Course Requirements

Students who opt to complete a thesis must complete 24 credits, and those who choose not to complete a thesis must complete 32 credits.

• CSCI 649 - Computational Methods 3
• CSCI 653 - Analysis of Algorithms 3
• At least one additional 600-level course
• Students must satisfactorily complete at least one graduate course from CSCI 6x8 or a course from outside the Computer Science Department
• At most one course from either CSCI 6x8 or a graduate course from outside the department can be used to satisfy the MS degree requirements

A student cannot use the following courses to satisfy degree requirements:

• CSCI 666 - Directed Studies (1-12) (Hours and credits to be arranged)
• CSCI 685 - Colloquium (0-2)
• CSCI 690 - Readings in Computer Science (1, 2, or 3 credits, depending on the material covered)

• MS Thesis option students cannot count CSCI 690 (or CSCI 790) as indicated above. However, students taking the coursework route can count at most one offering of either CSCI 690 or CSCI 790 (not both).

• Not more than 12 credits from courses numbered below 600 may be counted toward the degree

Thesis Requirement

Students may choose to write a thesis or not.

Students who choose the thesis option must complete CSCI 700, M.S. Thesis, in addition to 24 credit hours, and defend their thesis at an oral examination, open to the faculty and to whomever else the department may invite.

Students who do not choose the thesis option must include CSCI 710, Research Project, as part of their 32 credit hours.

Students electing to satisfy M.S. requirements by taking 24 credits and writing a thesis may not count credits received in 690 toward the required 24. Students electing to satisfy M.S. requirements by taking 32 credits may count credits received in only one offering of 690 toward the required 32.

Comprehensive Exam Requirement

See the Graduate Regulations.

Foreign Language Requirement

There is no foreign language requirement.

Residence Requirement

See the Graduate Regulations.

Computational Science Cluster Certification

Each student will have a two-person computational science advisory committee within the department to advise the student about what is needed to meet the certification requirements of the Computational Science Cluster.

Satisfactory Progress

To be eligible to graduate, all students must achieve a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale in all courses undertaken for graduate credit at William & Mary after admission to a degree program.  Students who have taken twelve or more credits in courses leading to a graduate degree must maintain a minimum grade point average of 3.0. Students with less than a 3.0 average may appeal in writing to the department’s Committee on Admission, Retention, and Financial Aid to remain in the graduate program. The committee normally rejects appeals from students with less than a 2.75 grade point average. No credit toward a degree will be allowed for a course in which a student receives a grade below C (grade point = 2.0).