The Five or Six Major Steps to Obtaining a Masters Degree from the School of Computing

This is the tldr; version of this page.

1. Find an advisor plus 2 committee members.
   • Advisor must be terminally degree'd
   • Committee must be Majority from school of Computing
   • Complete this prior to registering for CPTR 598/599 hours

2. Fill out the Application for Candidacy form here

   • Of course it must be signed by your advisor.
3. Complete 18 hours of graduate classes that apply to your graduate degree before you sign up for CPTR 597, 598, 599 (Practicum, Project or Thesis)
4. The practicum/project/thesis proposal presentation must be accepted before starting the last 3 hours of CPTR 597, CPTR 598, or CPTR 599. Students who have completed 3 hours of practicum/project/thesis but have not had their proposal presentation accepted are expected to take a minimum of 1 hour of CPTR 597, 598 or CPTR 599 each semester until they do.

5. Prepare a project/thesis proposal (template)

   • Scheduled 7 days prior to scheduled oral proposal examination

   • Final paper to committee 7 days prior to scheduled oral proposal examination.

   • Successfully complete oral proposal examination prior to starting the 4th credit hour of CPTR 598/599.

   • Oral presentation is 15-20 minutes.
6. Successfully prepare and defend your project/thesis report

   • Complete the Application for Defense form and handout your paper to the committee 10 days prior to the scheduled defense (which means you need to schedule the defense first).

   • Include a Signature Page (see template on MastersStudents) and get it signed by your committee members.

7. Prepend the signature page to your pdf paper and upload it to the library site

8. If you have a thesis, you are expected to publish a paper from that research in an approved, peer-reviewed conference proceedings or journal.

5 Year Master's Students Additional Issue

When you take your graduate class AND you are still an undergraduate, you must fill out a form to take graduate classes as an undergraduate or the school will re-classify you as a non-degree seeking graduate student. This will affect your FINANCIAL AID!!! SO DON'T IGNORE THIS!

You must fill out this form: Request to take Graduate Classes