The departmental requirements for the Master's degree are described below under the headings: core courses, electives, diagnostic exam,  thesis/project option, colloquium, GPA and time limit. All these requirements must be satisfied in addition to the University requirements outlined under the Academic Information section of the University catalog. University requirements state that "at least three-fifths of the course work must be completed at 600-700 levels". This means at most four 500 level courses can be counted toward MS degree.

• Core Courses:
  As part of the course work requirement a student must take*
  1. CS 550 Data Base Concepts,
  2. CS 555 Introduction to Networks and Communications,
  3. CS 600 Algorithms and Data Structures,
  4. CS 665 Computer Architecture.

  * Students who have taken undergraduate courses which cover similar material may request that these courses be waived. This allows the student to replace the waived course with an elective course.
  
  

• Elective Courses:
  In addition to the required core courses, the student must take sufficient elective courses to satisfy degree requirements (see options below). The choice of electives is subject to several constraints whose main purpose is to ensure that all graduate students receive sufficient rigorous high level exposure to Computer Science Principles and Concepts. These constraints are:
  • At most four 500-level courses can be counted towards the MS degree (University requirement)
  • No more that three Special Courses can be counted towards the MS degree. A special course includes Independent Study (CS697), special topics (CS796/896) and Graduate Seminars (CS791/891).
  • Restrictions on courses taken outside the Department. 
  • Not all courses offered by the Computer Science Department can be counted towards a CS/ MS degree. Consult "Start of Semester Checklist" for more information..
    
• Options
  Two options are available for candidates for Master's degree: Thesis option and Project option .
  • Thesis Option. A minimum of 31 credit hours is required, including 24 credits of course work, 6 credits of thesis research and 1 credit of Colloquium. The candidate is required to write a thesis and make an oral presentation of the results.
  • Project Option. A minimum of 34 credit hours is required, including 30 credits of course work, 3 credits of project work and 1 credit of Colloquium. The candidate is required to prepare a written report on the project and to orally present it.
    
    

• Diagnostic Exam:
  In addition, at the end of the MS program a student must pass the comprehensive examination at the MS level. For more detail of this examination see Comprehensive/Diagnostic Examination . 
  
  

• Colloquium Attendance:
  A student is also required to take one credit hour of Computer Science Colloquium (CS 690), which requires attendance to 10 or more weekly colloquia over the duration of the study. NOTE: it is not necessary to complete this requirement in the semester in which the student registers for CS690. Satisfaction of this requirement is checked during graduation certification in the semester the student plans to graduate.
  

• GPA requirement
  GPA of 3.00 is required for graduation.
  
  

• Time Limit.
  All requirements for the Master's degree must be completed within 6 years.

  Note that prerequisites to Masters program are listed elsewhere.