Requirements for admission to the Master's program are as follows:

A Bachelor's Degree or equivalent in Computer Science from a regionally accredited institution.

A degree in a related field is acceptable if the applicant shows evidence of computer science background suitable for entry into the master's program as judged by the Graduate Committee.

Generally speaking, the minimum background is the equivalent of all prerequisites for the required graduate courses. (see Section 10)

'B' average or better in all course work attempted while registered as an upper-division student in the Bachelor's program, and a GRE general test score of 1000 (verbal and quantitative combined), with a minimum quantitative score of 600.

Three letters of recommendation from persons in a position to judge the applicant's potential success in graduate study.

Approval of the Graduate Committee.

Applicants whose native language is not English must score a total of 80 on the iBT TOEFL or 6.3 overall on the IELTS. TOEFL = Test of English as a Foreign Language (www.toefl.org). IELTS = International English Language Testing System (www.ielts.org).

A maximum of two courses may be transferred into the program from outside the University, subject to the approval of the Graduate Committee.

1. Required course work: 15 credits
   • CEN 5011 Advanced Software Engineering
   • COP 5614 Operating Systems
   • COP 5725 Principles of Database Management Systems
   • COT 5407 Introduction to Algorithms
   • COT 5420 Theory of Computation I
   
   Required courses must be completed with an average of "B" or higher, and only one course may receive a grade less than "B-".


2. 2. Elective course work:
   • a.non-thesis option: 15 credits of elective courses
   • b.thesis option: 9 credits of elective courses and 6 credits of master's thesis
   
   Elective courses can be selected from Graduate Course Offerings (Section 9). A maximum of 6 credits can be chosen from sections other than 9.1.1. Of these 6 credits, a maximum of 3 credits can be chosen from Section 9.2 (i.e. either a 3-credit Independent Study with a letter grade or a 3-credit coop course with a letter grade).
   Note: A student must comply with all University Graduate School requirements regarding enrollment and deadlines.

This option requires the completion of a Master's Thesis (6 credits) in addition to the eight graduate courses (24 credits). A student may commence work on the Master's thesis at any time.

The student must propose to the Chairperson of the Thesis Committee consisting of three members with graduate faculty status. The Thesis Advisor is the Chairperson of the Thesis Committee. University regulations require that the Chairperson of the Thesis Committee be a member of the School of Computing and Information Sciences. Form M-1 must be completed.

A thesis proposal should be submitted after the Thesis Committee has been approved by the Chairperson of the Graduate Committee. The proposal will be given by the Thesis Advisor to the student's Thesis Committee for review. Based on written recommendations of its members, the Thesis Committee will make a final decision. Upon acceptance of the proposal, Form M-2 will be completed, to indicate that both a committee and a proposal have been approved. Before the submission of M-2 form, the Graduate School requires the M.S. candidate to complete an on-line "Responsible Conduct of Research Certification" training course (http://www.ori.fiu.edu/responsibleConduct.html).

The purpose of the proposal is to convince the Committee that the chosen thesis topic and the student's approach have a reasonable chance of success. We want to minimize the chance that the thesis will be turned down when almost completed. In particular it should

• explain the basic idea of the thesis topic
• argue why that topic is important
• state what kind of results are expected
• make plausible that these results are sufficient for a Master's thesis and that they are obtainable within the given time frame with the available resources
• demonstrate the student's academic qualifications for doing the proposed work

The Master's thesis must be a written account of a critical and scholarly study in an area in computer science. The Thesis Committee will review it critically for both content and form. The thesis may consist of:

1. independent research work,
2. a critical study and analysis of known results that provide new significance and insights, or
3. a significant and constructive contribution to computer applications such as software development for important applications.

Admission Requirements

1. Current enrollment in the Bachelor's Degree program in Computer Science at FIU.
2. Completed at least 60 credits of coursework.
3. Current GPA must be 3.3 or higher.
4. GRE general test score of 1000 (verbal and quantitative combined), with as minimum quantitative score of 600.
5. International graduate student applicants whose native language is not English are required to submit a score for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or for the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). A total score of 80 on the iBT TOEFL or 6.3 overall on the IELTS is required.
6. Three letters of recommendation.
7. Approval of the Graduate Committee.

General Requirements The FIU Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science must be awarded before the Master’s degree.

Coursework:

Required Courses: Required courses must be completed with an average of "B" or higher, and only one course may receive a grade less than "B-".

• CEN 5011 Advanced Software Engineering
• COP 5614 Operating Systems
• COP 5725 Principles of Database Management Systems
• COT 5407 Introduction to Algorithms
• COT 5420 Theory of Computation I

Elective: 5 courses selected from the Graduate Course Offerings subject to the same rules for regular M.S. students described in Section 6.3.

Overlap: Up to 4 graduate courses (12 credits) may be used in satisfying both the Bachelor’s and Master’s degree requirements. The courses must be regular computer science graduate courses and must be approved by an undergraduate advisor to satisfy the Bachelor’s degree requirements.

Additional Graduate Courses before Completing a Bachelor’s Degree: A student in the accelerated M.S. program, or a “4 + 1” student, intending to take more than 4 graduate courses (12 credits) before completing a Bachelor’s degree must get pre-approval from the Dean of the Graduate School; otherwise, any additional graduate course cannot be used to satisfy the Master’s degree requirements.