The terminal Master's Program of graduate study is normally completed in one year, but a part-time program may be spread over as long as four years. To qualify for the Master of Science degree, the student must pass eight courses at the 500-level or above from an approved list. An average grade of at least HIGH PASS is required, with at least one grade of HONORS.
A one-term Independent Project course (CS--690 or CS--691) may be applied towards the Master's degree with prior permission of the Director of Graduate Studies, provided that a faculty member is willing to supervise the project. Faculty are under no obligation to supervise independent projects for Master's students, and the expectation should be that a Master's student will not do an Independent Project.
Advanced courses in other departments that involve concepts from computer science and are particularly relevant to an individual program may, with permission of the Director of Graduate Studies, be counted towards the degree. Generally at most two such courses may be used to satisfy the requirements of the Master's Program. Here an advanced course is generally one with at least one intermediate course as a prerequisite, and an intermediate course is generally one with at least one (introductory) course as a prerequisite.