Degree Requirements
Computer Science M.S.
All graduate students must conform to the requirements from the graduate school. The graduate school's requirements can be found here:
http://www.uno.edu/academics/grad/masters-degree-requirements
In addition, the graduate students must also meet the following program-specific requirements.
Coursework and Grade Requirements
- For non-thesis MS, thirty-six (36) credit-hours are required, no more than 15 of which may be at the 5000 level.
- For thesis-based MS, thirty (30) credit-hours are required, no more than six (06) of which may be thesis credit. No more than 12 credit-hours may be at the 5000 level.
All graduate students completing the master's degree must maintain a minimum of B grade in all 5000-level courses. For 6000-level courses, at most one course with a C grade can be counted towards degree, rest other 6000-level courses must have a B grade or higher to be counted towards degree. A minimum 3.0 average must be maintained in all courses (excluding thesis research) taken to satisfy the degree requirements.
Breadth, Depth, and Background Requirements
All candidates for the master’s degree must satisfy the following background, breadth, and depth requirements. No course may be counted toward the satisfaction of more than one of these requirements.
| Background requirement | The equivalent of Computer Sciences 4401 and 4501. Students who have not completed this requirement prior to enrollment are required to do so, for credit, as part of their curricula. |
| Breadth requirement | Students must take one 6000-level course that counts toward the degree requirements (three semester hours) in each of three different areas of study. |
| Depth requirement | Students must take three additional courses that count toward the degree requirements (nine semester hours), of which at least two must be at the 6000-level. All courses must belong to the same area of study. These selections must be different from the ones chosen to fulfill the breadth requirement. |
Depending on the choice of thesis-based or non-thesis MS, a student must consult the thesis-based MS checklist or the non-thesis MS checklist for further details about the requirements.
Transfer of Credits
Upon prior departmental approval, it may be possible to transfer eligible credits (for courses taken in other departments in UNO or other universities) to count towards degree requirements. Such transferred credits cannot be used to satisfy breadth or depth requirements. No courses with C or lower grades will be considered for credit transfer.
- For non-thesis MS, up to nine credit-hours may be transferred.
- For thesis-based MS, up to six credit-hours may be transferred.
To have a non-CS graduate course to be counted towards degree, a student must seek permission from the graduate coordinator in advance by writing a convincing memo to the graduate coordinator with the following parts:
- course number, title, description, syllabus
- justification that the non-CS course is related to the student's learning in computer science.