The Professional Master's Program combines the department's BS (or BS with honors) and MS degrees, to enable highly focused and motivated students to organize their studies so as to earn the two degress in five years from time of matriculation to the university.

The program's overall course requirements add up to as much as nine fewer credit hours than the sum total of the BS and MS taken individually. However, more of the 143 credits required are at the graduate level (500 level or higher) than is required for earning separately a BS followed by an MS.

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 a College of Arts and Sciences 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 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 BS 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 BS 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 BS, 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.

Academic Requirements

• A total of 143 credit hours.
• GPA of at least 3.0 for Computer Science courses. 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 BS degree
• 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 B351 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 Master's Degree, (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 3-hour Y790's.
  • For the Q option, a B- or better on a PhD 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.

Professional Master's Work Sheet: A work sheet in either Postscript or PDF format is available to help Professional Master's students plan their computer science courses.

Students with questions about the program are invited to address them to the undergraduate advisor

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