See also B.S.-M.S. and Bachelor-M.S.

Thirty units of graduate credit, all of which must be taken for a grade, are required for the Master of Science degree. These may consist entirely of coursework or a combination of coursework and either a thesis or a project. At least 18 of the 30 units must be departmental courses at the 500-level or above. (Also, as described in the general information section of the SEAS Graduate Catalog, at most 6 units can be transferred from another university.) Any course taken outside the department requires departmental approval. None of the 30 units may be taken as independent study (i.e., CSE 500 or CS 600). Students may count, for graduate credit, up to 9 units of 400-level courses (with a grade of C- or better) from CSE courses with a number of 410 or higher.

Students electing the thesis option undertake an individual research activity in lieu of six course credits. Acceptance of the resulting thesis and passage of a final oral examination complete the Master of Science degree requirements.

A project option is available. The student may elect to undertake an individual engineering project in lieu of three to six course credits. Acceptance of the resulting project, submitted in writing and presented orally, completes the Master of Science degree requirements under this option. This does not eliminate the specific course requirements listed below.

All students in the course or project options of the Master's Degree program must fulfill the following graduate computer science breadth requirement: one 500-level Theoretical Computer Science (T) course, one 500-level Software Systems (S) course, and at least one 500-level Machine and Architecture (M) or Applications (A) course.

This computer science breadth requirement does not apply to the thesis option.

* These courses count only when they are taken as part of a graduate program and are used disjoint from any other program.