Program Description
The Department of Computer and Information Science offers highly motivated undergraduate students with superior record options to earn both the bachelor’s and the master’s degrees in Computer Science in a five-year period. Students must complete a minimum of 152 credits (122 undergraduate and 30 graduate hours).
At the beginning of the junior year, students may apply and be admitted into the Five-Year Accelerated Dual-Degree Program. Accepted candidates into the program take six (6) credits of approved advanced graduate-level computer science courses during their fourth (senior) year while completing the undergraduate (major and general education) degree requirements. These will apply toward the minimum 30 credits required for the Master of Science in Computer Science. During the fifth year of study, students complete the remaining 24 credits of graduate-level courses; maintain the minimum GPA required in the graduate computer science major courses; complete the master’s degree requirements at an accelerated rate of 12 graduate credit hours per semester instead of typical nine (9) credits; and satisfy the graduate residence requirement. Summer research may be required depending on the nature of the students’ thesis research project.
Students receive both the undergraduate and the graduate degrees upon successful completion of the prescribed course of study and specified program requirements. Students must apply for candidacy for each degree at the times specified in the University catalogues for awarding of the Bachelor of Science and the Master of Science degrees. Students who do not finish the graduate portion of the degree program, for any reason, will be allowed to earn the bachelor’s degree once the undergraduate degree requirements are satisfied.
Admissions Requirements
Applicants to the Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science and Master’s of Computer Science must meet the General Admissions Requirements as published in this Catalog.
Student Learning Outcomes
Graduates of the Accelerated Dual Degree in Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Computer Science will be able to:
- Have communication skills sufficient to gain employment in an industrial environment.
- Identify and solve problems in computation and show capability in applying integrative algorithmic theories and data structures to solve them.
- Apply theoretical knowledge of computer science to determine state of the art performance in the areas of networking, information storage in databases, and human-computer-interface.
- Perform independent research in the field of Computer Science.
- Assess the hardware and software aspects of computer systems that support application software development.
- Collaboratively develop software in groups.
