FAQs

We compiled a list of common questions that we have seen through our Office Hours, info sessions, program meetings, or sent to us via email. Do you have a question that you don’t see an answer for below? Feel free to ask us at ugdesign-advising@stanford.edu and we will help you. We’re constantly updating the FAQ section and try to keep it as current as possible.

Design Program General Information

Background of Design

Overview of Design Specifics

Petition Process

General Curriculum

  • Professor John E. Arnold came to Stanford from MIT in 1958 and brought with him the idea that design engineering could be human-centered. It was a radical concept.

    The interdisciplinary DNA of the product design programs was born, merging art, science, engineering, and rooting them in human values. Professors Bob McKim (Engineering) and Matt Kahn (Art) built upon Arnold’s idea to create the Product Design major and the graduate-level Joint Program in Design (JPD). David Kelley integrated even more professional design perspectives, and championed interdisciplinary collaboration across Stanford’s campus. Along the way, Stanford’s Product Realization Lab has been an invaluable partner in helping students bring form to their ideas.

  • Yes. We were previously affiliated with the Department of Mechanical Engineering as the Product Design major. In the academic year of 2022-2023, the d.school (which sits under the School of Engineering) began administering the transformed degree now known as Design. It is still an engineering degree, with a diploma issued by the School of Engineering.

  • Yes. As you may have already experienced, what we teach in the program extends beyond the design of physical and digital products. We’re still under the School of Engineering, so a technical foundation will always be core to the degree, but we wanted to open up design applications. We are no longer a subset of Mechanical Engineering.

  • There is no Design minor at the moment. We do have a handful of students who pursue minors in other departments while making degree progress in our program.

  • We hold regular Office Hours during the Fall, Winter, and Spring quarters of the academic year at the d.school. For the most up to date availability of our advising team, please reference our UG Design Office Hours Google Doc (Stanford account required to view).

  • The place with our most current program information can be found on our Design SoE Undergraduate Handbook page. Program Sheets also list key notes and requirements to follow for the Design major.

  • You can self-subscribe to our pd_interest@lists.stanford.edu listserv to receive program announcements and news that we send there when relevant (subscribe and follow steps through the University IT page here).

  • Our main outreach to Design students will be sent to pd_undergrads@lists.stanford.edu.

  • The four domain spheres have evolved and expanded in response to student interests, and each encompass many areas of design application. Please explore the landscape maps on our Domain Exploration Page for inspiration and meet with our advising team to discuss your interests. We welcome and encourage students to petition classes so that you can compose a course pathway that aligns with your interest areas for design impact. Faculty support is an important part of the course selection and approval process, as well, and you can expect that we will work with you to enable that.

  • We appreciate your interest in design! In general, you can always start by taking other classes that fulfill requirements such as WIM, etc. If you know early on that you want to pursue an engineering degree, you can start out by taking SoE classes early. We have Design 1 as a class for interested students, so you are welcome to enroll in this class as well. You can always reach out to our Peer Advisors at ugdesign-advising@stanford.edu with questions or advice. Finally, you should talk with your assigned UAD to get their general advice and class recommendations before you declare and begin working with one of our Faculty Advisors.

Declaring Design

Declaration Process

Program Sheet

Faculty & Peer Advising

  • Product Design was officially discontinued for new declaring students in the middle of the 2022-2023 academic year. Those who were already declared under Product Design will continue with their degree progress through the end of their degree progress. Any new students declaring will pursue the Design major.

  • This varies depending on how long students take in completing a program sheet and fulfilling meeting requirements with our Peer/Faculty Advisors. If you have completed all the steps and submitted completed paperwork to the Design: Declaration Form, you should expect at least three weeks for our Student Services team to conduct a final paperwork review and process your declaration in Axess.

  • Stanford advises that students declare their major no later than the end of sophomore year. This is to stay on track with degree requirements and to avoid enrollment holds or degree progress delays. If you are declaring after your sophomore year, please begin the declaration steps as soon as possible or contact ugdesign-advising@stanford.edu so our team can best support you.

  • It is always helpful to treat your initial Program Sheet when declaring as an initial road map through the major. We do understand that your academic interests and circumstances may create opportunities to expand beyond your course selection when declaring. Just keep in mind that your classes need to follow all notes, requirements, and stipulations outlined on your Program Sheet.

