Program: Computer Science, BS - University of Pittsburgh

Major Requirements

The computer science major requires 40 credits in computer science courses and an additional 11-12 credits in mathematics and/or statistics as detailed below:

1. A minimum of 16 credits must be satisfactorily completed in the following five core courses:

CS 0401 - INTRMEDT PROGRMMING USING JAVA
CS 0441 - DISCRETE STRUCTURES FOR CS
CS 0445 - DATA STRUCTURES
CS 0447 - COMPUTR ORGZTN & ASSMBLY LANG
CS 0449 - INTRO TO SYSTEMS SOFTWARE

Note:

Students should have some programming experience (usually acquired in high school) before taking CS 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 - INTRO TO COMPUTER PROGRAMMING , as preparation.

2. Nine credits in these three upper-level required courses:

CS 1501 - ALGORITHM IMPLEMENTATION
CS 1502 - FORMAL METHODS IN COMPUTER SCI
CS 1550 - INTRO TO OPERATING SYSTEMS

3. Fifteen additional credits in upper-level courses (numbered 1000) must also be completed

Internships, directed studies, CS 1680 , CS 1590 and co-op courses (see below) may not be used to satisfy this requirement.

4. A minimum of 12 credits in mathematics must be completed as follows:

MATH 0220 - ANALYTC GEOMETRY & CALCULUS 1
MATH 0230 - ANALYTC GEOMETRY & CALCULUS 2
STAT 1000 - APPLIED STATISTICAL METHODS or
STAT 1100 - STAT & PROBLTY FOR BUS MGT or
STAT 1151 - INTRODUCTION TO PROBABILITY

Note:

Students should complete their required mathematics courses early. Typically, MATH 0220 would be completed in the freshman year. Strong students may elect also to take MATH 1180 - LINEAR ALGEBRA 1 .

Additional rules and requirements for the major in computer science are as follows:

A grade of C or better in all computer science and mathematics, and statistics courses is required for graduation. All computer science courses for the major must be taken for a letter grade, while required mathematics courses may be taken with the S/NC option.
Some computer science courses that fulfill the departmental writing (W course) requirement will be offered each term.
A 12-credit related area may be completed in approved mathematics and/or statistics courses. Other options include economics, business, chemistry, physics, psychology, or philosophy.
To graduate with honors, a computer science major must complete one additional upper-level course and have a GPA of at least 3.50 in major courses, as well as an overall GPA of at least 3.25.