Admission
An applicant must hold a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university in computer science or a related discipline. In addition, the following requirements must be met:
- A 3.0 undergraduate GPA.
- At least 15 hours of computer science.
- At least 15 hours of mathematics and statistics at the level of calculus and above.
- An acceptable score on the Graduate Record Exam.
Upon the recommendation of the Graduate Dean, students who fail to meet all the above requirements may be admitted conditionally, pending removal of deficiencies. All applicants from non-English-speaking countries must submit a TOEFL score of at least 80 on the internet-based exam or 550 on the paper exam. Non-English-speaking students may substitute a minimum score of 6.0 on the IELTS examination for the TOEFL.
Requirements
A student who has been fully admitted to the Graduate School should meet with the graduate program advisor of the computer science program to plan a program through to the completion of the degree requirements. This program is subject to change by mutual consent, but a current version remains on file.
The core requirements for the master’s degree include at least six courses at the 7000+ level, subject to approval of the graduate program advisor.
In addition, students who have not completed equivalent undergraduate courses must complete the following courses: CS 1043, Introduction to Programming and Problem Solving; CS 2003, Fundamentals of Algorithm and Computer Applications; CS 2123, Data Structures; CS 3013, Discrete Mathematics; and CS 3053, Operating Systems. In many cases, a student with certain deficiencies can be admitted and required to take two leveling courses: CS 6103 and CS 6113 to cover the deficiencies.
Up to 12 credit hours of 6000-level courses may be taken with the approval of the graduate program advisor. Each student must complete 30 credit hours, which may optionally include up to a six-credit-hour research oriented master’s thesis. Up to 6 hours may be non-computer science courses subject to the approval of the graduate advisor. Either CS 6413 Compiler Construction or CS 7473 Network Security is required.
Additional computer science courses needed to meet the above requirements are chosen as electives by the student from the list of graduate and approved undergraduate courses. Other courses may be selected subject to approval of the graduate program advisor.
Each student producing a master’s thesis must pass an oral examination, including presentation of the research results, upon completion of all other degree requirements.
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