Fast-track status enables students whose Computer Science education is already well under way when they enter the Ph.D. program (e.g., after receiving a Master's Degree in Computer Science from another institution) to take fewer courses and to get started sooner on research. Here's the way it works.
A student will be considered ``fast-track'' if, by the end of the first year of study, he or she has passed an Area examination, has passed six courses with grades of High Pass or Honors (or Sat in the case of CS--690/691), and has passed at least two Comprehensive Examinations. For such a student, one of the twelve required courses is waived for each Comprehensive Examination passed. Thus, a fast-track student who passes all four Comprehensive Examinations will have four courses waived and need take only CS--690 and CS--691 in the second year.
Students who expect to qualify as ``fast track'' may, with permission of the Director of Graduate Studies, begin the 690 project in the first or second term of study. Permission will generally be granted to exceptional students who also expect to pass all four Comprehensive Examinations in the first year. It may also be granted in those cases where the intended Area examination covers work done for the 690 project (which is now the case in Programming Languages and Systems). Such an early start on research will not affect the eventual attainment of fast-track status nor the number of courses that will be waived, both of which are determined as described above.