PhD Course Requirements (Pre-Fall 2019)

The doctoral degree includes breadth courses and depth courses. Depth courses should be closely related to the student’s research interests and should be intellectually distinct from breadth courses.

Breadth courses should cover a range of Computer Science topics outside the student’s research interests.

Breadth Requirement (15 credit hours)

Five 5000-level (not 6000- or 7000-) Computer Science courses must be taken within the Department of Computer Science, according to the following requirements:

• All five courses must have a grade B or better.
• All five courses must be taken within the first five semesters.
• All five courses must be listed on the Plan of Study.
• All five courses should preferably be from five different breadth areas outside of the student's research area.

For more information, visit the Graduate Breadth Courses page.

Note: Students must obtain approval from Graduate Committee for any exception to these requirements.

CSCI 6000: Introduction to the Computer Science PhD Program is a required course for all new PhD students and must be taken in the first semester of joining the program.

Depth Requirement (15 credit hours)

Fifteen credit hours of graduate level courses, from any department, organized in support of the student’s chosen research focus and according to the following requirements:

• All courses must be listed on the Plan of Study.

All courses must have a grade of B- or better.