will not be processed.

You should submit a course substitution request when:

  • You took a core course (i.e. ECE 143) in your B.S. program at UCSD and it was counted towards your UG degree. You need another course for your core course section. 
  • A core course is not offered the entire time during your program. 
  • You would like to take a course outside of JSOE to count towards your Technical Elective section. 
    • Note: 299/Research Units from outside of JSOE DO NOT count towards the Course Sub limit. 

You should NOT submit a course substitution request when:

  • You would like to take a different course to count towards your Additional Core section when there are other courses on the Additional Core section being offered. 
  • You would like to take a course out of interest and this course can be counted towards the Technical Elective section.
  • You would like to substitute a core course when it is being offered during the academic year.

We encourage students to plan out their courses at the beginning of their program carefully by using your degree planner. When in doubt, please contact Academic Advising.

Process for requesting a course substitution

Please fill out the ECE Course Substitution Request Form if you would like to make a request. Please do not contact your Curriculum Advisor about the requests, your M.S. Advisor will contact them on your behalf.

  • If you would like to request multiple course substitutions, please submit one request for each course substitution.
  • You will be required to provide a detailed justification (1-2 sentences, in your own words) and a course description. Otherwise, your request will not be reviewed.
  • You will be required to upload the new course's syllabus.
  • You will receive an email from your M.S. Advisor with the outcome of the request within 4 weeks.
Computer Engineering (EC79) Students
  • Please follow the steps above for the ECE Course Substitution Request Form.
  • List of pre-approved course substitutions (as listed above, only 2 classes total will be honored):
    • Additional Units Section: 
      • CSE 210, CSE 222A, CSE 223B, CSE 240B/C, CSE 244A, CSE 250A, CSE 251A (Formerly CSE 250B), CSE 258/258R, CSE 291 (Healthcare Robotics); ECE 208, ECE 226, ECE 227, ECE 228, ECE 285 (Deladalle MLIP version); replace ECE 267 with ECE 268.   
    • Technical Electives Section: 
      • COGS 220

Students who began the program in the 2024-25 academic year and are following the 2024-25 degree planner may use up to 2 substitutions from the pre-approved list above. Students will also be allowed to use 2 substitutions outside of this list, following the 3 submission total rule outlined in the first tab. 4 substitutions  total could be used.

Following departmental discussions, we have decided to provide additional flexibility for the 2025-26 academic year. Students may choose to take CSE 240A in lieu of ECE 284 (Advanced Computer Architecture) if they prefer.​ A course substitution request is not needed. Please note that this flexibility applies only for the 2025-26 academic year. ​We will revisit this policy for the 2026-27 academic year. ECE 284 and CSE 240A cannot both be counted toward your degree requirements due to significant content overlap. You should not enroll in both courses.

Machine Learning and Data Science (EC93) Students

The following information applies only to students who began the program before Fall 2025.

The ECE Department is allowing all MLDS students to use the classes listed in the Applications and Analytics sections, toward the Computation section. If you would like to use classes from the Applications and Analytics sections in the Computation section, please submit a course substitution request. We sincerely apologize for the lack of Computation classes being offered and hope that this flexibility will help you meet your degree requirements in time. These classes will not count toward the 3 submissions. The classes are as follows:

  • ECE 225B Universal Probability and Its Application in Data Science 
  • ECE 250 Random Processes 
  • ECE 271B Statistical Learning II 
  • ECE 273 Convex Optimization and Applications 
  • ECE 275A-B Parameter Estimation I, Parameter Estimation II 
  • ECE 285 Stochastic Approximation: Theory and Applications 
  • ECE 285 Semidefinite and Sum-of-Squared Optimization
  • ECE 208 Computational Evolutionary Biology 
  • ECE 228 Machine Learning for Physical Applications 
  • ECE 284 Mobile Health Design
  • ECE 285 Intro to Mathematical Finance 
  • ECE 285 Intro to Visual Learning 
  • ECE 285 Deep Generative Models 
  • ECE 271C Deep Learning & Applications 
  • ECE 276 A-B-C Sensing and Estimation in Rob

CSE Coursework: Any CSE 200+ additional core course substitution request has a high likelihood of getting denied, except CSE 250A.

Medical Devices Students (EC90) Students

Clarification for the following section:

For those who began their studies in Spring 2025 or an earlier quarter:
  • Two CORE graduate (200+) courses must be from the same major area of ECE. Please list your chosen major area: _____ (AEM, AOS, AP-EDM, CTS, CE, ECS, ISRC, MI, MLDS, NDS, PHO, or SIP). 
    • If you select the MLDS (EC93) track, ECE 143 CANNOT be counted toward the MDS additional units section. You must use ECE 269, ECE 271A and ECE 225A.
    • If you select the MI (EC95) track, you can use BENG 280A OR ECE 207A and BENG 280B.
    • If you select the CE (EC79) track, you can use ECE 260B and one additional units section class from the CE Degree Planner

For those who began their studies in Fall 2025 onward:

  • Three CORE graduate (200+) courses must be from the same major area of ECE. Please list your chosen major area: _____ (AEM, AOS, AP-EDM, CTS, CE, ECS, ISRC, MI, MLDS, NDS, PHO, or SIP). 
    • If you select the MLDS (EC93) track, ECE 143 CANNOT be counted toward the MDS additional units section. You must use ECE 269, ECE 271A and ECE 225A.
    • If you select the MI (EC95) track, you can use BENG 280A OR ECE 207A, BENG 280B and one additional units section class from the MI Degree Planner.
    • If you select the CE (EC79) track, you can use ECE 260B, ECE 260C and ECE 284 OR CSE 240A.