The Professional Master’s Program combines the B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science degrees in an accelerated five-year program for highly focused and motivated students. The program’s overall course requirements add up to 9 fewer credit hours than the individual B.S. and M.S. curricula, but students take a higher percentage of graduate-level course work than in the individual degree programs.

Admission and Status

• For admission to the Professional Master’s Program, students must have completed at least 26 and not more than 45 hours towards an undergraduate degree. Students entering the University with existing college credits may be granted an exception to the 45-hour maximum at the discretion of the department. Students must have earned a GPA of at least 3.0 for computer science courses, and an overall GPA of at least 3.0, at the time of admission to the program.
• Students in the program are normally classified as undergraduates until the end of the first semester in which 122 or more hours of credit toward graduation have been earned. During this semester, students in good standing, defined as those having a GPA of at least 3.0 overall and 3.0 in computer science, must submit the standard application to the graduate school (which includes a processing fee) and initiate the transition to graduate status; if the transition to graduate status is delayed beyond this time, Professional Master’s status will normally revert to undergraduate B.S. status. Students are advised to check on the effect that transition to graduate status may have on existing undergraduate funding; the possibility of graduate funding is conditional upon transition to graduate status. Those not in good standing at this time are dropped from the program and reclassified as undergraduate B.S. students.
• Students in the Professional Master’s Program must complete at least 15 hours of coursework while registered in graduate status. Normally, this would encompass no fewer than two semesters.
• Students in the program may receive a B.S. in Computer Science, optionally with honors (BSH), when they complete the requirements for that degree. Students in the program are encouraged to pursue the BSH. Students should be aware that the application for the bachelor’s degree must be completed to be eligible for the master’s degree, and that the degrees may be taken either sequentially or simultaneously.

Curriculum

• A total of 143 credit hours
• GPA of at least 3.0 for computer science courses, with an overall GPA of at least 3.0
• General education requirements of 66 credit hours, which must satisfy all the Arts and Sciences requirements of the B.S. in Computer Science
• All six computer science undergraduate core courses or their honors versions
• At least six courses at level 400 or above, and at least six additional courses at level 500 or above. (Note: The course CSCI B351 Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and Computer Simulation may be counted among the six 400-level courses for this degree.) These twelve courses must cover all four areas, and must include two P courses (programming-in-the-large courses that involve a major programming project). Areas: Foundations (middle digit 0 or 1), Programming Languages (2), Systems (3,4), Applications (5,6,7,8).
• Two additional graduate level courses corresponding to the creativity requirement of the M.S. in Computer Science (Note that no more than two Y790’s can be counted towards the degree.)
  • For the R, S, and TH options, a research project consisting of two semesters of CSCI Y790 Graduate Independent Study (3 cr.).
  • For the Q option, a B– or better on a Ph.D. qualifying exam AND two additional graduate courses in natural and mathematical sciences, not excluding CS.
  • For the C option, two additional graduate-level CS courses: one additional CS 500+ level P course and one additional CS 500+ level or Y790 course.

A worksheet in either Postscript or PDF format is available to help Professional Master’s students plan their computer science courses.