Computer Science, BS

Satisfactory/No-Credit (S/NC) Grade Options

Students should check with their academic advisors before deciding to take a course S/NC (formerly the S/N option). Beyond the School’s Regulations for students enrolling in courses with the S/NC grade option, the Department of Computer Science imposes the following rules:

• All computer science courses for the major (core and upper-level courses) must be taken for a letter grade.
• Required mathematics courses may be taken with the S/NC option.

Before deciding on the grading system for a course, students should be sure that their decision will not adversely affect their plans for a major. They must discuss this decision with their advisor PRIOR to enrolling and selecting the S/NC grade option.

Individual Course Grades

All computer science courses for the major (core and upper-level courses) must be completed with a C grade or better to count for the CS major. ANY course taken to satisfy a major requirement, including MATH courses required by the major, for which only a C- grade or lower is received, must be repeated. If a grade of C- or lower is earned in a prerequisite course, the course must be repeated before the higher-level course may be taken.

Core Courses

Students must satisfactorily complete the following eight core courses:

• 3-Course Sequence on programming, data structures, and algorithms.

• CMPINF 0401 - INTERMEDIATE PROGRAMMING *
• CS 0445 - ALGORITHMS AND DATA STRUCTURES 1
• CS 1501 - ALGORITHMS AND DATA STRUCTURES 2

• 2-Course Sequence on systems.

• CS 0447 - COMPUTER ORGANIZATION AND ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE
• CS 0449 - INTRODUCTION TO SYSTEMS SOFTWARE

• 2-Course Sequence on discrete math and theory.

• CS 0441 - DISCRETE STRUCTURES FOR CS
• CS 1502 - FORMAL METHODS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

• 1 Course on probability and statistics with computer science applications.

• CS 1503 - MATHEMATICAL FOUNDATIONS OF MACHINE LEARNING **

• *Students should have some programming experience (usually acquired in high school) before taking CMPINF 0401 . Any high school course that includes the writing of several Pascal, C++, or Java programs would be sufficient. It is also possible to take one of the department’s service courses, such as CS 0007 , as preparation. Preparatory classes of this nature do not count toward the student’s major requirements.

   

  **Students pursuing CS and a second major in in Data Science, Physics and Quantum Computing, and Computational Biology have options regarding the probability and statistics course. These students should discuss this requirement with their academic advisor.

Upper-Level Elective Courses

In addition, students must complete 18 credits or six courses of upper-level electives (numbered 1500 or higher).
 
Internships, directed studies, capstone courses and co-op courses may not be used to satisfy this requirement (see Capstone Experience section for details).

Required Mathematics Courses

A minimum of seven credits in mathematics must be completed as follows:

• MATH 0220 - ANALYTIC GEOMETRY AND CALCULUS 1
• MATH 0280 - INTRO TO MATRICES & LINEAR ALG

• Note: Students should complete their required mathematics courses early since there are pre- or co-requisites for other courses in the curriculum. Typically, MATH 0220  would be completed in the freshman year. Students may elect to take MATH 1180 - LINEAR ALGEBRA 1  as an alternative to MATH 0280 .

Capstone Experience

All Computer Science majors must complete a capstone experience prior to graduation. This experience may be satisfied in several ways including:

• Completion of an approved 3-credit academic internship
• Completion of an approved 3-credit directed research project
• Completion of a capstone designated course
• Completion of at least 2 rotations of an approved co-op

• Students are allowed to complete more than one capstone experience but a capstone course may NOT be used in place of a CS Upper-Level Elective course.

• Course catalog numbers for capstone options are:

• CS 1900 - INTERNSHIP
• CS 1906 - COMPUTER SCIENCE COOPERATIVE PROGRAM
• CS 1950 - DIRECTED RESEARCH: CAPSTONE
• CS 1980 - TEAM PROJECT DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION

Sample Plan of Study

Below is a sample plan for students in the Computer Science Major in the School of Computing and Information. Note that there are many paths through the Computer Science major and any student’s path may differ from the one shown. Generally, our advisors will help each student to customize their career plan.

Prior to admission, this plan assumes that a student has:

• Completed an introductory programming course
• Satisfied the ENGCMP 0200 enrollment requirement with an SAT score equivalent to “Workshop in Composition (ENGCMP 0150)”
• A sufficient mathematics background to satisfy the enrollment requirement for MATH 0220 through either an SAT score or ALEKS placement results.

^{Note 1: GER = General Education Requirement, UL = Upper-level}

^{Note 2: Electives may be used for the SCI requirement of a secondary field of study (ex: minor, certificate, etc.).}

^{Note 3: One course must satisfy the Diversity Requirement.}

^{Note 4: CS UL 7 may be used for CS Department Honors.}