Enrollment Guidance for Physics Majors

This page will be updated the day the schedule goes live for the upcoming term and throughout the enrollment period. Please refer to this information before seeking personalized guidance. Be sure to read General & Term-specific guidance to know special options and how to use PASS 1 vs PASS 2.

TSS-Related Warnings:

Campuswide, UCSD courses with multiple locations may not appear properly in the Online Schedule at this time. The campus will announce when the system has been fixed. Days & Times are accurate.

 

Enrollment Steps

STEP 1: Check your degree audit and then check your official qtr-by-qtr plan for major-related courses for the upcoming term. Remember, Informal Exceptions appear on your degree audit, but NOT on your plan!

See:

  • Standard Plans
    • PY29 Students: Please remember that you've been moved to the new curriculum in which PHYS UD Depth courses are now PHYS UD REs as shown on your degree audit.
  • Alternate Plans 
  • VAC (for personalized plans for graduation provided/approved by the Physics Department if you are not on one of the plans above).

STEP 2: View General Guidance below.

STEP 3: View Term-Specific Guidance below. 

STEP 4: View the schedule in TSS and adhere to the UCSD Enrollment Checklist.

 

General Guidance

The following guidance applies every term. Be sure to also read the Term-Specific Guidance below.

  • See Department Comments below the qtr-by-qtr section of your plan to understand all major requirements and recommendations for your major. 

  • Students planning to pursue graduate education in physics are strongly advised to take each core UD PHYS sequence all the way through: PHYS 100A-B-C, 105A-B, 110A-B, 130A-B-C, and 140A-B.

  • ​​​Remember Informal Exceptions to the Major Requirements only appear on your degree audit. 

  • See Physics Course Frequency info. to know when particular courses are likely to be offered in upcoming academic years.

  • Secure full time status no later than day 1 of PASS 2. If enrolling in less than 12 units for the term, apply for part-time status by the deadline. 

Enrollment is a perfect time to check to make sure you’re in the best major for your goals!

Physics BS: For students aiming for graduate studies or technical careers. The BS requires advanced courses and has fewer electives than the BA, typically resulting in a longer time-to-degree. Note:

  • Students planning to pursue graduate education in physics are strongly advised to take each core UD PHYS sequence all the way through: PHYS 100A-B-C, 105A-B, 110A-B, 130A-B-C, and 140A-B.

  • Note: B.S. specializations have been retired. Students currently in a major w/ a specialization can remain in it and graduate with it. No new declarations of majors w/ specializations are available. 

Physics BA: For students aiming to enter the job market directly after graduation pursuing a wide range of careers. The BA does not require advanced theoretical courses (eg. PHYS 105A, 130B, 140A), has less requirements overall, and allows the student to tailor a high number of restricted electives to their target field within or even outside of Physics. 

Adhere to all Physics Department Major Regulations. 

Click here to view the physics course offerings.

Read the guidance at the top of the webpage, especially for more long-term planning (eg. see course frequency info.). 

See Special Topics Course Info. for unique descriptions, prereqs, enrollment procedures, and applicability to the major.

Follow unique enrollment instructions listed.

Use the physics course offerings to schedule physics major requirements you must self-select, such as PHYS UD LAB, PHYS UD RE, and/or PHYS UD DEPTH.

Adhere to prerequisites and Pilot Prereqs.

Prerequisites and pilot prereqs will be enforced as listed. Corequisites are not enforced at UCSD at this time and no special exception is required to "waive" a listed corequisite. 

Pilot Prereqs

These are used to test potential formal changes and/or to address situations in which the faculty are piloting adjustments in a particular series that may impact the necessary prerequisites.

In most cases, potential formal changes will typically be piloted for several years before any changes are seen in the campus system (official changes are not guaranteed).

An TEA request is required to have the pilot prereqs applied. 

Click here to see pilot prereq information. ​​​

Starting during PASS 2, the campus can (and does) change the room a course is assigned based on enrollment numbers. For this reason, PHYS majors are advised to follow our enrollment guidance to ensure their seating in major requirements. The waitlisting and unit limit exception info. on this webpage is important to keep in mind. 

You can only waitlist a course once your PASS 2 begins. The PHYS Department monitors waitlists and tries to increase class sizes. Departments cannot guarantee that sections/seats can be added and no one in Physics can guess your chances of making it off a course waitlist.

See the Prerequisites section of the Enrollment Policies for eligibility and timelines for submitting EASy requests. Requests that are ineligible and/or are submitted too early will be denied. 

Submit enrollment clearance requests through TEA; email requests or VAC messages will not be accepted.

Do not use unit limit requests for major requirements. Follow term-specific PASS 1 and PASS 2 guidance, below. 

Avoid enrolling in courses that conflict; instructors are not expected to accommodate students who have schedule conflicts. See full policy here.

There are special deadlines to apply to these courses. Please click here to learn about independent reading/research (aka Special Studies) courses and how to sign up. Start arranging and submitting your enrollment requests TODAY -- do not delay! The deadline to submit PHYS Special Studies requests is Friday of week 1; late requests are not accepted.

