5-Year CS program FAQs

5 year BA/BS-MS Degree Program
Frequently Asked Questions
B. Wilkinson Feb 8, 2011

General information
The progarm is a dual degree program that allows you to obtain a BA or BS and an MS degree in Computer Science. Up to 12 hours of graduate courses can double count in your BA/BS degree. The MS degree in Computer Science requires 30 hours of coursework. 12 of these hours can also be used in your undergraduate degree leaving only 18 more hours to get your MS degree. You must be admitted into the graduate program to take graduate courses that you will double count.

Eligibility -- You have taken at least 75 hours of coursework applicable to the undergraduate CS degree and have achieved a GPA of at least 3.2 overall and 3.3 in Computer Science courses. These GPAs are firm. You will need to take the GRE exam (verbal, quantitative, and analytic parts, subject test not required) and obtain acceptable scores. You should meet with MS Program Director to receive advising about early-entry program before applying.

2. What tuition fees will I be charged?

Once you are enrolled in the 5-year program you are considered a graduate student for tuition purposes. Any remaining undergraduate course you need to take to complete your undergraduate degree will be charged at the graduate tuition rate. However you have up to 12 less hours in total to pay for so may in fact pay less. You will need to check your specific circumstances.

3. Is my financial aid affected?

It may be! You will be considered as a graduate student by the university. You should very carefully check with the financial aid office.

4. What classes I can use to double count?

Specific 4xxx/5xxx crosslisted courses: If you need a specific 4xxx course in your undergraduate program such as ITCS 4102, you can take the corresponding ITCS 5xxx course if available such as ITCS 5102. These 4xxx/5xxx courses are usually cross-listed and taught at the same time with the same contents. There may be some additional work expected in the 5xxx graduate version.

Choosing 5xxx courses is probably your best choice and typically undergraduate programs have several 4xxx courses that can be replaced with 5xxx courses, for example:

Survey of Prog. Languages -- 4102/5102
Games courses -- ITCS 4230/5230, 31, 32, 35, 36, 37
Graphics/visualization -- ITCS 4120/5120*, 21, 22, 23, 52
Distributed computing -- ITCS 4145/5145, 4146/46

* ITCS 5120 is not widely offered, ITCS 6120 is the equivalent graduate only course.

Upper divisions CS electives. Any CS graduate course will fulfill this requirement.

It is also possible to substitute specific 6xxx graduate courses for specific 3/4xxx undergraduate courses (for example ITCS 6166 instead of ITCS 3166) but I do not recommend that unless the previous ways cannot be done. Obviously, undergraduate courses cannot substitute for graduate courses.

5. How many classes can I take in a semester?

A full load for an undergraduate student is 18 hours. A full load for a graduate student is 12 hours as the courses require more effect. If you are taking both undergraduate and graduate classes generally you are still allowed to take a full UG load of 18 hours but you are strongly recommended to take less, perhaps 12-15 hours.

6. How do I apply?
Use regular on-line MS application on the UNC-C graduate school home page. Check the early entry and wish to double count courses boxes on the application. Everything else is the same as the regular CS MS application, see MS program FAQs