Frequently Asked Questions
Applying to the MS Program in Computer Science

1. What financial support is available from the department?
2. With my academic record, will I be admitted?
3. What is the minimum GRE score score required for admission?
4. What is the minimum TOEFL score required for admission?
5. What  is the required background for admission?
6. Do you have provisional or conditional admittance?
7. What are the tuition costs?
8. How do I apply for admission?
9. Can I apply after the published deadline?
10. I have a problem relating to the application process, for example test scores are not showing as received.  What should I do?
11.  I am currently at another US school and wish to transfer to UNC-Charlotte.  Can I transfer the courses?
12. Can I apply to start in summer session?

FAQs after being admitted, see here

1. What financial support is available from the department?

Financial aid: The department does not offer financial aid based upon need. Contact the financial aid office of the university (http://finaid.uncc.edu/Index.html)  for such assistance. 

Departmental Teaching Assistantships: The department usually supports a few departmental teaching assistants each year.
Teaching assistants are selected for certain courses. Currently, there is no application process for teaching assistantships.  ALL students are considered automatically  for teaching assistantships at the beginning of each semester.  No application form is required. Please do not submit an application form or email requesting a departmental teaching assistantship.

The graduate coordinator will only nominate a student for a departmental TA position if the student has a recomendation from a CS faculty member and the student is taking, or intends to take, the thesis option in the Computer Science MS program .

Departmental Grader positions: The department usually supports a few grader positions each year. The application process for graders is described here.

The department does not offer departmental teaching assistantships/grader positions to MS students prior to their arrival for visa application purposes.  The best way to get support is to align yourself with a particular faculty and their interests after you arrive and demonstrate your skills by doing well in their courses.

Departmental research assistantships: Research assistantships are usually associated with faculty research projects with external funding.  Contact individual faculty regarding these positions. Usually students need to take courses from the faculty and faculty know the students and their work. Students need to be interested in research, and typically would do the thesis option.

Tuition remissions: A few tuition remissions are given by the Graduate school from departmental nominations based upon high merit, but there is a graduate school requirement that all nominations first have an assistantship (not a grader position). Once you have an assistantship,  your faculty supervisor may nominate you. The department will only nominate a student who has an assistantship within the Department of Computer Science and with a strong recommendation from a  faculty member.   Research assistants take precedence.

Campus employment opportunities:  The University has over 22,000 students and the almost 1000-acre campus has many opportunities for on-campus employment.  The University Career Center can also help find local employment.

Internships:  Computer Science internships are a very good approach for obtaining paid practical training and often leads to a permanent position after graduation.  Internships can be done through the University Career Center, which provides company contacts (or can be done through the department although in that case you are responsible for finding the company see http://www.cs.uncc.edu/~abw/MSprogram/ITCS6490procedure.html)

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2. With my academic record, will I be admitted?

In general, the MS CS graduate coordinator cannot comment on a particular academic record prior to the complete application package submitted to the university as many factors need to be considered including reference letters.  Answers to 3, 4, 5 below provide some guidelines.


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3.   What is the minimum GRE score score required for admission?

There is no published minimum score for the GRE test as the complete academic record is considered. However, it should be good. Our admitted students generally have a GRE-Q score of greater than 700, but we look at the overall record in our admission recommendations.  (The GRE general test is required. The subject test is not necessary.)


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4. 
What is the minimum TOEFL score score required for admission?

The minimum TOEFL score is set  by the university at 83 (Internet based) and is required for International students from non-English-speaking countries.   This is a firm university requirement that is never waived.
(The minimum score for the IELTS, as an alternative to the TOEFL, is 6.5.  For more information, see  http://graduateschool.uncc.edu/application-requirements/test-scores.html)

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5.  What  is the required background for admission?

The academic requirements are described at http://www.coit.uncc.edu/cs/site/ms/ms_admissions_reqs.cfm.  See here for the correspondence to UNCC courses.

Generally we are looking for applicants with an undergraduate degree in Computer Science, or closely related with at least two years of Computer Science courses.

Applicants must have an undergraduate grade point average of at least 2.8 (on a 4.0 point scale) and a junior/senior GPA of at least 3.0.  For those applicants whose university does not compute a GPA, the graduate school now asks the candidate to compute the equivalent GPA based upon their transcripts or have an external body perform this calculation.  We will check the reported GPA. Typically, accepted applicants have a computed GPA greater than 3.0.

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6. Do you have provisional or conditional admittance?

No. The university does not have a formal mechanism to admit students without the required academic record.  There is no possibility of being admitted without GRE test scores (or TOEFL if required). Very occasionally, students of extremely high merit are admitted with certain deficiencies in Computer Science and/or Mathematics and are required to take additional courses after admission to make up for the
deficiencies.

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7. What are the tuition costs?

See http://studentaccounts.uncc.edu/TuitionAndFees.html

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8. How do I apply for admission?

All applications are done on-line, see: http://graduateschool.uncc.edu/admissions/apply-now.html.  The application is only forwarded to the MS CS graduate coordinator when  the application is complete.

Statement of purpose: The application requires a short statement of purpose.  Please include your Computer Science interests. This  information will be used to select a suitable academic adviser although this is not always possible, especially in popular areas.  You may wish to identify a few UNCC Computer Science faculty members.

GPA:  You are required to report a GPA see http://graduateschool.uncc.edu/application-requirements/gpa.html. If you need to compute your GPA and it is not accurate or you do not report any GPA, the application may be denied without further consideration. Do not say your GPA is 4.0 unless it is (i.e. an A grade in every course)!  If necessary, you should use a service such as WES to provide an accurate GPA.

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9. Can I apply after the published deadline?

We consider applications after the "Priority"  application deadline given at http://graduateschool.uncc.edu/application-requirements/application-deadlines.html  if the graduate school is willing to forward the application to us and we have space available.  However, an early application is strongly encouraged to ensure that your application receives full consideration.

Note as of March 14, 2011, Fall 2011 international enrollment capacity has been reached.

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10. I have a problem relating to the application process, for example test scores are not showing as received.  What should I do?

In general, contact our graduate school
(not the MS CS graduate coordinator). The graduate admissions email address is gradadm@uncc.edu.

The application is only forwarded to the MS CS graduate coordinator when the application is complete. The coordinator is not involved in the processing of the application prior to it being forwarded.

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11.  I am currently at another US school and wish to transfer to UNC-Charlotte.  Can I transfer the courses?

Generally yes if the courses are suitable graduate level courses for our program and have not been used for the award of another degree.  A maximum of 6 credit hours can be transferred.  More details of the transfer process is given at http://coitweb.uncc.edu/~abw/MSprogram/program_policies.html#Transferring_courses

Note: If you are currently in another MS program and wish to transfer to our MS program, you will need to submit an application to our program in the normal way.  We require the grades of all the courses you have taken and currently taking before making a decision on your application.  You will need to submit transcripts with all grades including the current semesterThis is a firm policy.  We will attempt to process the application quickly so that you can start in the following semester if admitted.

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12. Can I apply to start in summer session?

In theory yes but we offer few, if any, CS graduate classes for you to take in summer.

Note: The university will not issue  I-20 forms to start in summer session.



ABW Last modified March 16, 2011.