CSC-MS - Computer Science

The program is designed to provide advanced education in this rapidly evolving and challenging discipline. It serves those students who wish to increase their professional competence for business, industry, and research and development laboratories, as well as those students who wish to enter careers in research and teaching. Students may continue in doctoral programs in computer science including the CUNY Graduate Center’s Ph.D. Program in Computer Science in which CSI participates.

All students are required to take 10 graduate courses (30 credits). These include three foundation courses, and seven additional Computer Science graduate courses. The three foundation courses cover theoretical computer science, advanced operating systems, computer architecture/parallel programming. Courses to meet the remaining requirements are chosen in consultation with the graduate program coordinator to create a program that meets the needs of the individual student.

Any other registered CSI graduate course in computer science shall be counted as an elective for the purposes of fulfilling the MS in Computer Science degree requirements, with the following exceptions: those courses specifically identified as computing for teachers or other computer science teacher education courses or those courses identified as graduate proficiency courses.

Double Counting Policy 

Undergraduate students majoring in Computer Science or Computer Science/Mathematics and satisfying the following criteria may be granted permission to take up to three graduate courses at undergraduate tuition to be counted towards their bachelor’s degree. These courses may be used only to substitute for 400 level Computer Science elective courses (CSC designation). These graduate courses will be double-counted toward their master’s degree. This allows students to earn both the bachelor’s and the master’s degrees in five years. 

Criteria: 

• Current enrollment in bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or  Computer Science / Mathematics at CSI and successful completion of three years of study with 90 or more earned credits.  

• Cumulative GPA 3.3 or above. 

• Two letters of recommendation, at least one from a full-time CSI Computer Science faculty under whom the applicant has studied.  

• Permissions from the course instructor, the coordinator of the graduate program, and the department chairperson. 

• Application for admission and conditional acceptance to the Computer Science graduate program 

Upon completion of this program:

• Students will have graduate level knowledge of the core principles of computer science and significant knowledge and understanding of a specialized subject area.

• Students will have the skills that make them qualified and competitive members of the workforce.

• Students will have the skills necessary to adapt in an evolving discipline.

• Students will have the necessary background to continue in Doctoral Programs in CS or related disciplines.