• We tend to attract curious people, so we figured you'd want to know more about our undergrad program. Below are our answers to the questions we hear the most.
About the Design Program
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, the degree will be called Design now. 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.
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.
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.
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.
Staying connected & informed
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 subscribe to our 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 via our listserv.
Declaring Design
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 us so our team can best support you
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.
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.
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.
Faculty & peer advising
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 so we are aware.
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.
Peer Advisors are a helpful starting place if you want support with class choices, course planning, Program Sheet checks, or answering general advising questions. They can help advise when you declare, and if you need an additional perspective along your degree progress.
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.
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
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.
Starting in Fall 2023, all undergraduate Design 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 and fill out. After you submit a form, our instructors 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 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.