If you want to sign up for Special Studies under a non-PHYS faculty member, see policies here for enrolling and for seeking to apply the course to your major. 

If you are doing well in the UD physics program, please consider the Physics Honors Program. After carefully reviewing the posted information about the program and the steps to apply, contact PHYSICS through VAC with any follow-up questions.

Check the posted info. of the department offering the course and contact the department through VAC with any questions/concerns about policies and procedures for their courses (eg. add, drop, waitlist, prereqs, PASS 1 vs PASS 2, etc.). 

Consider...

  • taking remaining GEs and/or university requirements;
  • getting ahead in math/physics requirements;
    • Students exempt from PHYS 2A-B via AP/IB credit can move PHYS 2CL earlier on their plan
  • taking courses for a double major and/or a minor;
  • taking courses that will enhance your Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs) in your target career field;
  • looking for research that could result in enrollment in a Special Studies 99, 199, or 199H course under the supervision of a faculty member;
  • taking courses merely for personal interest;
  • enrolling as a part-time student. 

If you need an enrollment-related document processed by the Physics Department, please click here and submit it several weeks before you need it back. Rush processing of documents is not available in Physics and we do not use appointments to process documents. 

After reviewing posted information, please contact the appropriate office based on your questions/concerns:

Your College

Questions about GE and University Requirements

PHYSICS via VAC

Questions  about your major and physics courses. Also plan to attend related advising workshops (see here). 

Another Department

Questions about their major(s), minor(s), and courses they offer

EAP

Questions about Studying Abroad

 

Term-Specific Guidance

Which Courses to Enroll in for PASS 1 vs PASS 2:

PHYS 2DL: Enroll no later than day 1 of your PASS 1*

MATH 20E: Enroll no later than day 1 of your PASS 1

PHYS 4C: Enroll no later than day 1 of your PASS 2**

MATH 20D (for students who are ahead in MATH and want to remain ahead): Enroll/waitlist no later than day 1 of your PASS 2

*If you contact PHYSICS through VAC on your first day of your PASS 1 to report the entire class is full, we will get you a seat in the class but we cannot guarantee a particular section. (Only those who meet all listed prereqs and were declared PHYS majors as of 6/13/2026 are eligible for this provision.)

**Due to changes to the campus system, enrollment for PHYS 4C must be managed differently in order to guarantee seats to Physics majors. More information will soon be posted about how PHYS 4C enrollment will be managed.

After the final population of students has completed their first day of PASS 2 enrollment, any remaining seats will be opened to non-majors.

Important Information & Reminders

1. PHYS 4A-B and MATH 20ABC and MATH 18 must be completed by the end of this summer in order for you to be eligible for PHYS 4C in Fall 2026. MATH 20ABC and MATH 18 are offered in summer (see WebReg); PHYS 4A-B are not offered in summer. 

2. IMPORTANT: Campus-wide, every single department, enrolled courses for summer 2026 at UCSD are not acknowledged as prereqs for FA26 courses through TSS. You must use TEA to request authorization to use summer 2026 courses toward FA26 course prereqs. 

3. MATH 20E is intentionally listed on academic plans before MATH 20D because MATH 20E is a prereq for PHYS 4D in winter, while MATH 20D is a prereq for PHYS 4E in spring:

 

Fall Winter Spring
PHYS 4C PHYS 4D PHYS 4E
MATH 20E MATH 20D  
  PHYS 2CL  

Which Courses to Enroll in for PASS 1 vs PASS 2:

PHYS 100A, 110A, 130B, 140A: Enroll no later than day 1 of your PASS 2*

PHYS 133: If you would like to take this course, please click here now to join the interest list.** 

All Other UD PHYS: It's up to you if you want to use PASS 1 or 2. If a course fills, we will seek a larger space but we cannot guarantee one will be available.

ASTR 150: Enroll in PASS 1 (no seat guarantees are available)

*If you contact PHYSICS through VAC on your first day of your PASS 1 to report the entire class is full, we will get you a seat in the class. (Only those who meet all listed prereqs and were declared PHYS majors as of 6/13/2026 are eligible for this provision.) 

**The campus is currently unable to publish PHYS 133 and likely will not be able to do so until September. In the meantime, we are collecting the names and PIDs of students who are interested in enrolling. Once the course is published, we plan to preauthorize the first 30 students on the interest list. After the first 30 students have been preauthorized, the interest list will close. Any remaining students interested in enrolling will need to join the TSS waitlist once the course is published. The TSS waitlist will be managed on a first-come, first-served basis.

How to get to know the research going on in our department

PHYS 191 is our Faculty Research Showcase for Undergrads! Each week in this 1-unit P/NP seminar, a different UCSD Physics faculty member will invite students to take a sneak peek into the cutting-edge research they're performing. If you haven’t yet started a lot of networking with professors and/or don’t know a lot about research in PHYS, this would be a good class to take! This course does not apply to the major requirements but does count as one UD unit toward graduation.