Catalog Navigator : Degree Requirements

The master of science (M.S.) program requires the completion of 30 credits with the following options:

Coursework option: All 30 credits obtained through coursework alone. Students using this option must complete a comprehensive examination in three subject areas chosen after consulting with the graduate director.

Project option: 27 credits of coursework and the completion of a master's project (3 credits) under the guidance of a faculty member.

Thesis option: 24 credits of coursework and the completion of a two-semester-long sequence of master's thesis (3+3 credits) under the guidance of a faculty member.

Coursework consists of a common core of four required courses and, depending on the option chosen, between four to six elective courses. With prior approval from the graduate director, students may take up to two relevant elective graduate courses either from other departments at Rutgers University, or from other schools at Rutgers, reflecting the interdisciplinary emphasis of the program and the interdisciplinary trends driving modern computer science.

Admitted students whose undergraduate degrees are not in computer science will be required to take up to two background (deficiency) courses on programming and data structures/algorithms if they have not taken equivalent courses in their bachelor's degrees. Credits from deficiency courses do not count toward the 30 credits required for the M.S. program.

Core courses (12 credits, choose any four courses from the following)

56:198:541 Distributed and Cloud Computing (3)

56:198:551 Database Systems (3)

56:198:554 Machine Learning (3)

56:198:561 Optimization Methods (3)

56:198:562 Big Data Algorithms (3)

56:198:567 Applied Probability (3)

Elective courses (four to six courses, 12-18 credits)

The following courses may be taken as elective courses for the M.S. program. Note: Students will only be permitted to transfer up to 6 credits of graduate coursework in courses taken outside of the Graduate School-Camden (school code 56).

Graduate School-Camden

56:198:514 Artificial Intelligence
56:198:523 Software Engineering
56:198:546 Computer Networks
56:198:547 Network Security
56:198:573 Computational Geometry
56:198:575 Cryptography and Computer Security
56:198:576 Theory of Computation
56:198:581 Numerical Methods
56:198:697 Computer Science Internship
56:121:550 Bioinformatics
56:121:555 Cheminformatics

School of Business-Camden

53:716:502 Business Analytics

53:716:504 Management Science

Appropriate 500-level and above computer science courses offered at any of the Rutgers campuses may be taken only when approved on a case-by-case basis by the graduate director.

Project (3 credits)

Students will design, implement, and demonstrate a significant software project under the supervision of a faculty adviser.

56:198:693 Masters Project

Background (deficiency) courses

56:198:500 Introduction to Programming for Computational Scientists (3)
56:198:501 Data Structures and Algorithmic Problem Solving in Python (3)

Thesis (6 credits)

Students will conduct a research project and write a master's thesis under the supervision of a faculty adviser. Thesis work will be carried out over two consecutive semesters (3 credits per semester). At the end of the second semester, the thesis and an oral presentation of the thesis project will be assessed by a committee of graduate faculty members.

56:198:701 Research in Computer Science
56:198:702 Research in Computer Science

Graduation Requirements

Minimum of 30 credits to be completed, which may include 3 project credits or 6 thesis credits if the corresponding option is chosen.

Grade Requirements: To graduate, the student must receive a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better in the required 30 graduate credits. No more than 9 credits with grades of C or C+ may be used in meeting the requirements of the master's degree.

Thesis Requirements: The 6 thesis credits must receive a grade of B or better. All thesis work must be completed and defended by the end of the second semester of registration for thesis credits. In the event that the thesis defense in not successful, the candidate will be granted a one-month extension to complete and defend the thesis again. If the second attempt is also unsuccessful, the candidate will receive a C grade on all 6 thesis credits. The candidate will then have the option of completing 6 additional credits through coursework. In this case, the requirement that no more than 9 credits with grades of C or C+ are counted toward the master's degree implies that 27 of the 30 nonthesis credits must have a grade of B or better.