The program involves the completion of 36 units of credit. Graduate
students undertake 9 courses, or 8 courses and a master's thesis (each
course is 4 units). Graduate students who have not met the Foundation
Requirements may need to complete additional coursework at USF. The
courses must be chosen as follows:
- Three Core Courses
- One Masters Project
- Five Electives from 200/300/400/600
- One can be 200 with permission of Graduate Advisor
- Two must be 600
Two electives may be used to satisfy foundational requirements or to shore up areas of weakness.
MSCS students take one course from each of the core areas:
Theory and Languages (1 course):
CS 652 Programming Language Principles
CS 673 Algorithms
Systems (1 course):
CS 635 Advanced Systems Programming
CS 636 Operating Systems
Parallel and Distributed Computing (1 course):
CS 625 Parallel and Distributed Computing
CS 682 Distributed Software Development
Graduate Course Offerings
(see course descriptions )
Advanced Undergraduate Courses (as Graduate Electives)
(see course descriptions beginning at CS 411)
The Master's degree requires that all students undertake a Master's
project. The project can be either a sponsored project for a commercial
concern or other institution or a research project. In either case, the
project will result in the specification, design, and development of a
significant software system with full documentation, an oral
presentation to the university community, and a written report. The
Master's Project is offered every semester .
The thesis is not required and is reserved for exceptional students.
It is not a substitute for the Master's Project, and is normally a
continuation of work undertaken in a Master's Project.
The United States excels at entrepreneurship, and USF claims one of the top entrepreneurial business schools in the nation. Ranked in the Top Tier of University Entrepreneurship Programs by Entrepreneur magazine and in the Top 25 of "America's Most Entrepreneurial Campuses" by Forbes and Princeton Review - the M.S. in Computer Science Program has joined with USF's MBA Entrepreneurship Program to offer the classic M.S. in Computer Science with an emphasis in Entrepreneurship.
Students enrolled in the entrepreneurship emphasis follow a standard MSCS degree, but take their electives in the top tier
Entrepreneurship Program from the business school alongside MBA students. In addition, students will participate in the Silicon Valley Immersions program. This program provides unique access to the Silicon Valley's entrepreneurial ecosystem through a one to four week immersion opportunity.
The computer science graduate school at USF now offers a Practicum Option that allows students to gain practical paid work experience in the Silicon Valley while going to school. Students approved for the Practicum Option typically earn between $20 and $40 per hour, which makes school much easier to afford. Students take internships with companies such as BEA, Adobe, SAP, Intel, Technorati, Lawrence Berkeley Lab, and Internet Archive.
The average grade of all courses taken to fulfill the M.S. degree requirements must be B (3.0) or better. Any semester in which the students GPA drops below 3.0, that are placed on probation. After a second semester on probation, the university will move to dismiss them from the program. Those students with fellowships must maintain a 3.3 GPA. At the close of the semester in which the student's GPA drops below 3.3, that student immediately loses any promised fellowship money.