  • You will receive an email update from our Student Services when everything has been completed. If there is any need for follow up, we may contact you via email.

  • You can find more information on how to pull an unofficial transcript by visiting the "How Do I Find My Transcript" page by Academic Advising.

  • Completion of the undergraduate program in Design leads to the conferral of the Bachelor of Science in Design (DESIGN-BS) from the School of Engineering.

  • You can find our program sheets for this academic year, and previous years, on the Program Sheets page of the SoE Undergraduate Handbook.

  • You can choose a program sheet that overlaps with your matriculation. For example, if you matriculated in Fall of 2022 you can choose any Design Program Sheet that dates back to the 2022-2023 academic year. If you matriculated in Fall of 2022, you would not be able to choose a Program Sheet from previous academic years such as ones dated 2021-2022, 2020-2021, etc.

  • For filling out a Program Sheet, please reference all notes and empty boxes as a guide for filling out course codes, names, units, and grades. For Design program sheets, you will frequently reference pages such as the Engineering courses, Domain Focus Appendix, and UG Design Handbook. If you need help or are ready to have your sheet reviewed, bring your sheet to a Peer Advisor’s Office Hours to discuss and review.

  • During the declaration process, all students are required to first bring their filled out Program Sheet to a Peer Advisors at Office Hours to get the sheet reviewed. In that Office Hours session you attend with a Peer Advisor, they will assign you to a Faculty Advisor. We make the pairing based on the administrative need to balance out students evenly among our program Faculty.

  • For administrative reasons, our team will pair you with your Faculty Advisor. If you have any questions or preferences that you want us to know, email us at ugdesign-advising@stanford.edu so we are aware.

  • Not at all! All of our Peer Advisors hold scheduled Office Hours during Fall, Winter, and Spring quarter. You are welcome to drop by the Office Hours session that best works for your schedule.

  • Peer Advisors represent the heart of our advising resources. They are declared undergraduate students that have invaluable insight and perspectives from first-hand experiences in our program. They hold regular Office Hours during the academic year. They are a helpful starting place if you want support with class choices, course planning, Program Sheet checks, or just answering general advising questions. They can help advise when you declare, and if you need an additional perspective along your degree progress.

  • Faculty advisors can talk to students about navigating major requirements and pursuing the multitude of opportunities within and related to Design. Students are encouraged to share their short-term and long-term academic and personal goals with faculty advisors who can help offer advice for making the most of their academic journey pursuing the Design major.

Class Petitions and Requests to Deviate

  • A petition is a request to deviate from any outlined requirements on a Program Sheet or major requirement. They are treated as rare exceptions and need a thorough review by a combination of our Design faculty, program leadership, or School of Engineering.

  • We understand that the road through degree progress can present different opportunities and challenges. Petitions serve as a process of reviewing deviation requests by students and understanding their arguments for petitioning a requirement. However, by nature of having program requirements students should understand that a petition is not easy to grant or has assumed outcomes.

  • First step is to discuss your petition with your Faculty Advisor at their Office Hours. After discussing with your Faculty Advisor, you may submit to this Design: Petition Form for your petition to be reviewed (you will receive an email copy of your submission).

  • Students should expect at least three weeks for their petition to go through the proper stages of being carefully reviewed. When an outcome is reached, decisions will be communicated to you via email by your Student Services Officer.

  • Please contact your Peer Advisor or Faculty Advisor to first discuss your plans about your domain. For any Domain related petition, please complete this separate Design: Domain Petition Form. The questions are specifically geared towards what is needed to review Domain petitions, and we take your submission and meet with Domain leads quarterly to review your request.

Class Enrollment

Enrollment Process

Enrolling in Design Classes

General Studying Abroad

  • Please refer to this Enrollment Overview page on the Student Services website.

  • Please refer to this Enrollment Overview page on the Student Services website.

  • Enrollment codes are a way for our academic team to better manage enrollment in certain classes. In Design, we want to best ensure our declared students get into the courses they need to take as required for their degree progress. Enrollment Codes help us support our Declared students through taking our classes.

