Admission is closed for Fall 2026
Applications closed Thursday September 10. Interviews ran that Friday and the following Monday, and admits went out Monday afternoon. The roster locks on the university's last day to add, Friday September 18. There is no rolling admission and no second round.
What follows is the process that was used, kept for the record and for future offerings.
How it worked
You applied as a team of 2 or 3. There was no individual admission. Every member submitted their own form and named the others. There was one round and one deadline.
Teams were admitted whole or not at all. A team of three was admitted as three or rejected as three. Teams were never split. A person who did not submit their own form by the deadline was not on the team.
Enrollment ran off the Vergil waitlist. Applicants joined the waitlist for section 021 when they applied, and admitted teams were let in from it before the change of program deadline. Being on the waitlist was not an application and did not get anyone a seat.
Students without a team used the teammate thread on the course discussion board. Applicants were asked to post what they built, the problem they cared about, and a link to something they had shipped, then contact potential teammates. Finding teammates was the applicant's job, not the instructor's.
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| Tue Sep 8 | Week 1. Open session, held before anyone was admitted. |
| Thu Sep 10, 11:59pm | Applications closed. |
| Fri Sep 11 to Mon Sep 14 | Interviews, 10 minutes per team. |
| Mon Sep 14 | Admits went out. Admitted teams let in off the waitlist. |
| Tue Sep 15 | Week 2. Onboarding for the admitted cohort. |
| Fri Sep 18 | Change of program deadline. Roster locked. |
The interview
Ten minutes, the same four questions for every team, conducted and scored by the instructor against a rubric fixed before any application was read. Every team member spoke. Shipping evidence and evidence of customer contact were weighted heaviest. Credentials and GPA were not considered.
The questions
The form asked the following.
1. You
- 1.1 Name, UNI, program, and expected graduation.
- 1.2 Link to something you have built. A live URL or a repo. Required.
- 1.3 In one sentence: what is it, and who used it besides you?
- 1.4 What do you personally do? Frontend, backend, ML and models, infra and deploy, design, talking to users and selling, other.
2. Your team
- 2.1 Your team code. Pick a short code together, lowercase and no spaces, and make sure every member types it identically. It is how your applications are matched into a team. If your codes do not match, you are not a team.
- 2.2 How many people are on your team, including you? 2 or 3.
- 2.3 Your teammates' names and UNIs. Required. Give UNIs, not just names, in case two people with the same name apply. A person who does not submit their own application by the deadline is not on your team. Someone who has said they are interested, or who plans to decide later, does not count. Do not list them.
- 2.4 How do you know each other, and what have you built or worked on together? If you met on the discussion board, say so and describe what you have done together since. This is the highest-signal question on the form. A team that shipped a hackathon project together in March is a very different bet than a team that formed last Tuesday to meet a requirement. Answer honestly. "We met in a class group project and it went well" is a fine answer. A vague one is not.
Teams are admitted whole or not at all. If you apply as a team of three, all three of you are admitted or none of you are. We do not split teams and we do not admit two of you. Choose your teammates accordingly, because their application is now your application.
3. The problem
- 3.1 What problem do you want to work on, and who would you sell the solution to? One paragraph. Be specific about the person, not the market.
- 3.2 Have you talked to anyone who actually has this problem? Who are they, and what did they tell you? If you have not talked to anyone yet, say so, that is an honest answer.
- 3.3 Name one person with this problem you could reach within two weeks of the term starting.
4. Commitment
Read this section carefully. Roughly a third of the seats in a course like this are wasted by people who enroll, shop around for two weeks, and drop, which leaves their teammates with a hole they cannot fill.
- 4.1 Do you have a conflict with the Tuesday 10:10am to 12:00pm meeting time?
- 4.2 What else are you taking this term, and realistically how many hours a week can you give this course?
- 4.3 If you are admitted, will you enroll and stay enrolled
through the end of the term?
Yes means yes. Not "probably," not "unless something better comes up." This course is built on teams of two or three, and a person who leaves in week 2 costs two other people their semester, so a seat is only useful in the hands of someone who intends to keep it. If something outside your control could affect your term, that is a different matter: answer yes and explain it in 5.1. - 4.4 Type your full name to confirm three things: you have read the time commitment, your answer to 4.3 is truthful, and every teammate you listed in 2.3 has read the same commitment and given the same answer.
5. Anything else
- 5.1 Is there anything else I should know? Visa timing, a required course that may conflict, a job decision pending, anything that affects your term. Optional, and it does not count against you.
Applications and interview notes are read by the instructor and the teaching staff. By submitting, you consent to that.
Commitment and communication
Accepting an offer means committing to enroll and participate fully. Confirm your decision by the deadline in your offer; unconfirmed offers may expire. If your plans change, notify the instructor and your teammates promptly. Failure to follow through on an accepted offer without communication may affect consideration for future offerings of this course. Extenuating circumstances will be considered.