Undergraduate Admission

The Department of Systems and Computer Science shares the same policy for admission with the entire School of Engineering and Computer Science. The admission policy is as follows:

Prospective students should submit an application, an official transcript of the secondary school record and character recommendations from the school principal or counselor. An applicant must be a graduate of a secondary school or have equivalent credentials. The secondary school program should consist of at least 15 units including the following minimum units: English, 3; algebra, 2; geometry, 1; trigonometry, 1; history, or civics, 1; and science, 2. A unit represents one year of study in any subject in a secondary school.

Applicants must furnish the results of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT I and II in Mathematics). Admission is based on an evaluation of the academic record, test scores and letters of recommendation. Transfer students must have completed at least 12 semester hours of course work including mathematics and science. International applicants must submit a transcript of all work taken at other institutions (secondary and collegiate) and must pass the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) with a cumulative score of 550 or better.

Graduate Admission

1. At least one year of programming courses.
2. Working knowledge of at least two high level programming languages. At least one of these languages should be from a structured language such as those in the group C, C++, Java, Pascal, Modula-2, Ada, or similar.
3. A course in data structures in which the student is taught the basic data structures of linked lists, stacks, queues, and trees. The student should have extensive experience in the writing of programs which implement algorithms for manipulating these data structures.
4. An additional course involving machine organization with a strong focus on operating systems. This requirement can be fulfilled by a course in operating systems, assembly language programming, systems programming, computer architecture, or similar.
5. At least one course in computer science having the data structures course as a prerequisite. This requirement can be met by the course presented as meeting requirement #4 or by numerical analysis.
6. One year of calculus.
7. Two semesters of upper level courses in differential equations, linear algebra, abstract algebra, discrete mathematics, probability, or statistics. The courses should have calculus as a prerequisite.
8. Applicants should also meet all requirements of the graduate school. In particular they should have grade point averages of B.

NOTE: Students who do not meet all of the provisions indicated above may be provisionally admitted to the graduate program if they show promise of being able to complete the MS program within a reasonable time. Students admitted provisionally should recognize that it will take them considerably longer to obtain a graduate degree because of the need to take some of the basic courses described above. Students should also recognize that many of these courses are to be taken sequentially. Thus a student without any programming courses may need as two years before he or she is able to begin graduate courses.

To obtain information on applications, tuition, financial aid, or housing, visit the web site for the College of Engineering, Architecture and Computer Sciences (CEACS) Office of Student Services.

We encourage prospective students to visit our beautiful campus and meet with our distinguished faculty and students. Feel free to contact us with further questions or to schedule a visit.