  • Beginning in Fall of 2023, all undergraduate DESIGN related major classes implemented a program-wide enrollment code process. There is a form link below the description of all DESIGN classes that students intending to take the class should click into and fill out the few fields of information. After you submit a form, our instructors associated with that class and academic operations team review the submissions. We follow up with students on next steps related to class enrollment and distribution of enrollment codes.

  • The timeline for hearing back on the status of a DESIGN class varies with each DESIGN class. You should hear back from either the instructor for the class or someone on our academic team leading up to the first day. If not, expect to hear back during the first week of the class.

  • If you submitted to a form link associated with a DESIGN class, we have your submission. If you haven’t heard back yet on a class enrollment status, please expect to attend the first class as your instructor may have plans to share enrollment code information at the first week of classes.

  • For general enrollment questions as it relates to DESIGN classes, you can either email our Associate Director of Academic Programs or our program’s Student Services Officer.

Application

Curriculum

Transfer Credits

  • Visit our Design Undergraduate Handbook page through SoE for the most current information. Additionally, students can refer to the notes and requirements outlined on their Program Sheet.

  • Design 1 is a new and introductory class that launched in the Fall of 2023. It is required for all Design majors, except it is waived as a requirement for students graduating in 2024 and 2025. DESIGN 1 should be taken early in a student’s academic career. No prerequisites.

  • Design views STATS as a highly important course for the major. For Product Design students, it is listed in the notes section of Program Sheets as a recommended course. For BS Design students, it is required to take either STATS 60, STATS 160, or STATS 110 as printed on the Program Sheets. Our program recommends either Stats 60 or Stats 160 between the three options.

  • Even if you have AP Credit showing on your transcript, you will need to get it reviewed by the School of Engineering to determine how it will apply towards the Design major. This is done through Darlene Lazar (dlazar@stanford.edu). The process she has for AP Credit review can be found on the Transfer-AP-Exceptions engineering page. Additionally, we also have our Design: Petition Form as an additional way any prospective or current Design student can submit the required information which we forward on to Darlene.

  • Yes. Please refer to the Transfer Requests page through the School of Engineering.

  • You can find the current 2023-2024 list by visiting the Domain Focus Area Appendix Google Document. 2022-2023’s list of classes can be found here.

  • Yes. Please let your Faculty Advisor know and submit an updated Program Sheet to our Student Services Officer so we can reflect the change in our records. If you do switch Domains, it is advised to do so early in your degree progress to minimize the class impact.

Domain Classes

Study Abroad

Design Specific

General Coterming

  • You can learn more about study abroad programs, the application process, resources, and any news related to Stanford’s study abroad programs by visiting the Bing Overseas Study Program (BOSP) main website.

  • It is best to discuss your plans with a Peer Advisor, Faculty Advisor, or Student Services Officer at Office Hours to see your options.

  • A: We highly encourage a study abroad experience! Our program currently doesn’t have any classes that are automatically waived for our students that go abroad, so you will want to best plan ahead of time to fit your requirements in. If you go abroad in either Winter or Spring of your junior year, you can take DESIGN 141 (winter) or DESIGN 151(spring) concurrently with Capstone your senior year. Taking these junior level courses your senior year is less than ideal, but doable. We hope to offer more sections of DESIGN 121 (fall) in the near future which would allow more sophomores to take this class, and help free up space in the junior year.

  • There are currently no study abroad classes that are automatically accepted to fulfill requirements for the Design major.

Coterminal Opportunities

Coterming for Students in Design

Walkthrough

  • You can learn more about Coterminal Degree programs by visiting this helpful Coterminal Degrees at Stanford page through Academic Advising webpage.

  • Visit the Coterm Application Process page through Student Services. to learn about the application process, important dates, and application information.

  • You can understand eligibility requirements by visiting the Coterm Eligibility page through Student Services.

  • We have a handful of Design students that end up applying for Coterm programs while they pursue our undergraduate degree. Visit the Explore Coterm Programs page through Academic Advising to click into programs of interest to you. Each program has its own page for information and explaining admissions next steps.

  • We do have students that have applied for, and have been admitted to, different coterminal programs in other departments at Stanford.

  • There is not one Coterminal program that Product Design or Design students apply for. It varies by student interest.

