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M.S. Degree

Admission
1. COSC 4100, 4740, and 4780 courses are considered preparatory courses. Students who are admitted to the program will be asked to show proficiency in these courses, as well as in English. Those courses in which the student is not proficient will need to be (re)taken. Proficiency is shown by passing the course with a grade of B or better at UW.
2. The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is required.
3. All students must submit the usual application for Graduate admission available from the Graduate School along with Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores, college transcripts, and three letters of recommendation. For applicants whose native language is not English, the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) is required.
Application deadlines are: March 1 for Fall and October 1 for Spring.
M.S. Degree Requirements
1. Study plan (one of the following):
  - Thesis option (Plan A). The student must complete a minimum of 29 credit hours of course work, including:
    - At least two semesters of COSC 5000 (seminar), and
    - One semester of COSC 5050 (research writing).
    In addition, the student must complete a minimum of 4 hours of COSC 5960 (thesis research). At least two-thirds of the course work (20 hours) must consist of computer science department courses.
  - Non-thesis option (Plan B). The student must complete a minimum of 33 credit hours of course work, including:
    - at least two semesters of COSC 5000 (seminar), and
    - one semester of COSC 5050 (research writing).
    In addition, the student must complete a Plan B paper and pass the Graduate Examination offered by the department of computer science.
2. All students must complete COSC 5050 (Research Writing for Computer Science).
3. At least 15 credit hours applied to the degree program must be in courses offered by the computer science department, not including:
  - the 9 hours of preparatory courses (4100, 4740, and 4780)
  - COSC 5050
  - COSC 5000 (seminars)
  - individual projects and reading courses (e.g., 4010, 5010, 5020)
4. No more than six (6) credit hours from the 4000 level preparatory course work may be counted toward the total credit requirement.
  At most two (2) credit hours total from 4100, 4740, and 4780 may be counted toward an area requirement.
  
  All required preparatory course work will be listed in total hours required.
5. At least 15 hours applied to the degree program must be at the 5000-level, not including
  - COSC 5050
  - COSC 5000 (seminars)
  - individual projects and reading courses (e.g., 4010, 5010, 5020)
6. Required areas of study. The student must complete at least one 5000-level computer science course, not including seminar, individual projects, or reading courses, offered by the computer science department in the following areas:
  - Computer Theory
  - Parallel Computing and Systems
7. Breadth and depth requirement. The student must complete at least 8 hours of courses in each of two areas of areas of specialization in computer science. These two areas will be called major areas. The current subject areas in the Department of Computer Science include:
  - Computer Theory
  - Parallel Computing and Systems
  - Mathematical Applications and Modeling
  - Machine Intelligence
8. Final examination and paper defense. The Graduate Examination, which serves as the Ph.D. qualifying examination, will also be administered to Plan B Master's students, who will be required to pass two areas in order to receive their degrees. Passing criteria will be determined by the student's graduate committee.
  In addition, both Plan A and Plan B students are required to formally defend their papers before their graduate committee.
  
  Plan A students must give a public colloquium on their research prior to their formal defense.
A Master's Degree candidate should select an area of interest and consult with an appropriate faculty member regarding possible thesis or research paper topics. After agreement is reached regarding a topic, other members of the graduate supervisory committee will be chosen by the supervising professor in consultation with the degree candidate.

At least two Computer Science Department faculty members of professorial rank must be on a Master's student's examining committee.
Waiver of Degree Requirements
The following procedure should be followed to petition for the waiver of any Departmental graduate requirement:
1. Petition the advisor whose approval must be obtained.
2. The petition must then be approved by the Department's Graduate Committee by a vote for approval or a tie vote.
3. The petition must then be approved by the Department Chairman.
Probation, Reprimand and Dismissal
1. A graduate student will be placed on academic probation whenever their cumulative grade point average falls below 3.00. The student must raise the cumulative grade point average to a 3.00 or above by the end of the following Fall or Spring Semester, whichever occurs first, in order to be removed from probation. If the student fails to attain the 3.00 cumulative grade point average by the end of that following semester, the student will be dismissed from the graduate program.
2. For cases in which a graduate student has admitted to an act of academic dishonesty or has been found culpable through University procedures according to Unireg 802, the Department's Graduate Committee will meet with the appropriate faculty member and student in order to assess the severity of the act. Both the faculty member and the student will be afforded the opportunity to present their views and any information relevant to the act. The Graduate Committee may then take action by recommending that the student be terminated from graduate study in the Department (for flagrant violations) or that a letter of reprimand be sent to the student with a copy sent to the Dean of the Graduate School.