Special Student Education

Welcome to UW-Madison!

UW-Madison is fortunate to have a large and diverse population of special students. In an effort to serve all students attending UW-Madison, special students are welcome to enroll in courses taught by the Math Department. The department will take the necessary and appropriate steps to audit special students for course prerequisites and/or preparation, and will offer course advising where requested or warranted. Enrollment depends on department permission and space availability for courses.

For summer term: please be sure to review the UW-Madison Summer Term visiting student page in addition to Math Department-specific information.

Special Student Types & How to Become One

Adult Career and Special Student Services (ACSSS) has information on the different types of special and guest student types, as well as how to become one.

Enrollment Request Forms & FAQs

Special students should not contact individual instructors in the Math Department for course enrollment permissions. Course enrollment for the Math Department is not managed by individual instructors.

Rather, special students should fill out an enrollment request form for a particular semester to request enrollment permission for courses.

Special students should also review our FAQ page for answers to more common questions.

High School Specials & (Senior) Guest Auditors: please see the High School Student, Guest Auditor, or Senior Guest Auditor pages to learn about program-specific enrollment policies.

While we work to help qualified students enroll in the math courses of their choosing, enrollment is not guaranteed. Therefore, you should try to indicate courses and sections of interest that are open when possible. Note that we also give enrollment priority to regularly enrolled students at UW-Madison. Saved seat requests will not be evaluated until April 16th.

To be considered for a seat saved in a section of your choice, complete this form before July 7th, 2026, at 11:59 PM. We will begin evaluating requests on November 18th. Students will be notified of the status of the request after that time. Seats will be saved for high school students on a case-by-case basis, with consideration being given to the level and popularity of the course and the year of the student. Even if a course has seats available in course search and enroll, it does not necessarily mean that a seat can be saved. 

Students who request enrollment after this deadline will still be given enrollment permission if they have met the course requisites, but they will only be able to enroll if there are open seats in the course when their enrollment period begins.

High school student enrollment dates to know

• March 11: Fall 2026 schedule of classes open
• March 12: Fall 2026 enrollment request form opens. Requests will not be evaluated until April
• April 16: The Math Department will begin reviewing enrollment requests
• July 7: The last day to complete the enrollment request form and be considered for a saved seat. Students may still request enrollment, but they will not receive a saved seat.
• August 28: Students can begin enrolling.
• September 1 at 11:59 PM: Deadline for students to use their saved seats. Any unclaimed saved seats will be released on September 2.
• September 2: First day of the Fall 2026 term
• September 9: Deadline to drop a course for Fall 2026
• September 11: Last day to add a course for Fall 2026. This is the last day course waitlists will be monitored.

Courses & Enrollment

A list of math course descriptions, prerequisite information, credit loads, etc., can be found via the Guide.

For access to the Course Search & Enroll app—which is used to browse course sections, view course information, and enroll in courses—please see here for directions. Note that not every course is offered each semester, but certain courses are offered frequently or, in some cases, every semester (i.e., linear algebra, calculus, probability, etc.).

Tutoring

Students taking math coursework are encouraged to take advantage of the tutoring and resources provided by the Math Learning Center (MLC). This resource is open to any student in a math course!