  • We do not have a coterminal program.

  • At this time, a lot of the ways Design students pursue or explore coterminal programs is informal. However, we are exploring ways to better highlight their stories and opportunities for other Design students who are interested in Coterm programs.

  • It is best to reach out to the main contact person associated with the Coterm program you are interested in. You can also find contact information about the Undergraduate Advising Director for Coterminal Degree Programs by visiting the Undergraduate Advising Directors page.

Peer Advisor & Community Lead

Student Athletes

  • Yes! We support a number of student athletes in our program. If you are a student athlete that declares design, we will still assign you to one of our major Faculty Advisors who can support your academic questions and degree progress. Additionally, as a student athlete you still work with any advising resources provided by Athletics or your team. We correspond quarterly with members on the Athletics advising team, and we provide them with any needed information to help with NCAA eligibility processes and compliance.

  • Undergraduate Student Athletes should be declared by the end of their 6th quarter which is traditionally Spring of their sophomore year. Because we don’t offer Summer declarations, it is highly recommended that student athletes declare as early as possible to avoid any eligibility and degree progress challenges.

  • It is always advised to make your Athletics advisor aware of your urgent circumstances. For getting in touch with our Design program for an urgent matter, email our Student Services Officer and explain your circumstance. We will do our best to help you in a timely manner.

Declaration

Graduation

  • You can find information on how to apply to graduate in Axess by visiting the How Do I Apply To Graduate page on the Student Services website.

  • You apply in Axess to graduate in the quarter that you are intending to confer your degree. Each quarter has a deadline for applying. See the Academic Calendar for those dates and additional deadline information.

  • In addition to the first step of applying in Axess, you will need to email your Student Services Officer with the following steps::

    1. An email to your SSO with the subject line, “Conferring: (Last Name), (First Name)

    2. A final/completed program sheet with all courses, units, grades, and fields filled out.

    3. Your unofficial transcript

  • Email your final Program Sheet and Unofficial transcript during the quarter you plan to confer your degree. The earlier the better, but email it over no later than the Axess graduation deadline for that quarter so there are no delays in working through the needed reviews and approvals.

  • There are two ceremonies that you should know about: Stanford’s main commencement ceremony (school-wide) and our Design Diploma Ceremony (program specific). For the main Stanford ceremony, please visit the main Stanford Commencement Ceremony page for more information. For our Diploma ceremony, you will need to fill out a Google Form request where our Student Services team will review your ceremony participation request and get back to you on a status.

  • A walkthrough is a student that is approved to participate in a graduation ceremony even though they will/have conferred their degree in a different quarter outside of Spring.

  • We usually send out walkthrough information in early Spring quarter. In the meantime, please reach out to your Student Services Officer to receive additional information if available.

  • You can find the latest information on the diploma ceremony by visiting our Design Diploma Ceremony page.

  • You can find a helpful list outlining undergraduate degree requirements on this Undergraduate Degree Requirements page through Student Services.. For meeting major requirements, you should have fulfilled all outlined requirements on the Program Sheet.

Get Involved

  • We have two main student roles that we hire for each year: Peer Advisor and Community Lead.

  • Applications and information on being a Peer Advisor or Community Lead will go out via email to all Design students in early Spring.

  • Peer Advisors are associated with the advising experience of the major. They assume leadership in holding office hours for their peers, working with our program Faculty, and implementing projects that best clarify our program policies and requirements. They report to, and work closely with, our Student Services Officer. Community Leads are a new role that take charge with the planning and facilitation of community events and initiatives. They report to, and work closely with, our Degree Programs Student Experience Lead.

  • There is no specific fit we look for with these roles. In general, we are searching for enthusiastic Design students who have a vision for how they want to lead in these roles and for the benefit of their peers.

  • Applications are open for all undergraduate Design students currently declared within our major.

  • We have seen a growing number of applications by students who apply for these student roles over the years. Our team ensures a careful review and consideration of each individual application to best determine who we make offers to.

  • Yes! On occasion we have opportunities for all our students to still contribute. In the past this has taken form through volunteering at events, holding design contests for swag, receiving feedback during program initiatives, or an invitation to join ongoing projects.