Curriculum: Statistics-Computer Science Joint Masters

Successful completion of this joint program requires:

Course 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.

For the Non-Thesis Option

Five Statistics Courses

1. At least one course from each of three of the following four groups:


STAT 51900, Introduction to Probability

STAT 53200, Elements of Stochastic Processes


  • STAT 52800, Introduction to Mathematical Statistics
  • STAT 55300, Theory of Linear Models and Analysis of Experimental Designs

  • STAT 59800, Computational Statistics. (The title is important because 59800 is used for more than one course.)


2. Two electives: Any two other graduate statistics courses, excluding STAT 50100, 50200, 50300, 51100, and 51200.


Five Computer Science Courses

1. At least one of the following theory courses:

  • CS 58000, Algorithm Design, Analysis, and Implementation
  • CS 58400, Theory of Computation and Computational Complexity


2. At least one of the following systems courses:


3. At least one of the following statistical CS courses:

  • CS 54300, Introduction to Simulation and Modeling of Computer Systems
  • CS 54400, Simulation and Modeling of Computer Systems
  • CS 57300, Data Mining
  • CS 57800, Statistical Machine Learning (The offering in spring 2011 may be under the number CS 59000 SML.)
  • CS 54701, Information Retrieval


4. At least one additional statistical CS course:

  • Any course listed under 3 above.
  • Any course that is cross-listed between CS and Statistics.


5. One elective: Any other graduate CS course, excluding CS 50100.

For the Thesis Option

The thesis option has the same course requirements as the non-thesis option except that the thesis (entailing at least six hours of CS 69800) replaces one STAT elective and one CS elective. The thesis must be presented in an oral defense before the advisory commitee.

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Plan of Study

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 in the A range (A+, A, A-) or B range are expected, but one or two grades in the C range may be accepted if they are compensated by grades in the A range (regardless of + and -). Other grades are unacceptable. The GPA of the courses on the plan must be at least 3.0. CS 69800, Research. M.S. Thesis, is not listed on the plan of study.

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.

Instructions for Filing a Plan of Study

Graduation Deadline Calendar

 

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Advisory Committee

The student must form an advisory committee consisting of three faculty members, including at least one with a primary appointment in Statistics and at least one with a primary appointment in CS. The CS graduate committee must approve the advisory committee.

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Ethics Requirement

All MS students that entered after spring 2008 must fulfill an ethics requirement.  This is currently to be fulfilled by attending the ethics lecture of the Research Seminar for First-Year Graduate Students once during the first year.  The seminar (CS 59100 RS1) is offered only in the fall semester.  An announcement of the date, time, and place of the lecture is sent out ahead of time.  Attendance is taken at the lecture.  MS students cannot register for the seminar: they attend just the one lecture.

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Communication Requirement

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.

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Changes in Requirements

These requirements replace those in effect through the spring semester of 2010 and may be used by students regardless of when they were admitted to graduate study in the Department of Computer Science at West Lafayette.

The above requirements may change without notice.

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Contact Us: grad-info@cs.purdue.edu
Last Updated: January 21, 2011 09:34AM