Successful completion of the master's program requires:
- 10 Three-Credit Courses or 8 with a Thesis
- Course and Grade Requirements
- Plan of Study
- Advisory Committee
- Ethics Requirement
- Communication Requirement
Courses and Grade Requirements
Up to six semester-hours of credit for graduate courses taken at other institutions may be transferred with the approval of the Graduate Committee and the Graduate School. The grades must be A or B or the equivalent. Application for transfer is made when the plan of study is submitted for approval. Students may ask the Graduate Committee to accept equivalent graduate courses taken at other institutions in lieu of at most two of the above courses.
Courses used to fulfill the requirements for other degrees (at Purdue or elsewhere) are not eligible for use on master's plans of study, except that courses used for a doctoral degree may be used on a master's plan of study provided the doctoral plan of study does not include any course used for any other master's degree.
Three core courses: CS 50200 or 56500, CS 50300 or 53600, and CS 58000. These represent the areas Systems I, Systems II, and Algorithms in the Areas and Courses Table.
Four other courses from the table. These must include courses from at least two areas other than Systems I, Systems II, and Algorithms.
Three more Level 5 or 6 courses (not necessarily in Computer Science), at most two of which may be individual study courses.
Three core courses: CS 50200 or 56500, CS 50300 or 53600, and CS 58000. These represent the areas Systems I, Systems II, and Algorithms in the Areas and Courses Table.
Four other courses from the table. These must include courses from at least two areas other than Systems I, Systems II, and Algorithms.
One more Level 5 or 6 course (not necessarily in Computer Science), which may not be an individual study course.
Courses used to fulfill degree requirements must be listed on a plan of study and submitted for approval by the Graduate Committee and the Graduate School well before the final session. Grades of A or B are expected, but one or two C's may be accepted if they are compensated by A's. Other grades are unacceptable.
Master's programs usually take three or four semesters. The practical maximum load is four courses per semester and two in the summer session. Students with assistantships rarely take more than three courses per semester and one in the summer session. Completing a master's program within twelve months is sometimes possible for well-prepared, industrious students.
For students in a non-thesis master's program, the advisory committee is determined by the graduate committee.
For students in a thesis master's program, the advisory committee consists of the supervisor of the research plus two or more other faculty members agreed upon by the student and the supervisor. Qualified faculty from other departments may serve on the committee but may not form a majority of it.
All MS students that entered after spring 2008 must fulfill an ethics requirement. This is currently to be fulfilled by attending the ethics session of the Research Seminar for First-Year Graduate Students once during the first year. The seminar is offered each fall as a section of CS 59100.
All MS students that entered after spring 2008 must demonstrate effectiveness in communication. For students using the thesis option, this will be assessed in the normal course of their program.
For students using the non-thesis option, if the assessment cannot be made on the basis of presentations and papers in courses, the student must write a technical essay at the beginning of the final semester.
The chair of the Graduate Committee evaluates the essay. A research paper may be also be used if the student is the sole author.
These requirements apply to all students entering or reentering the Department of Computer Sciences at West Lafayette ("the Department") as degree-seeking graduate students in the summer session of 2001 or later. 2000 master's degree requirements
Students are governed by the degree requirements in effect when they enter the Department as degree-seeking students. Students who wish to take advantage of subsequent changes may apply to the Graduate Committee to be governed by all degree requirements in effect at a specified subsequent time. Choosing features from different sets of requirements is not permitted.
For students re-entering, the date of the most recent re-entry determines the degree requirements.
The above requirements for the master's program may change without notice.
| Area | Course(s) | |
|---|---|---|
| Algorithms | CS 58000 | |
| Artificial Intelligence | CS 57200 | |
| Complexity | CS 58400 | |
| Databases | CS 54100, 54200 | 64100 |
| Data Mining | CS 57300 | |
| Distributed Systems | CS 50500 | |
| Geometric Modeling, Visualization, and Graphics | CS 53000, 53100, 53500*, 58600 | |
| Numerical Computing | CS 51400, 51500, 52000 | 61400, 61500 |
| Parallel and Distributed Computing | CS 52500, | 60300 |
| Security | CS 52600, 55500 | 62600, 65500 |
| Simulation and Modeling | CS 54300, 54400 | |
| Software Engineering | CS 51000 | |
| Systems I (Compilers and Programming Languages) | CS 50200, 56500 | 66100 |
| Systems II (Networks and Operating Systems) | CS 50300, 53600 | 63600, 63800 |
* when taught by a professor whose primary appointment is in Computer Sciences.
Contact Us: grad-info@cs.purdue.edu
Last Updated: October 19, 2009 09:28AM
