������Ƶ18

The Graduate School provides general requirements for the Master of Science in all departments at CU Boulder. The following requirements specifically pertain to students pursuing a Master of Science in the Department of Computer Science. It supplements the Graduate School requirements; in all cases not specifically mentioned below, the general Graduate School requirements are understood to apply.

MSCPS Plan Options

While pursuing the course based MS degree in CS, you may select between two options:

Option - General Track (no subplan):

• Complete 30 credit hours of graduate coursework, according to the degree requirements listed on this page, including the following:
  • 9 hours - Bin/Breadth courses
    • You must earn a grade of ‘B’ or better to satisfy each of the three BIN/breadth course requirements.
  • 6 hours - Project courses
    • Students must complete both project courses from one project course sequence.
    • Students must earn grades of ‘B’ or better in both courses.
    • Students cannot count just one project course to the degree.
  • 15 hours - Elective courses
    • You may take up to two, approved, non-CS courses.

Option - Subplan��

• Complete 30 credit hours of graduate coursework, according to the degree requirements listed on this page, including the following:
• 9 hours - Bin/Breadth courses
  • You must earn a grade of ‘B’ or better to satisfy each of the three BIN/breadth course requirements.
• 6 hours - Project courses
  • Students must complete both project courses from one project course sequence.
  • Students must earn grades of ‘B’ or better in both courses.
  • Students cannot count just one project course to the degree.
• 15 hours - Elective courses
  • You may take up to two, approved, non-CS courses.
  • Any non-Computer Science courses that can count towards a subplan will count against the two maximum allowable non-CS classes.
• Subplan courses
  • Must complete at least 12 credit hours of eligible subplan courses with a grade of ‘B’ or better in each course.
  • Students can satisfy subplan requirements by counting eligible BIN and/or Elective courses towards the subplan requirements. This means:
    • Students may count an eligible course towards BOTH a BIN/breadth requirement AND a subplan requirement.
    • Students may count an eligible course towards BOTH an Elective requirement AND a subplan requirement.

MSCPS Subplan Options��

Available MSCPS subplans include:

• Artificial Intelligence (AIG)
• Algorithms, Network and Optimization (ANO)
• Data Science and Engineering (DSE)
• Human-Centered Computing (HCC)
• Numerical Computation (NUM)
• Robotics (RBT)
• Security (SEC)
• Software Systems and Cloud Computing (SSC)

Course Requirements

The course-based, Professional MS in Computer Science (MSCPS) requires 30 total credit hours of approved graduate-level coursework.

View the pre-fall 2019 course requirements��

Bin / Breadth requirement (9 credit hours)

For details about Computer Science BIN/breadth requirements check here: Breadth Course Bins.

Pre-Fall 2019 Breadth Requirements��

Projects requirement (6 credit hours)

To learn more about Projects requirement check here: Projects Requirement.

Project Courses Waiver

For details on waiving the Project Courses please check here: Waiving the MSCPS Projects Requirement.

Elective courses requirement (15 credit hours)

• 15 credit hours of graduate-level coursework (5000 level and above) offered at CU Boulder with the following restrictions:
  • Students may take no more than 6 total credit hours of non-CSCI classes.
  • Exactly three (3) credit hours of the��Professional Internship class (CSCI 6930) can count as an Elective course.
  • Professional MSCPS students cannot count any research-related courses towards their degree:
    • CSEN MS / PhD Research courses (for ex., CSCI 5000, CSCI 5100, CSCI 6000, CSCI 6100, CSCI 6200).
    • Any other one-credit research seminar-based courses (for ex. ATLS 7000, CSCI 7772, CSCI 7412, CSCI 7422).
    • Independent study courses.
  • MS / MSCPS students may not take Network Engineering Fundamentals classes (CSCI 5010; CSCI 5020; CSCI 5030) and count them towards their CSEN MS / MSCPS degree.
  • Credits from the MS-DS Bridge Courses, General Data Science Courses and the following courses DO NOT count towards any CS graduate degree requirements:
    • DTSC 5501 Data Structures and Algorithms.
    • CSCI 5122 Neural Networks and Deep Learning for Science
    • CSCI 5612 Machine Learning for Data Science.
    • For more information check .

Transfer Credit

Please review the Graduate School Rules for��Transfer Credits.

Plan of Study

• Students are expected to submit the form by the end of their second semester in consultation with their departmental advisor, during their second semester in the MSCPS program.
• Changes to the Plan of Study must be approved by the advisor.
• Students may resubmit the Plan of Study form as often as they would like.

Thesis vs. Non-Thesis

Students opting for course based MS degree do not have the thesis option or the independent study research option, as this is a “course-only” degree. The research-oriented plan is only available to research-based MS degree students.

Advising

• Students in the MSCPS program are advised by Daniel Adams. Your advisor serves as the academic advisor for current MSCPS students throughout their entire academic program. You can contact your advisor by clicking here.
• Your advisor should be consulted when planning your course of study.
• Admissions and application questions should be routed to csgradinfo@colorado.edu.

Adequate Progress

• Please review the Graduate School Rules for Adequate Progress.
• Graduate students who have completed at least one semester at CU Boulder, may request a Leave of Absence if they have extenuating circumstances that prevent them from taking coursework for a certain amount of time. Click��here��to learn more about Leave of Absence at CU Boulder.

Grades

Please review the Graduate School Rules for��Grades and Quality of work.

Time Limit

All requirements for the course based MS degree must be completed within four years of the start of course work.

Switching to the Research-Based MSCS

You may switch between the research-based and course-based MS degree options once for genuine academic reasons on a case-by-case basis via petition to the Graduate Committee. For more information please check here.

Academic Standards

Minimum Grades & GPA Requirements

Students must complete a total of 30 credit hours of approved graduate level course work with a grade of C or better and a cumulative GPA of at least 3.00.

Any student, who fails to maintain a 3.00 grade point average or to make adequate progress toward completing a degree, as assessed by the student’s academic/research advisor, will be subject to suspension or dismissal from the Graduate School upon consultation with the major department. The final decision on suspension or dismissal will be made by the Dean of the Graduate School. See the��Graduate School Rules for additional information.

Incomplete (I) Grades

• An incomplete (I) grade is given only when students, for documented reasons, beyond their control, have been unable to complete course requirements in the semester enrolled.
  • A substantial amount of work must have been satisfactorily completed before approval of such a grade is given.
  • The final grade (earned by completing the course requirements or by retaking the course) does not result in the deletion of the (I) from the transcript.
  • A second entry is posted on the transcript to show the final grade for the course. At the end of one year, (I) grades for courses that are not completed or repeated are regarded as (F) and are shown as such on the student’s transcript.
  • Courses with grades of (I) are not included in the computation of grade point averages until a final letter grade has been awarded in that course.
• Click��to learn more about Incomplete Grades.

Graduation Checklist

Check the Graduate School deadlines for details prior to the start of the semester.