MSc in Computer Science

Degree Requirements

• Thirty semester-hour units (SHUs) and a minimum of 10 courses are required, of which at least 24 SHUs must be from approved courses. The remaining six SHUs may be earned from approved courses, or from conducting approved research or independent study, or from a combination of the two.
• At least six courses must be in computer science, and at least two must include a serious programming component.
• Grades in all courses must be B- or better. A student who received a grade below B- in COMP105, COMP 160, or COMP 170 as an undergraduate may retake the course for graduate credit.
• To use courses offered outside the Department of Computer Science, the student must obtain the approval of the department.
• Students focusing on an interdisciplinary area of CS may take fewer than eighteen CS SHUs, but this is subject to the approval of the department.
• Students must also demonstrate core competence as expected from a high-quality undergraduate program in computer science, in particular in the areas of:
  • Computer architecture and assembly language.
  • Programming languages (specifically, functional programming and object-oriented programming with inheritance).
  • Data structures and analysis of algorithms.
  • Theory of computation.

These topics are covered, respectively, in Computer Science 61, 40, 105, 160, and 170. Courses 105, 160, and 170 may be taken as part of the M.S. degree program. Comp 40 may be taken without graduate credit or students may substitute a course that specifically requires Comp 40 as a prerequisite. Core competencies may be verified by other means in consultation with your advisor.