MSACS Overview

Save Time and Money with Distance Learning
A graduate degree in computer science boosts earning power and career opportunities. The MSACS is perfect for the working professional in computing and IT, who is interested in obtaining a graduate degree in computer science concurrent with work and family commitments. All courses and class meetings are available on-campus, or remote, and are recorded for student convenience. Students will complete the program in 22 months (5 semesters including a summer semester).

The program offers students a true graduate-school experience, with high expectations and intensive learning. Students are expected to study hard, complete projects, master new technologies and new science, participate in discussions, and make presentations. The program offers opportunities to work on research projects and provides research assistantships to qualified students on a competitive basis. The program is designed as a part-time program, with two 3-hour courses each semester, plus additional research, project or electives.

Full Acceptance and Provisional Acceptance for qualified applicants with undergraduate degrees in a CS or closely related field will be fully accepted into the program without any required prerequisite-foundation courses. For qualified applicants with computing industry experience and degrees in fields other than computer science will be provisionally accepted into the program and will be required to take two of the three following 6000-level prerequisite-foundation courses at the discretion of the program director:

Fundamentals of Network and Computer Architecture and Theory
Fundamentals of Computer Programming with Data Structures
Fundamentals of Operating Systems

The 6000-level prerequisite-foundation courses will not count towards the MSACS degree. The applicant will need to make a B-grade or better in each prerequisite-foundation course before moving into the graduate level courses counted towards the MSACS degree. Work experience can selectively replace certain prerequisite-foundation courses at the discretion of the program director with demonstration of student competency in the knowledge area.

Full or Part-Time Status
The program is designed to accommodate the needs of the working professional, balancing a career with part-time study. For those students who need to have full-time status (9 graduate hours per Fall-Spring semester, 6 hours summer) additional hours are integrated into the student's schedule at no additional cost, without changing the time required to graduate.

Web-Based Instruction Delivery
Instruction is delivered both on campus in a conventional classroom, and at a distance, using web-based technologies. Students are allowed to attend lectures on campus, or remote and live. All lectures are also recorded, allowing students to view class, lecture, interactions with students, at their convenience. The recorded lectures are also a great resource for studying. Real-time distance interaction between the students and professor is supported using Voice-over-IP and online "chat". All in-class discussion goes out over the web interface, in is incorporated into the archived lecture. All courses meet in our technology equipped seminar room, in the Clendenin Computer Science building, room 3028.

Premium Program Paid-For Features

Outstanding Faculty
Innovative and modern topics
Flexible Distance Lectures
Archived Recorded Lectures
Laptop Computer
PDA or other mobile device
Robotics Kit (provided the student takes the robotics course)
Books and fees included
ACM Membership
Professional Certification (at a cost of $1000 or less) or Research opportunities
Embedded Microprocessors and components (provided the student takes the embedded systems course)