Computer Science Masters Bulletin

Admission Requirements, Retention & Termination Standards

  • Conditional admission may be granted upon completion of a bachelor’s degree, including a two semester sequence in modern programming language with elementary data structures (CS1 and CS2), from an accredited institution with a minimum overall grade point average of 3.0 in the last two years of study, as well as in the programming courses. International students are required to demonstrate English competency.
  • Regular admission is granted to students who meet the above conditional requirements and have completed the following courses:
    • Computer Architecture
    • Data Structures and Algorithms
    • Program Languages
    • Operating Systems
    • Calculus I
    • Discrete Mathematics

Students are required to achieve a minimum grade point average of 2.5 in the above-listed courses.

GRE scores may be considered in cases where a student is deficient in the above knowledge areas.

Conditionally admitted students who have not met all these requirements will be required to get the department chairperson’s permission to register in each graduate course.

Required courses (12 hours)

    • CPS 542 (3)Analysis and Design of Algorithms
    • CPS 691 (3)Graduate Seminar
    • Six (6) credit hours from the following courses:
      • CPS 520 (3)Software Architecture
      • CPS 541 (3)Databases
      • CPS 585 (3)Applied Data Engineering
      • CPS 610 (3)Advanced Software Design and Development
      • CPS 685 (3)Pattern Recognition and Data Mining
      • CPS 710 (3)Software Engineering Metrics, Models and Management

Other Requirements (Select Plan A or Plan B)

  • Plan A
    • The 30-hour requirements include 24 hours of coursework, a Masters thesis of 6 hours (CPS 798), and an oral examination on the thesis. For Masters thesis, a Thesis Committee shall be formed according to the procedure outlined in the Thesis, Field Study, or Dissertation section of College of Graduate Studies Bulletin.
    • CPS 798 - Thesis
  • Plan B
    • The 30-hour requirements include 30 hours of coursework and a Plan B Project. A student must complete a substantial written report in computer science or an application of computer science for the Plan B project. Copies of procedures for such projects are available from the department chairperson. The project will ordinarily include a significant original programming component with a written defense of the programming component and must include evidence of scholarly and creative ability. The project must be supervised while in progress and approved by a committee of two faculty members.
  • Electives (12-18 hours)
    • At least 12 hours must have the CPS designator. Electives from related areas are selected with approval of the CPS advisor.

A PDF copy of the degree requirements is available for download here.
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