Graduate Programs in CS and CIS areas
General Information
- CS/CIS Graduate Advisors
- Graduate Program in Computer Science (CS)
- Graduate Program in Computer Information Systems (CIS)
New Computer Science Graduate Program (from Fall-2009 semester)
- A description of new CS Graduate Program
- New CS Graduate Program’s Structure
- Transition Table for current (2008-2009 acad. year) CS/CIS graduate students
- CS and CIS courses to be available during 2009-2010 academic year
Information for Prospective Students
- Bradley University Campus: A Virtual Tour
- Admission to the Graduate School
- International Student Admission
- Graduate School Financial Assistance and Forms
- Forms for Prospective Students and Applicants
- Graduate School at Bradley University
| Dr. Jiang-Bo Liu, Professor (office: BR 177; jiangbo@bradley.edu; phone: (309) 677-2386) |
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| Dr. Young Park, Professor (office: BR 175; young@bradley.edu; phone: (309) 677-2457) |
Graduate Program in Computer Science
In addition to satisfying all the Graduate School requirements for the degree, all candidates for the master's degree must satisfy the following departmental requirements:
- At least 33 hours of graduate-level coursework are needed. The course CS 502 *) does not count as part of the total number of hours needed.
- No "D" grades can be counted in the completion of requirements for the degree
*) Beginning with students who entered the MS degree program in the Fall semester of 2008, there is no 
separate Programming Test as a part of the graduation requirement for all CS and CIS graduate students. A Programming Test is a part of the newly developed CS502 “Advanced Programming” course examination. Students with a weaker academic record in computer programming that are admitted to the graduate program will be required to take CS502 course as their prerequisite.
Interested and qualified students are offered the option of writing a master's thesis. Students selecting this option are encouraged to choose an advisor and topic as early as possible in order to plan the thesis development and any needed supporting coursework. The following policies apply to theses:
- A minimum grade point average of 3.5 in computer science and computer information systems graduate courses is required for students enrolling in CS 699 (Thesis)
- No student may register for CS 699 until 18 hours of graduate courses have been completed in the Department
- Six credit hours of CS 699 are required and, upon completion, the thesis must be defended in an oral examination. No grade will be given for CS 699 until after the oral defense
- A written outline of the thesis project and a tentative schedule must be submitted to and approved by the Graduate Advisor and the Chair prior to the registration for CS 699.
Admission requirements and graduation requirements specific to computer science and computer information systems are given below. In addition, applicants must submit GRE General Test scores taken with the last five years. The applicant may request a GRE waiver under certain circumstances.
Note that prospective students who do not meet the conditions for admission may be admitted conditionally, in which case the department will prescribe a program for the removal of such admission conditions. Conditional status must be removed prior to graduation.
In addition to meeting all the general requirements of the Graduate School and of the Department as stated above, candidates for the master's degree in Computer Science must satisfy the following requirements.
- At least 27 of the 33 hours required must be in Computer Science courses. At most, six hours may be earned in approved courses other than those labeled CS.
- To satisfy the core (breadth) requirements, four courses must be taken, one from each pair given below (either by taking the course or showing evidence of the completion of an equivalent course elsewhere): CS 520 or CS 625, CS 590 or CS 591, CS 514 or CS 612, CS 561 or CS 670.
- To satisfy the depth requirements, must take two courses from one of the following three tracks: 1) Systems/Net Centric: CS 531, CS 532, CS635; 2) Software Engineering: CS 592, CS593, CS 690; 3) Intelligent Systems/Information Retrieval: CS 562, CS 563, CS 570.
For admission into the computer science program, a student must have completed discrete mathematics, at least two semesters of calculus, matrix or linear algebra, and at least one semester of calculus-based statistics; must have at least 15 hours of computer science coursework including knowledge of one structured or object-oriented programming language, elementary data structures, assembly language, advanced data structures, and introductory computer architecture; and must have approval of the Department.
Graduate Program in Computer Information Systems
In addition to satisfying all the general requirements of the Graduate School and of the Department, candidates for the master's degree in Computer Information Systems must satisfy the following requirements:
- At least 21 of the 33 hours required must be in computer information systems or computer science courses.
- A minimum of 9 hours must be taken in courses outside the Department. These courses must form a coherent program in an Applications area and must be approved by the graduate coordinator.
- The following core requirements must be met (either by taking the course or by showing evidence of having completed an equivalent course elsewhere): CIS 571, CIS 572, CIS 588, CIS 607, CS 592, and CS 670. (CS 531 and CS 590 are recommended).
The admission requirements for the Computer Information Systems program are one semester of calculus, one semester of calculus-based statistics, two semesters of accounting, one semester of finance, two semesters of programming and data structures in a structured or object-oriented programming language, and one semester of data communications.