The Fifth Year Masters Program

Requirements

The Fifth Year Masters Program is only for students receiving a Bachelor in Computer Science degree from Carnegie Mellon University. The Computer Science Department does not have any other Masters programs. There are other Masters programs offered by other units within the School of Computer Science. Our Ph.D program is a "direct Ph.D" program, meaning the students can enter having a Bachelors degree.

Description

The Fifth Year Masters Program is a research-oriented Masters degree program. One of the primary motivations for the Fifth Year Masters Program is to encourage our very brightest undergraduates to become more involved with research as quickly as possible and to broaden their often hectic undergraduate experience. Many of our students do get involved with research, even while they are still undergraduates, and many of them find that they will be interested in research as they learn more about it. We also want to encourage a select group of students to go on to graduate school by providing them with an additional qualification and period of study beyond the undergraduate degree.

The normal duration of the program is 12 months, including one normal academic year and one summer. The most common scenario will be for students to start working on a research project during the summer after their senior year, and continue on with that project while taking classes during the academic year.Students can only start the FifthYear Masters program after they have received their Bachelor of Science in Computer Science.

Normally, a student's advisor will be the faculty member who sponsored the student's admission. The rationale for this is that the student has already gotten a headstart working with that faculty member, and that faculty member has gone through the effort to work with that student and identify them as being talented.

Curriculum

Students will take a minimum of 48 units worth of graduate courses in the School of Computer Science. To satisfy the breadth requirement, students should take at least two "star" courses in different areas in computer science. The remaining units (a minimum of 24) should consist of electives; these are typically used to gain depth in the student's research area. The elective units can be satisfied using any course at the 700 level and up in the School of Computer Science; with prior approval, it may also be possible to use courses outside of SCS. Students must receive a grade of A or B in each of the courses; no credit will be given for grades of C or below. The exact program for each student depends on courses already taken as an undergraduate. Students should discuss their course selection with their advisor.

Students must also complete a significant research project as part of their degree resulting in a thesis (48 units). The thesis research should result in a thesis document and an oral presentation summarizing the results of the student's project. Both the thesis document and presentation should be approved by the student's advisor and a "reader", a second faculty member familiar with the student's research area.

• MS Thesis Presentation Checklist