Information for:

MSCS Program Requirements

Intermediate Core

The following five courses are all required if they have not already been completed at the undergraduate level. The required courses in this category will be determined by the MSCS Graduate Admissions Committee, after a review of your transcripts and consultation with you.

• CSC 502 Advanced Programming Methods
• CSC 540 Software Engineering
• CSC 560 Operating Systems
• CSC 564 Design and Analysis of Algorithms
• CSC 585 Theory of Computation

Advanced Core

The following four courses are all required.

• CSC 601 Advanced Programming Workshop
• CSC 640 Advanced Software Engineering
• CSC 660 Advanced Operating Systems
• CSC 685 Logic and Computation

Electives

Non-Thesis Option: Students electing the non-thesis option must take 15 credit hours of the courses below, at least 9 hours of which must be at the 600-level.

Thesis Option: Students electing the thesis option must take 9 credit hours from the courses below, at least 3 hours of which are at the 600-level. CSC 699 cannot be applied to a Masters degree in the thesis option. Thesis students will also enroll in CSC 691 (Thesis Direction) for 6 credit hours. Learn more.

These courses must be taken in graduate status. All are 3 credit hours, unless otherwise noted.

• CSC 507 Concepts of Programming Languages
• CSC 510 Compiler Construction
• CSC 525 Artificial Intelligence
• CSC 533 Computer Networks
• CSC 550 Database Management Systems
• CSC 562 Computer Architecture
• CSC 580 Computer Graphics
• CSC 582 Computer Security
• CSC 593 Research Seminar in CS (1-3 hrs)
• CSC 594 Intermediate Graduate Topics in CS
• CSC 625 Advanced Artificial Intelligence
• CSC 633 Advanced Computer Networks
• CSC 645 Software Interfaces and Human Factors
• CSC 650 Advanced Database Systems
• CSC 666 Secure Software Engineering
• CSC 670 Social Implications of Computing
• CSC 680 Advanced Computer Graphics
• CSC 682 Cryptography and Computer Security
• CSC 694 Advanced Topics In Computer Science
• CSC 699 Directed Study (1-3 hrs)

Transfer Credit

Students may transfer up to 9 semester hours of appropriate, acceptable graduate coursework from other institutions. A student must have earned a minimum grade of B in such courses. These courses must be deemed appropriate to the student's program of study at the time of admission into the program by the department chair on the advice of the director. Transfer of graduate credit must be completed before students earn 12 semester hours at NKU.

Academic Standing

A GPA of at least 3.00 must be maintained for all courses taken with graduate standing. At most two C grades can be counted toward the degree. A course may be repeated only once, and only two courses may be repeated. Only courses with a grade of C or below can be repeated; only the repeat grade is used in GPA determination. Students whose GPA falls below 3.00 will be placed on probation; those remaining on probation for more than 9 semester hours of coursework will be dropped from the program.